Cineworld Cinema - The O2 Greenwich
The O2, Peninsula Square,
London,
SE10 0AX
The O2, Peninsula Square,
London,
SE10 0AX
2 people
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Showing 51 - 75 of 95 comments
“The O2 has been voted the number one global entertainment venue for the last 10 consecutive years and is visited by 9 million people annually. This number is expected to rise to over 13 million with the opening of the Designer Outlet Village and the Greenwich peninsula re-generation project.”
Have yet to visit this cinema but hope to check out the massive Superscreen (largest in the UK?) at some point. With such a high footfall it’s not surprising Cineworld are investing a further £35M and extending this cinema which once finished will make it the largest multiplex in London.
The scheme for the “Leisure and Cinema Extension” is known as “Project Loop.”
McLaren Group – Topping Out Ceremony on Project Loop at The O2 – July 2018.
Project cost according to this page is £35m. (Presumably excluding fit-out.)
Plans for the extension are available in a planning application dated July 2016, within the “All drawings” document.
1073sq.m. (~11500sq.ft.) (!) of new foyer space (at “Level 02”) will be provided to the “right”* of the existing, via 6 steps due to a slight floor level change, from which (the screen end of) 5 new auditoria can be accessed.
(*Relative to the entrance up escalator from “Level 00,” aka “ground level” of The O2.)
An additional “VIP” foyer, 365sq.m. (~3900sq.ft.) in floor area, will be provided off of this new foyer area, with stairs up to corridors at “Level 03” leading to 3 new auditoria situated above the new “Level 02” foyer areas.
(There is also a lift, presumably for disabled access, which is shared between the “extended” and “VIP” foyers, and an additional lobby at “Level 04” providing access to the rear of 5 auditoria accessible from the extended foyer area at “Level 02.”)
Note that whilst these drawings are marked as originating from CallisonRTKL, Chapman Taylor are the “fit-out and final delivery” architects.
According to a press release from The O2, the cinema extension (50,000sq.ft.) is an anchor to within a 110,000sq.ft. development scheduled to open in Q1 2019. A new 4DX auditorium within the extension is also mentioned.
(N.B. Registration is required to view the release on The O2’s site, but it seems to have been posted word-for-word elsewhere.)
LARGE_screen_format: Squaremeal – Cineworld O2 Greenwich.
List of seating capacities for all existent (pre-extension) auditoria.
Would not think it would be in the extension as the completion date isn’t until later this year, and IIRC from the plans (which for some reason I don’t seem to have provided a link to here, and I’m currently too tired to trawl around clunky local authority planning application databases!) the access to those auditoria will be via extended foyer/lobby areas.
Tonight’s performance of The Meg at 21:15 is also already heavily booked. Was this a regular (non-4DX) auditoria?
Can anyone confirm the seating capacity of screen 11, I have seen the following numbers quoted: 776, 785 and 850?
ScreenX appears to be in screen 9 rather than being a completely new screen in the extension, if listings are anything to go by.
They kept that quiet! I plan to check this out on Tuesday or Wednesday – the Tuesday screenings are looking very full already.
Auditorium appears to have a similar layout to the existing ones. 14 rows with a total of 204 plus two wheelchair spaces.
E-mail received from Cineworld yesterday:
“We’re excited to announce that ScreenX has opened at Cineworld O2!
“ScreenX is the world’s first multi-projection cinema technology expanding the traditional cinema screen to the side auditorium walls, creating a 270-degree viewing experience. Plus, if you’re an Unlimited customer you can enjoy ScreenX for only £3!”
The website of architectural practice Chapman Taylor has the following pages of relevance:
Chapman Taylor’s industry-leading cinema expertise.
Project page – Refurbishing, extending and equipping the largest cinema venue in London.
Summary of selected information from this pages:
The pages include photos of auditoria and lobby areas, including a shot of the Superscreen clearly showing the speakers added for Atmos, as well as ironically demonstrating the folly of what looks like a floating screen. (I suppose tabs and movable masking wouldn’t make for a “cutting edge cinema”!)
