Cork's iconic former Pavilion cinema reopens following a major renovation

First pictures from inside the venue

The renovated Pav includes a meticulously restored vaulted ceiling of the original cinema venue. Pictures: Larry Cummins

LIGHTS! Camera! Action! Cork’s former iconic cinematic landmark, the Pavilion, has re-opened its doors after an overhaul that will allow punters to appreciate what made the building special in the first place.

Having performed variously as a glitzy cinema, a bar and nightclub, and an Asian food restaurant over its 100-year lifespan, it’s now resuming its role as an entertainment venue, following an investment of upwards of €500,000, with plenty of nods to its cinematic past.

The downstairs Intermission Bar.

Downstairs is a new bar called Intermission which publican Benny McCabe says is “loosely based on the New York hotel bar tradition and the old-school Irish lounge bar”. For sure, it has the carpet to prove it. It also has wonderfully whimsical wall art, by Cork artist Anthony Ruby. Anyone who’s had one absinthe too many might wonder if they’d stumbled into a Hieronymus Bosch painting. In fact Ruby’s handiwork is called The Pavilion of Earthly Delights, a reference to the most famous work of the Dutch Renaissance painter.

The real showpiece though is the upstairs bar venue where punters will sit beneath the meticulously restored vaulted ceiling of the original cinema venue.

“It took a year to do, there were layers of black paint to be stripped,” McCabe says.

They needed a specialist and persuaded Corkman Johnny O’Leary, a Carrigaline native, to return from Bulgaria (his day job revolves around church restoration).

“It’s brought back to its original state now, you can see the gold and copper effect paint and the bronzing,” McCabe says.

The sunken area that was a dance floor in the days when the “Pav” was a nightclub remains.

The sunken area that was a dance floor in the days when the “Pav” was a nightclub remains, but with red leather seating around the periphery, tables with small lamps and a good smattering of old-fashioned standard lamps. It’s all very retro and alluring. Suspended on the wall at one end is a giant screen, overhung with lush red drapes, showing advertisements of bygone days, that was shown in the actual cinema in the 1950s and 1960s.

“Can you believe we came across boxes of glass slides in Woodward's auction house some years back, 200 glass slides in all, with the ads, bearing the name ‘Leach’. I had them stored in an attic all the time,” McCabe says. They’re a terrific reminder now of the building’s heritage.

As regards showing movies at the venue, McCabe says he has no desire for the traditional “sit down and shut up” movie experience, but he is open to special occasion nights, including movie nights. Posters of iconic movies decorate the staircase that leads to the upstairs bar.

“We’ll curate a monthly programme that will focus on bringing entertainment back in a light-hearted manner,” he says.

The project will offer a new experience in the city, following the grimness of the pandemic.

A large bar at the far end of the upstairs venue will help keep things lighthearted.

It’s taken well over a year-and-a-half to get the venue up and running since McCabe and his brother Leo bought it for €1.3m as previously reported in the Irish Examiner, but McCabe is taking a step back now.

Numerous people were involved in overhauling the venue with Cork joiner Jim Kelleher singled out for special mention as he overcame a serious illness while doing the joinery work.

McCabe, a spokesperson for the project, says it will offer a new experience in the city, following the grimness of the pandemic.

“In these times, we need something different.

“Also this building has a place in all of our shared histoy, whether you remember it as a cinema or a nightclub.

“It’s all about the venue at the Pav and it’s in a great place because Cork is a great city and I have high hopes for it,” he adds.

He has more plans in the pipeline, and next on the agenda is the opening of a coffee shop shortly, at the former Barry’s photographic studio on Pembroke Street.

Next year will see the re-opening of Brennan’s cookery store on Oliver Plunkett Street where he has plans for an independent art gallery “one that will showcase punk art”, he says.

McCabe is also involved in c20 heritage pubs in the city.

Of the Pavilion, he said it was a “privilege to be bringing it back to life”.

The venue had ceased trading following the arrival of Covid-19. Just prior to that, it had traded as Ramen Asian food outlet downstairs and Dali nightclub upstairs. However, for most of its time as a nightclub and bar – the bones of three decades – it was known as the “Pav”.

Steve Pinfield, Head Mixologist at Intermission Bar which features artwork by Anthony Ruby.

It originally opened in 1921 as the Pavilion Cinema, in the glory days of the big screen, and caused quite a stir with its plush 900-seat auditorium and fashionable restaurant. It was the first Cork cinema to show “talkies”. After it closed in 1989, music store HMV moved into the front section on St Patrick Street, now occupied by Golden Discs.

At the new venue, the downstairs bar is open from 2pm daily, and the upstairs venue at 5pm, with a bar extension at weekends and bank holidays. There is no plan to do food as Carey’s Lane, where the entrance is, is packed with food venues. The premises is licenced to hold 400.