Situated in Coventry the former Gaumont Palace Theatre, a grade II listed building had been given a second life as the Ellen Terry building for Coventry University, and is now home to the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, specifically for the Performing Arts, Media and Music Students. Fittingly this building previously was a cinema, originally built in 1880, and named after Dame Ellen Terry, a star of the Victorian stage and a leading Shakespearean actress.

Kestrel Aluminium Systems together with HTL Windows and Doors Ltd took on the project to give the building a fresh look and combine historic style with a modern touch. As the building is a remembrance from the golden age of cinema the vital part was to create an elegant run of doors which matched the original façade using modern, thermally broken commercial entrance doors.

To ensure a high level of security for academic staff and students the central automated doors were required to be operated using card scanners and the end doors were fire escape doors.

The Kestrel thermally broken commercial doors used give low u values of 1.8w/m2k and are PAS 24 tested to conform to modern day building regulations. The slim sight lines were emulated using lay bars on the glass which matched the original façade above perfectly.

The use of the Kestrel thermally broken commercial doors has increased light into the lobby whilst providing high security and thermally efficiency to the lobby area. The University FM team commented “The new doors have recaptured the original design purpose while the increase in natural light has resulted in consistently positive feedback”.