Cinema to undergo £300,000 refit as it looks at big picture

The City Screen venue, which has been in the old Yorkshire Herald printworks overlooking the River Ouse in the centre of York since 2000, will shut for four weeks from next month for the £300,000 refit. The revamp will see new seating introduced in the three screens, which will reduce capacity slightly. Screen one has 232 seats, which falls to 211, while screen two will go from 144 to 129 and screen three from 137 to 132. The café-bar is also due to be extensively remodelled.

The renovations have been planned for a year, but funding has been made available after Cineworld bought Picturehouse Cinemas, which owned City Screen, in December.

Marketing manager Dave Taylor added: “City Screen means a lot to the people of York as a cinema as well as a music and comedy venue. The renovations will ensure it remains at the forefront of the region’s venues.”

The cinema will close after a screening of the Royal Opera House Ballet on May 27, and re-open on June 21. It will, however, still stage screenings of Shane Meadows’s documentary on the Stone Roses on May 30 and the National Theatre’s The Audience on June 13.