I’m slightly confused by the photo of the auditorium fitted with purple-coloured stretch fabric wall finishes, as it doesn’t seem to fit with Cineworld’s current house style?
Zappomatic: Compared to the “commercial grade” RGBW LED strip I have*, I wouldn’t say it’s anywhere near as bright without a diffuser, even just turning one of the four LEDs in each chip on at full intensity. I think mine is somewhat brighter if I add a milky/opal diffuser.
With a clear lens-type diffuser or no diffuser, it’s actually dazzlingly bright directly viewed, particularly at close proxmity, possibly even to a dangerous extent—given that theirs are installed on the columns/pillars, one can imagine, say, kids being “stupid”, so I’m not sure such intensity would be sensible in that application.
OTOH, mine is concealed and angled towards a matt black finished wall (acoustic absorption), so I need as much output as possible!
That said, even with a more modest output, as a narrow “linear” light source, the LED strips may well appear rather bright compared to a darkened cinema auditorium.
Did you also find the “linear” LED mountings previously on the sidewalls/ceiling of the O2’s Superscreen excessively bright?
(* Dexxon Lighting 24V – 60x RGBW 5050 LEDs/m – 19.2W/m – IP20 LED strip. N.B. I wouldn’t trust any of the specs on that page!)
Gosh the finish on that ceiling is very bad – certainly wasn’t noticeable before the LED displays were put in. Interesting that you didn’t find the pillar LED strips particularly bright as they seemed almost too bright when I saw them myself – perhaps they’ve reduced the intensity?
I visited the O2 today, alas for the purpose of meeting someone, and not for the cinema.
(Brit Awards were imminent so I decided to get out of there ASAP after the meeting finished!)
However, I did have a quick visit to Cineworld’s foyer. The “wrap around” of video LED modules is indeed active, and quite impressive.
The LED strips on the columns didn’t seem very bright, and the colour wasn’t interesting either, albeit they are probably using “milky” diffusers, which result in significant light loss.
The vertical LED strips either side of the main entrance escalators appear to be “addressable,” sometimes showing “rainbow” effects, other times just a linear strip of the same colour.
(N.B. “Pixel addressable” LED strips can be acquired, e.g. from eBay sellers, as those with integrated WS2812/APA102/etc. controllers. As with all Chinese-made generic product, caveat emptor!)
Floor tiles appear to be good quality, but the painted wall finishes I looked at were very poor indeed. It’s painfully obvious with the ceiling where the new video LED modules are bright enough to reveal the defects.
The gloss perspex/acrylic ceiling strips seem to be just stuck on to the ceiling with no backlighting to be added. Perspex is fairly expensive stuff (at least priced per sq. m.) and it can yield fantastic results, with many options including sparkle/metallic/pearlescent variants; I can’t help but think that this isn’t the way to use it to best effect.
The foyer looks good in photos, but in my view, more attention to detail is needed. Above all, given the expense of the video LED modules, it seems very odd that the walls aren’t even remotely smooth.
Sofas looked reasonable, but I forgot to try them out!
Photos uploaded: Foyer/new video LED modules “wrap around” display, close up of poorly finished foyer wall (including dent!), main entrance escalators/stairs with “rainbow” LED strips.
As a positive note, I hadn’t realised just how easy the O2 is to get to on the Jubilee Line from London Bridge. I shall return to check out the Superscreen…
According to a friend the LED displays in the foyer are now active and the effect is very striking, and the Supercreen’s hula hoops have been taken down. The endless tinkering here is quite amusing although hardly professional.
Added a photo showing the shiny bits on the foyer ceiling. As predicted a whole load of black and red sofas have been added.
Unfortunately screens 1-5 still have glaring lights but mercifully it looks like a lot of the individual LEDs in the luminaries are dying a premature death.
The “shiny plastic strips” are basically black acrylic or similar material stuck flat to the ceiling in a pattern that centres on the pillars. I’ll take a photo on my next visit (and this time I’ll remember not to wear a red top and be mistaken for staff!)
