Still no progress on this cinema other than the frontage being preserved; apparently the council (who are based in the building opposite) have now demanded a completion date for the work to be done.
Demolition is going very well I think. Frontage looks intact behind scaffolding and everything behind it has now gone. Old frontage of Walpole Picture House (currently in Thames Valley University car park on a wall) is likely to be incorporated in new complex in some way.
Am very pleased to hear about Reel Cinemas' acquisition of the Odeon York. Hope it all goes well and that the remaining original features are uncovered and restored sympathetically.
It is a beautiful building. What a shame it couldn’t have been preserved. I too remember the interior and it was in very good shape when I last visited the cinema during the early part of the decade. The photos are excellent.
I believe that the inside plasterwork was deliberately wrecked to scupper any possibility of listing. This has been confirmed in the latest Cinema Theatre Association bulletin.
I am absolutely furious. This also happened to the Manchester Metropolitan’s Capitol building and the Empress mysteriously burned down … all for property developers to make ££££ from building flats?
Pathetically short-sighted in my view and future generations are unlikely to be thankful for the wanton wrecking of architecture of the past.
I heard tell that plans to demolish the Lounge for a nightclub were ditched by the Council in Leeds, and quite rightly too. In the meantime, the building stands neglected and rather forlorn – I understand the interior was stripped out pretty much straight away after closure and it looks as if the exterior may not last much longer without being desecrated. Pity Charles Morris couldn’t have saved this cinema as well but greed seems to rule when it comes to the survival of these buildings, and the ATC were in the end only interested in the profits from their adjourning bar, The Arc.
I wonder if anyone can explain quite why the Council in Oldham was so insistent that the Roxy had to close over a year ago when the building is still standing there, doing nothing? It was a popular multi-screen and the only cinema within 9 miles of Oldham; I think the Council played a dirty trick on Ken Blair and his family and on the people of Hollinwood. As for the proposed cinema in Oldham Town Hall, I’ll believe it when I see it – that building has been derilect for years; shame in itself as it is an historic building in its own right.
According to the latest CTA bulletin, the old New Victoria building will be demolished after last ditch plans which would have retained the towers have been rejected.
Thanks for posting the pics of the cinemas in their last sorry state; if there had been one cinema in Leeds I would love to have seen resurrected it would have been the ABC. Many happy times spent there, especially in the small cinemas with the strangely positioned aisles and bizarre sound.
And what would have been wrong with applying to convert the building into flats if the need was so desperate?? I remember the Capitol from my time at the Poly and was sad to hear of its demolition. Appalling that these buildings are just torn down without any regard to their future use or their illustrious past.
It’s an odd place for the frontage to end up!
Still no progress on this cinema other than the frontage being preserved; apparently the council (who are based in the building opposite) have now demanded a completion date for the work to be done.
Noted today that the Gala club is now closed and the building is shuttered up.
Demolition is going very well I think. Frontage looks intact behind scaffolding and everything behind it has now gone. Old frontage of Walpole Picture House (currently in Thames Valley University car park on a wall) is likely to be incorporated in new complex in some way.
Am very pleased to hear about Reel Cinemas' acquisition of the Odeon York. Hope it all goes well and that the remaining original features are uncovered and restored sympathetically.
It is a beautiful building. What a shame it couldn’t have been preserved. I too remember the interior and it was in very good shape when I last visited the cinema during the early part of the decade. The photos are excellent.
I believe that the inside plasterwork was deliberately wrecked to scupper any possibility of listing. This has been confirmed in the latest Cinema Theatre Association bulletin.
I am absolutely furious. This also happened to the Manchester Metropolitan’s Capitol building and the Empress mysteriously burned down … all for property developers to make ££££ from building flats?
Pathetically short-sighted in my view and future generations are unlikely to be thankful for the wanton wrecking of architecture of the past.
I heard tell that plans to demolish the Lounge for a nightclub were ditched by the Council in Leeds, and quite rightly too. In the meantime, the building stands neglected and rather forlorn – I understand the interior was stripped out pretty much straight away after closure and it looks as if the exterior may not last much longer without being desecrated. Pity Charles Morris couldn’t have saved this cinema as well but greed seems to rule when it comes to the survival of these buildings, and the ATC were in the end only interested in the profits from their adjourning bar, The Arc.
I wonder if anyone can explain quite why the Council in Oldham was so insistent that the Roxy had to close over a year ago when the building is still standing there, doing nothing? It was a popular multi-screen and the only cinema within 9 miles of Oldham; I think the Council played a dirty trick on Ken Blair and his family and on the people of Hollinwood. As for the proposed cinema in Oldham Town Hall, I’ll believe it when I see it – that building has been derilect for years; shame in itself as it is an historic building in its own right.
According to the latest CTA bulletin, the old New Victoria building will be demolished after last ditch plans which would have retained the towers have been rejected.
Thanks for posting the pics of the cinemas in their last sorry state; if there had been one cinema in Leeds I would love to have seen resurrected it would have been the ABC. Many happy times spent there, especially in the small cinemas with the strangely positioned aisles and bizarre sound.
And what would have been wrong with applying to convert the building into flats if the need was so desperate?? I remember the Capitol from my time at the Poly and was sad to hear of its demolition. Appalling that these buildings are just torn down without any regard to their future use or their illustrious past.