Much to our amazement The Rex has been featured in France’s most popular paid-for daily newspaper – Le Monde – as one of EUROPE’S five most beautiful cinemas. Here is the translation of our write up.
On May 9, 1938, The Rex cinema opens its doors with the film Heidi, to the applause of the spectators from Berkhamsted (about forty kilometers to the northwest from London). Designed in the Art Deco style by the British Architect David Evelyn Nye, the building has a proscenium of rare beauty and some precious details scattered throughout the decor, like many floral motifs. The Rex closed in the 1980s, faced with the competition of multiplexes. Like a lot of cinemas, it sank into abandonment with the constant threat of demolition. After sixteen years of silence, it reopened in 2004 thanks to the tenacity of a local entrepreneur. With an intact and splendid setting.
