Harbour Lights Picturehouse
A pioneering landmark cinema embracing Southampton’s waterfront
Client: Southampton City Council
Status: Completed 1994
Location: Southampton
Harbour Lights is a landmark building on Southampton’s former P&O docks, containing two auditoria for film and video exhibitions as well as conferences. Conceived as the antithesis to the conventional black-box cinema, the cinema's design provides a refreshing contrast to its multiplex rivals.
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The design celebrates the experience of going to the cinema and responds directly to its waterfront setting. The foyers, café bar and offices are open and light-filled, making the most of the dockside location and providing extensive views across the water. Timber-clad ‘hulls’, sweeping glazed sails and cantilevering decks draw on the maritime character of the docks, while guiding visitors through a sequence of spaces oriented towards the waterfront. By night, the illuminated building becomes a beacon on the former docks, its open glazed frontage signalling the activity within and inviting audiences inside.
Harbour Lights is attributed as having had a leading influence on the design of a new generation of cinemas, with Twentieth Century Society as recently as 2025 including it on their annual ‘Coming of Age’ honours list, recommending that it be added to the National Heritage List.
“Perhaps the most influential new cinema built in Britain over the past 40 years”
— The 20th Century Society
“I saw it when it was an artist’s impression; I saw pictures of the building site and I saw it completed and I think it’s every bit as beautiful as the original artist’s impression - that really doesn’t usually happen.”
— Sir David Putnam, Arts Council Lottery Board
‘‘This is cinema as a serious art form and all the architecture is to match... Harbour Lights film theatre in Southampton is a cause for celebration... a real new cinema at last - brave in its design and exhibiting immense flair and dedication.”
— The Sunday Times
Awards
1997 Civic Trust Commendation
1995 Sunday Times/RFAC Building of the Year Award - Shortlisted
1995 RIBA Award for Architecture - Shortlisted
2025 The Twentieth Century Society’s “Coming of Age 2025” Honours List