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Also known as West Ealing Kinema, Lido Cinema, Studios 1 & 2, Cannon, Belle Vue, Gosai

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ABC West Ealing

West Ealing, London, England

1 Northfield Avenue

, West Ealing, London, England, United Kingdom W13 9RH

(map)

Status:	Closed/Demolished
Screens:	Twin
Style:	Unknown

Function:	Unknown
Seats:	1460
Chain:	Unknown

Architect:	G. Percy Pratt
Firm:	Unknown

Located on Northfield Road, just around the corner from Uxbridge Road. The West Ealing Kinema was built in 1913 on the site of the former Ealing Dean Cottage Hospital. It was rebuilt as the Lido Cinema in 1928 to designs by the original architect, and a Compton 2Manual/5Ranks organ was installed on 15th October 1928. It retained the Lido Cinema name until it was taken over by the Star group in the 1970's.

The stalls were converted into a Bingo Hall, and the circle was enclosed and converted into two small cinemas known as Studio 1 and Studio 2. Due to the small size of the original circle, periscope projection was not an option, and the projectors were mounted at an angle of almost 45 degrees. As the screens were parallel to the back wall, this resulted in unimaginable picture distortion. In the 1980's it was taken over by the Cannon Group and re-named Cannon.

The bingo hall eventually closed, and the space was converted into a snooker hall. The cinemas were last known as ABC screening regular films and this closed on 6th March 1997. It was taken over by an independent screening "Bollywood" films, first known as the Belle Vue and lastly as the Gosai Cinema, which closed in spring 2001. The building sat empty for a while and was demolished in September 2004. A block of flats has now been built on the site.

Contributed by keith spillett

YOUR COMMENTS

The projection box was actually located ABOVE the original circle, accessed via a spiral staircase. I believe this to have been the case even when there was only one auditorium - the original screen was certainly raked at one heck of an angle! In the 'Studio 1&2' years, the box housed a pair of Westar projectors, complete with long-play towers, so goodness knows how they got those up there.

posted by keith s on Feb 16, 2006 at 3:57am

This got voted one of the worst cinemas in the UK about ten years back, then ABC refurbished it and closed it! The soundproofing wasn't good here from the little I remember.

posted by cjc on Mar 20, 2006 at 1:21pm

It wasn't that bad! Though maybe the years have given me a rose tinted view of the place. For some reason I saw a lot of films here including most of the James Bond series and still remember well the climb to the first floor box office to buy tickets. The cinema didn't have screen tabs, instead there were those lava lamp oil patterns that spiralled over the screen while you waited for the trailers. Far out man!

posted by jasonmullen on Mar 28, 2006 at 8:53am

After twinning, both cinemas DID have screen tabs in the form of rolls of black material of some sort - approximately 4 inches wide - which popped over the top of the screen, when needed, and uncurled themselves vertically. After a few years they stopped working properly - Studio 1 customers got their money back one night when one of the tabs wouldn't raise for a 'scope presentation - and operators 'Star Group', not being well renowned for the quality of their maintainance, didn't bother fixing them. A friend of mine, who worked in another Star cinema at the time, believes that the offending tab was eventually removed using a pair of scissors, so they were never used in taht screen again.

posted by keith s on Apr 10, 2006 at 11:52pm

Sorry for any confusion resulting from my previous comments. What I was actually referring to was, of course, the screen MASKING, not the non-existant tabs! Even the oil-wheels that Jason mentioned weren't used for great periods of time when the lamps blew, and spares were not quick enough in coming from head-office.

posted by keith s on Apr 10, 2006 at 11:58pm

Here is a photo of the cinema (scanned so not high quality) taken around 1999/2000 when it was the Gosai

http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/65270051/in/set-1113147/

posted by woody on Apr 11, 2006 at 1:42am

There's a block of flats on the site now.

posted by keith s on Jul 20, 2007 at 10:33am

Photographed as the Cannon in 1990:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldcinemaphotos/3465935412/

posted by KenRoe on May 4, 2009 at 8:49am

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ABC West Ealing

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