Victoria Station News Theatre
Platform 19, Victoria Station, Buckingham Palace Road,
London,
SW1 W0
Platform 19, Victoria Station, Buckingham Palace Road,
London,
SW1 W0
3 people
favorited this theater
A quite amazing little cinema positioned over the concourse of the station with just a small but highly stylized entrance paybox and staircase at ground floor level leading to the 1st floor auditorium.
This contained a single flat floor with seating divided into three blocks – two outer with 4 seats per row and a central block of 7 seats per row.
The auditorium was barrel shaped with an attractive proscenium and a large clock on the left hand side. The whole was specially insulated against noise and vibration from the railway station outside.
It never moved on to presenting feature films – one major drawback was that it had no toilets of its own (patrons had to come down the stairs, exit the cinema and walk a few yards to the public toilets on the railway station concourse).
Operated by the Classic Cinemas chain, the Victoria was one of several small newsreel theatres in London and in later years showed continuous 1-hour programmes of short subjects and cartoons. It was quietly closed and demolished in 1981.
Contributed by
Ian Grundy, Ray Martinez
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Recent comments (view all 11 comments)
I worked in the cinema and one owned by the same company in Oxford Street London on and off as a relief projectionist. It was some where warm to sit while waiting for a train. Most people that use it had children with them so the 2 hour programme of newsreels, cartoon shorts and serials worked well. In the end like the one in Oxford Street it was worth more closed than open.
R H Scott-Spencer.
Some other newsreel and short subject cinemas located in train stations:
Grand Central Theatre, New York
South Station Theatre, Boston
Newsreel Theatre, Cincinnati
I visited this cinema on its last day, as I knew the projectionist Ray Aguillar. It was a very sad occasionand some of the staff were near to tears.
It wasn’t a dream!
I have been reminiscing about my late father and some of the places
he used to take me as a kid. I was sure i once went to a cinema on Victoria Station and watched some Tom & Jerry cartoons.
Then again it was some 30 odd years ago and i wasn’t sure whether i had imagined the whole thing. So sad its not there anymore as i would have loved to repeat the experience with my kids. Still, many thanks for confirming the memory, I’ll now continue my 37 yr old daydream!
Victoria Station was the name of a chain of bad restaurants in LA about twenty years ago. Now I get the connection.
This was my first post as a trainee cinema manager with Classic Cinemas in 1973. A Mrs Evans, then in her 70s was the manageress and the doorman, Walter, was in his 80s. The programme – cartoons, Movietone News, serial – ran round-the-clock from 11.00 am for about an hour with adverts. Tickets were bought at a street level kiosk on the walk through from Buckingham Palace Road into the station, which usually clocked up more in sweet and tobacco sales. There were regular complaints from women on their own about the attentions of other patrons – but mostly well after the event!
This may or may not be the theater in 1954. If not let me know if the correct theater is on CT so I can re-post.
http://tinyurl.com/yknz5ez
I think this is the news reel theatre on Leicester Square next to the Empire but before the warner / vue
Its amazing this could operate with a film policy as it did until 1981.
hi.there this is ray aguilar,i was there on the closing night,even lent the chief dave oddy a reel of old nitrate newsreel to show,happy memories,anyone remember th waterloo station news theatre.ray