THE £300,000 refurbishment of City Screen, York is under way after the Coney Street cinema’s riverside bar closed earlier this week for the work to begin.

Picturehouse Cinemas is investing £300,000 in City Screen to renovate the three auditoria, the café bar, kitchen, loos and cinema foyer and kiosk.

City Screen is being given a new branding, the new fonts and corporate colours being chosen to reflect the heritage of the Yorkshire Herald building, its warm yellow stone and the grey steel of the building’s regeneration as City Screen in 2000.

General manager Tony Clarke says: “As of this Monday, the bar has closed for refurbishment but the cinema remains open until after the Royal Opera House Ballet on May 27. Work then starts in earnest, including an additional overhaul of heating systems, lighting, toilets, and kitchen equipment. Customers can expect a new menu in the riverside café bar, showing our commitment to local produce and suppliers when we reopen.”

During the temporary closure, City Screen will still host some special screenings of Shane Meadows’ rock documentary film The Stone Roses: Made Of Stone with a satellite Q&A on May 30; the National Theatre Live screening of The Audience, starring Helen Mirren as The Queen on June 1; and the Pompeii Exhibition Live from The British Museum on 18 June.

Marketing manager Dave Taylor says: “We’ve already decided to opened a second auditorium for the 7.30pm screening of The Stone Roses: Made Of Stone on May 30, while both the NT Live and Pompeii shows have sold out.”

Meadows’s Stone Roses rockumentary will be accompanied by the question-and-answer session with the director live via satellite from the Manchester premiere.

Meadows followed The Stone Roses last year when a resurrection no one thought possible took place as Ian Brown and John Squire’s Manchester band reformed after 16 years.

Meadows brought his trademark directorial style, as well as humour and emotional depth, to a film that captured the Roses at work and in their everyday lives as they rehearsed for their homecoming concerts at Heaton Park, Manchester.

To check ticket availability, phone 0871 902 5726.