It was originally to be given the prosaic name of County but, as the cinema was to be decorated in the Moorish style, Bernstein, during a walking tour of southern Spain, decided that it would be more appealing to the public if it were named after the Andalusian capital and the name Granada was used for that cinema and all subsequent ones he built. He resolved to build similar cinemas in Britain and the first Granada opened in Dover in 1930.

Bernstein's father had entered the cinema business as early as 1912, but after Sidney visited the Roxy in New York, the 'Cathedral of the Movies' in 1927, he became convinced of the idea of movie-going as a total experience, a fusion of film and exotic interior. Now best known for his television enterprises of the same name, the Granada was the creation of Sidney (later Lord) Bernstein (1899-1993). It most embodies the escapism of the time: film and cinema were one – daily cares were set aside when entering such a dream-palace, the ultimate shrine of make-believe. The Granada is the finest evocation in Britain of the magnificent and sumptuous cinemas of the 1930s. 'Miss the Tower of London if you have to, but don't miss this', so said the architectural critic Ian Nairn.

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