[1] The Ritz Cinema, built in 1935, was commissioned by Orton and Spooner, a company based in Burton which earlier in the century had made fairground rides and shows, and later owned the Burton Picturedrome Company.

They had connections with George Green, who built Green's Playhouse in Glasgow; John Fairbrother, the architect of Green's Playhouse and other cinemas in Scotland, was chosen to design the Ritz Cinema, along with Thomas Jenkins, a local architect and at that time Mayor of Burton, who had designed the Electric Theatre, of 1910, in the town.

[1][2][3][4] It was built on the site of the New Theatre and Opera House, of 1902, which showed films from 1930 and was demolished in 1934.

[1][2][5] The cinema is a steel-framed brick building in Modernist style; the façade on Guild Street has above the ground floor entrance a central section projecting forwards, which features five square Crittall Windows, and a row of smaller windows above.

The interior was designed in Art Deco style by Annie Orton, a relation of the owner, and has plasterwork friezes by George Legg of Bryan's Adamanta.