Tower Cinema, Anlaby Road: Hull's Picture House Turned Nightclub

Walk up Anlaby Road from Paragon and there it is, still showing off after more than a hundred years: green and white tiles, two little towers, a pair of domes and the word TOWER arched over the door like it's about to announce the main feature. Whether you knew it as a picture house, a nightclub or just that fancy building on the way to the station, everybody in Hull knows the Tower.

A picture house for Anlaby Road

The Tower opened on 1 June 1914, just weeks before the First World War broke out. It was designed by Hull architect H. Percival Binks, and he didn't hold back. Historic England describes the front as Baroque Revival: brick behind a skin of white and green faience, a rounded tower with a mosaic dome on each side of the entrance, obelisk finials, a balcony held up by Ionic columns, and a stained glass arch carrying the name. The great architecture writer Nikolaus Pevsner wasn't a fan. Hull, being Hull, loved it anyway.

Inside, it seated around 1,200 people across the stalls and a single balcony, with an orchestra playing in a box beside the screen for the silent films. Sound arrived in 1929, and later the old wooden benches gave way to proper individual seats, which brought the capacity down to about 750. Generations of Hull families went to the pictures there, and plenty of people still talk about their first film at the Tower, or their first date on the back row.

Lights down, music up

The Tower closed as a cinema in September 1978. There was a short spell as a music and boxing venue, with the Hull Film Society putting on the odd screening, but it didn't last. By 1983 it had a new life as a nightclub, and that's the Tower a lot of us remember best: queuing on Anlaby Road in your best going-out shirt, then dancing under a domed ceiling that was built for silent films.

Over the next few decades it changed hands and changed names more than once. It was refurbished and reopened as a club in 2003, closed, then reopened again under new operators in 2008. Later on it traded as Tokyo, and for a while as Funktion. Through all of it, the building outlived every name over the door. Hull's clubbers moved between town, Ferensway and Anlaby Road, and if you did a full weekend you'd probably end up at the Tower one night and LA's on Ferensway the next.

Saving the domes

Here's a bit of Hull history people forget. At some point the Tower's domes were removed without permission, which is a fairly bold thing to do to a listed building. The building has been Grade II listed since 1973, and Hull City Council stepped in. On 3 October 2010, replacement domes were fitted by a Hull firm working for the council. If you've ever wondered why the domes look so smart compared with the rest of Anlaby Road, that's why.

Volunteers have looked after the inside too. Back in 1981 a group cleaned the plasterwork, woodwork and stained glass, and the domed auditorium ceiling and gilded plaster have survived far better than you'd expect in a building that's spent forty-odd years with a dancefloor in it.

The Tower today

In 2022 the building reopened as the Tower Ballroom, a live music venue with a main ballroom for around 800 people and a smaller room called Tower Two, its black and gold interior repainted rather than ripped out. Like a lot of Hull's old venues it has changed hands several times, but the important thing is that it's still standing, still listed and still the best looking building on Anlaby Road. You can't say that about many of the places on our list of things you could do in 90s Hull that you can't now.

We'd love to hear your Tower memories. Was it the pictures for you, or the club? What was the first film you saw there? Who did you snog on the back row, or on the dancefloor? Tell us in the comments. Like Saturdays at Grandways, it's the stories that keep these places alive.

We put it on a tee

The Tower's front is too good not to wear, so we drew it: the arched TOWER lettering, the domes and all that ornate detail, in sage green and cream. It's on the men's Tower print t-shirt, the fitted women's Tower print t-shirt and a fleece-lined Tower print hoodie. Cheaper than a building, and it fits better.

For the record, 'Ulltmate isn't connected to the Tower, its owners or anyone running it. We're just from Hull, and we think it's one of the best buildings we've got.

Tower Cinema FAQs

When did the Tower Cinema in Hull open?

Historic England's listing gives the opening date as 1 June 1914. It was designed by Hull architect H. Percival Binks.

When did the Tower stop being a cinema?

It closed as a cinema in 1978. After a short spell as a music and boxing venue it became a nightclub in the early 1980s.

Is the Tower Cinema a listed building?

Yes. It has been Grade II listed since 12 November 1973. The listing describes its green and white faience front, corner towers and mosaic domes.

What happened to the Tower's domes?

The original domes were removed without permission. Replacements were fitted on 3 October 2010 by a Hull firm working for Hull City Council.

Where is the Tower in Hull?

On Anlaby Road in the city centre, a short walk from Paragon Station.