Regarding the blue/cyan lighting, it can appear a different colour in different photos. The lighting on the foyer pillars is definitely more cyan, whereas I’d say the panels in the corridor are somewhere between cyan and blue.
I was sceptical of this refurb at first as it felt cold and clinical (especially with the removal of the bar area) and the new lighting in the screens was ridiculous, but as they’ve sorted that out and the foyer work comes together it feels fresh and modern.
It’s odd that there’s nowhere to sit in the main foyer (upstairs there are tables and chairs) but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some deceptively hard pleather sofas appear once all the work to the ceilings and the digital displays is finished. An unfortunate side effect of all these bright lighting features is that when you come out of a screen you have to walk through a red-lit door surround which after the darkness of the auditorium is overwhelmingly, almost painfully bright. Coming out of the Superscreen the blue-edged pillars leave an impression on your retinas!
I’m looking forward to seeing how well the extension integrates with the rest of the cinema. The plans don’t give much away about the foyer but there appears to be lots of floor space. Given the VIP screens will have their own bar I’d be surprised if we don’t see a bar for the main screens too as the old one seemed to do a steady trade. I guess a Starbucks is a possibility but there’s already an outlet at the O2.
Zappomatic: Your photo of the corridor to Screens 1-5 looks good; I especially like the cyan coloured decorative lighting.
What are “shiny plastic strips”?
On the subject of the Vue West End, I’ll respond in detail (“oh no?!”) later on its CT page.
Foyer refurb update: shiny plastic strips have been fixed to the ceiling, mirroring the pattern on the floor below. I’m now wondering if we’ll see the usual big red star on the ceiling after all, given there’s one on the wall by the escalator. LED screens appear to be complete but aren’t active yet.
Visited the O2 again today. Installation of the LED displays in the foyer is almost complete but they’re not switched on yet. Ticket machines and Unlimited kiosks still not installed. Access to the upper level isn’t ideal at the moment – with both escalators out of action.
I saw Coco in screen 6 which due to the shape of the building is a reasonably wide but relatively shallow auditorium where the steeply raked stadium section starts fairly close to the screen (three rows at floor level which I think are far too close to the screen). In common with most of the screens here it’s not a curved screen, which combined with the silver coating makes for noticeable hot-spotting. Great sound though and really manages to hit some very low frequencies.
It would seem they’ve have been listening to the complaints about light levels, as the auditorium was suitably dark. The white strips in the floor at the entrance are nicely dimmed during the feature with no light spilling up the walls or onto the screen, and the ceiling lights have honeycomb baffles which completely cut out glare and keep light levels sensible. Even when the lights were brought up to mid-level during the credits they didn’t affect the screen. Also pleased to note that the illuminated fire exit signs don’t cast their green glow on the screen which has been a problem at this cinema in the past.
Screens 6-10 were refurbished after 1-5 and the Superscreen so I’m not sure if this is something that they’ve gone back and changed in all the screens or if they changed the specs and design before the work was started. Certainly an improvement on my visit for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
Regarding Vue West End, the foyer looks nice but the exterior work looks shoddy and half-finished, particularly the canopy over the exit in Leicester Court which last time I passed through was dented, with flaking paint and parts missing.
Zappomatic: Thanks for your views on the Superscreen sound system—I’m not too surprised, but it’s disappointing nevertheless. I may as well continue with LSQ as my venue of choice—albeit I’ve not been to the O2 since it was the “Millennium Dome,” so I suppose a revisit would be more than timely!
Regarding LEDs, as a broader comment, the market is a minefield; it is often difficult to identify product quality, including the manufacturer of the LED components used, and plenty of Chinese product is being resold or supplied at very high markups.
For instance, the Vue West End’s canopy underside light strips seem to be two or more rows of LED strips mounted in extrusions, with “opal”-type diffusers/covers. I know this because one of the extrusions only appears to have one working strip!
I have no idea which products were used, and it may be that they have been sourced and installed with the utmost care, but failure seems ridiculous given the £6.6m cost of the refurb; they should last more than a few thousand hours…!
