The New Victoria Theatre in Princes Way, Bradford was built by William Illingworth on the site of William Whittaker's Brewery which closed in 1928.
The New Victoria, which was designed as a vast ciné-variety theatre with 3,318 seats on three levels, Stalls, Circle and Balcony, opened on Monday the 22nd of September 1930.
The theatre had a very large stage with a proscenium arch and a moving platform which could deliver an entire orchestra from the back of the stage to the front.
The orchestra pit itself included a Wurlitzer pipe organ on a rising platform.
The theatre boasted twelve dressing rooms and was capable of staging very large live productions quite apart from its use as a cinema.
The New Victoria also incorporated two flats for management, a restaurant seating over 200 people and a large and elegant ballroom.
New Victoria Theatre, Bradford
Several generations of Bradford people must have happy memories of this great cathedral of entertainment, which has dominated the city centre for more than eighty years.
The New Victoria is an architectural gem and has a rich and varied history which surely prompts many anecdotal stories. What a tragedy then, that this once grand institution has been allowed to slowly decay and fall into ruin... 
It is indeed a shame