Daytime corner view: white streamlined facade with vertical METRO blade sign, horizontal bands and curved canopy. Blue sky, light tree cover. Portrait.

Metro Theatre (the Minerva)

28-30 Orwell Street, Potts Point

Crick & Furse; sources differ on Bruce Dellit’s part. Opened 1939. Art Deco.

Size
About 1,000 seats at opening. No height found; the drawing is estimated
Material
Rendered masonry with blue bands and steel lettering
Status
State Heritage Register, 2020. Closed as a theatre since 1979

A theatrical publicist planned two live theatres facing each other across Macleay Street, and only this one got built. Sources differ on whether it followed Bruce Dellit’s design or a more modest scheme by Crick & Furse that replaced it. It opened in May 1939 as the Minerva. MGM bought it in 1948, reopened it as a cinema in 1950 and renamed it the Metro, and Harry M. Miller staged Hair here in 1969. It closed in 1979, became a market by 1981 and later offices for Kennedy Miller, the makers of Mad Max. The City of Sydney calls its tower one of the most strikingly successful Streamline Moderne structures in the state. State listing protects the building but can’t require anyone to put on a show. Gretel Packer bought it in 2024, and in 2026 plans were reported to restore it as a live venue.

Read about Art Deco in Sydney

Sources

  1. The Minerva Theatre and Metro Kings Cross, Dictionary of Sydney
  2. Minerva Theatre, part 1, Theatre Heritage Australia, On Stage
  3. Minerva Theatre, Sydney, Wikipedia
  4. Metro King’s Cross, Cinema Treasures
  5. Gretel Packer plans Minerva Theatre revival (15 October 2026, updated 20 October), Real Estate Source