Soho Theatre Walthamstow Wins a Civic Trust Award
Our project Soho Theatre Walthamstow has won a CIVIC TRUST AWARD, making it into the top four outstanding projects this year. The judges noted that our restoration of the former Granada cinema “has revitalised an important piece of Walthamstow’s heritage and provides a significant contribution to the area’s social and cultural life”. Our partner Gareth Wilkins was proud to attend the ceremony and celebrate this incredible achievement.
The Civic Trust Awards celebrate excellence in architecture and environmental design, recognising projects that enhance the built environment through sustainability, inclusivity, accessibility, and strong design. They highlight schemes that bring meaningful benefits to their local communities and contribute to a stronger sense of place and identity, with the public actively involved in nominating and judging projects from their area. In recognising P&P with this award, both the Civic Trust Awards and the Walthamstow community have acknowledged the practice’s commitment to supporting local identity, economic vitality, and creative participation through its work.
The site comprises a Grade II* listed cinema, of national significance, one of the rare surviving examples of the Granada Group’s more extravagant venues, designed by architect Cecil Aubrey Masey, in collaboration with interior and set designer, Theodore Komisarjevsky. Through careful conservation of its rich and complex historic interiors, P&P have restored the building to its former glory. Warm, cocooning and thoughtfully preserved, the interior, especially the main theatre space, now invites communities to come together to enjoy a diverse program of arts and culture in North East London. At the same time, essential improvements to circulation and inclusive seating arrangements were carefully made to enhance accessibility and future-proof the building.
When the Granada cinema opened in 1930 with 2,697 seats, during a transformative decade for the film industry, it was seen as a beacon of cinematic opulence. It offered glamorous escapism to local audiences and visiting celebrities alike. Alfred Hitchcock is even believed to have been a regular. In 1944, the building was damaged by a flying bomb, resulting in the loss of a distinctive gable. After several changes in ownership, the venue (then operating as the EMD) closed in 2003. In the years that followed, the theatre fell into further disrepair, appearing on several national ‘at risk’ registers, until the site was acquired by Waltham Forest Council in 2018.
The restoration, delivered by Pilbrow and Partners in close collaboration with Waltham Forest Council and Soho Theatre, was completed in April of 2025. The façade’s Spanish Baroque gable was reinstated, re-establishing the building’s presence on Hoe Street. Inside, intricate plasterwork, inspired by the Alhambra, has been carefully conserved alongside later decorative layers of paint, celebrating the building’s origins and its evolving story. The large auditorium was adapted into a more intimate 960-seat venue, with curved stall seating and enhanced sightlines. A new fly tower, expanded stage and dedicated backstage areas support a wider range of productions, while new community spaces and a generous foyer create a more flexible and welcoming venue overall.
A light-touch redevelopment approach reduced embodied carbon costs and helped to preserve an important piece of Walthamstow’s architectural heritage, whilst allowing for key updates to be made sensitively. Approaching the restoration in this way gave the much-loved local landmark a new lease of life as a contemporary theatre and cultural venue. Staying true to its original ambition, an immersive architecture, the cinema continues to draw visitors into another place and time.
The team recently had the pleasure of visiting Soho Theatre Walthamstow for a performance. Seeing the theatre alive with people, life and laughter was hugely rewarding, and a clear reflection of the project’s core aim: to create a flexible, welcoming community space that honours its rich history of performance and spectacle, while providing a stage for contemporary and future work.
