ANDREA IN WONDERLAND: City Screen co-manager Andrea Mundey prepares for the grand opening of the City Screen cinema against the backdrop of the film Wonderland, which will be screened there next month

Workmen have been toiling day and night this week as the clock ticks down to tonight's official opening of the new City Screen cinema in Coney Street, York.

The £5 million arthouse cinema, the latest venture by Britain's largest independent cinema chain, opens to the public tomorrow when Martin Scorsese's paramedic drama, Bringing Out The Dead, will be the first film to be screened, starting at 1.20pm.

Co-manager Andrea Mundey said: "I've followed the progress of the building since last May and it's so exciting now that it's really coming to a head. The builders have been working through the night not just this week; some of them have been doing that since Christmas to get everything finished."

Originally, London-based City Screen had hoped to open the three-screen riverside cinema last November.

Now the state-of-the-art picture house in the former Yorkshire Herald press buildings in Coney Street is a hive of last-minute activity, with the kiosk, box office, bar and stairways all being prepared for the invitation-only opening evening for members and distributors.

Those screens, with seating for 500, feature digital surround sound with the main auditorium also being equipped with LucasFilm's THX sound system, the first of its kind in North Yorkshire.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.