Alas, it’s not uncommon to see LED installations with early failures or dim sections…
It will be interesting to see how Cineworld’s new decorative lighting in their O2 venue’s corridors holds up.
P.S. Just wait for the impact of the sugar tax on “soda” drink sizes… :–(
Installation of the LED ribbon display in the foyer continues at a glacial pace… as of last night there were power cables hanging out of the wall where previously there were none! Ticket machines and Unlimited kiosks still not installed.
Coke dispensers have now been replaced by Pepsi, rolling out across the chain. Lavazza replaces Coffee Republic and the cups have shrunk drastically, for which Cineworld are rightly getting a pasting for on Twitter (I had an interesting email exchange with their customer services department where the agent denied that the new cups are smaller).
In screen 3 last night, three out of the eight obnoxiously bright and glaring LED downlights in the ceiling were off – not sure if this is a response to complaints about light levels or if they’ve just died a premature death.
The refurbished corridors feel wider than before. It took me a while to work out why – the old curved wood effect door surrounds stuck out a lot more than the new ones, which are incredibly brightly backlit in red. Slight design flaw in that the screen number is only on the outside of the enclosure, but some of the screen entrances are side by side eg. screen 2’s number is obscured by the entrance to screen 3.
The Superscreen at the O2 certainly sounds good, but it’s not quite on a par with its counterpart in Leicester Square (not helped by the acoustics). My point of reference is the Dolby Atmos “Unfold” trailer – the larger room means the separation is a lot more effective at the O2 but it lacks the sheer depth, warmth and immersion achieved in Leicester Square.
Thanks for confirming the sidewall speaker brand. At least Cineworld have had quality components installed for the surrounds, I’d assume they’ve kept the JBL ScreenArray screen speakers, so if all is well the sound in the Superscreen should be absolutely fantastic.
Seems odd they’ve chosen what look like cold white strips for the entrance vormitory lights, would be more sensible to use red for “guideway” lighting. Aside from the leakage/reflection issue, it won’t set the right mood as one enters. Ho-hum.
Fortunately the backlit panels by the escalator look a bit more evenly lit in person, but they’re not perfect.
When the lights are dimmed for the main feature, the hula hoops near the entrances to the screen remain quite visible thanks to the bright white lights in the floor shining up and casting shadows. It’s not particularly distracting but doesn’t seem intentional! More positively the downlighters under the balcony are all fitted with honeycomb baffles.
Zooming in on my original photos the sidewall speakers appear to be JBL.
Zappomatic: The “hula hoops” look incredibly tacky and badly positioned!
It looks like the “hula hoops” are surface mounted. I expect they have either used a bendable extrusion with LED strips/modules inserted, or the bendable “neon tube”-type which comes with the LEDs already inside flexible plastic diffuser material of circular cross-section.
Not impressed with the upper floor escalator as shown in your photo, not least since the translucent panel attachments are unevenly lit.
If they are using white LEDs, it makes no sense as LEDs are monochromatic and typical “white” devices use, for example, blue LEDs to excite phosphors… throwing away efficiency at that stage, and then throwing it away again with the filter!
Not to say no-one does it… yesterday I noticed a restaurant next to the Garrick Theatre had neon-esque window signs, which on inspection were white LEDs behind coloured plastic cut-outs. (It actually looks great though, I shall have to experiment…)
Hmm… must put a stop to my lighting obsession!
Some elements of the refurbishment look good—I like the “glitter” floor tiles.
Do you know the manufacturer of the sidewall speakers in the Superscreen?
Refurbishment still ongoing! In the foyer the power bus and fixings for the LED displays have been installed, totally surrounding the whole space. Ticket machines have not yet been installed and thereMs still an absence of seating.
In the Superscreen they’re installing what look like giant hula hoops on the side walls, presumably these will light up once this work is complete as they take the place of the wires previously hanging out of the wall. (Photo added). They’re not perfectly round so look a bit shoddy!