The cinema was designed by the firm of Adamson & Kinns of London in the Beaux-Arts style, with 250 tons of steel frame, concrete floors and expensive white Hathernware tiling facade manufactured by the Hathern Station Brick & Terra Cotta Company,[2] surmounted by statues on the upper portion.

Foster, and the fittings included a concert organ by Willis-Lewis, a ballroom, a restaurant, a tea room and Louis XVI style cafe.

It opened for business on 22 August 1922[3] with a luncheon hosted by Mr. T. Shipstone, chairman of the directors of the theatre, with the Mayor of Nottingham, Alderman Herbert Bowles and the Sheriff John H. Freckingham in attendance.

The first programme included Mary Pickford in Pollyanna and the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (The Beryl Coronet).

[5] The cinema opened with a large pipe organ built either side of the screen at a cost of £10,000 (equivalent to £560,400 in 2023).