Cineworld Cinema - Chelsea
279 Kings Road,
London,
SW3 5EW
279 Kings Road,
London,
SW3 5EW
4 people
favorited this theater
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Reopening as Essoldo Chelsea
Reopened as Classic 1-2-3-4 Chelsea on April 17th, 1980. Grand opening ads for 1911 and 1980 posted.
Reopened April 17th, 1980
Classic Chelsea 1 2 3 4 opening 17 Apr 1980, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Everyman Chelsea due to open tomorrow: https://www.everymancinema.com/chelsea/theatre-info
Everyman Chelsea signage already up at the construction site!
Update : passed the site on Friday last (08/03/19) and there has been much progress – the replacement building is in an advanced state of construction and if matters continue to move forward at this pace, it should not be long before we know for certain whether or not a replacement cinema is definitely part of the build. A short distance away, the Curzon Chelsea is undergoing demolition, but it is known for certain that a replacement ‘state-of-the-art’ cinema will definitely be present when the building is ready to re-open in exactly three years' time – if on schedule, of course.
Passed the cleared site this week, no indication of whether the building eventually going up in its place will contain the earlier-mooted Everyman Cinema. We will have to wait and see.
Demolition began in early 2018 and the site has now been mostly cleared. A photo has been uploaded from April this year.
A rare photo of the cinema as an MGM: https://rbkclocalstudies.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/kings-road-south-side-mgm-cinema.jpg
Thanks Billy, for the great final gallery. Sad to see it go (forgot how good the two main screens were) and it has the distinction for me of being one of only two places in London where I actually watched a firm in an otherwise empty cinema – a Screen 4 showing of “Daddy’s Dyin, Whose Got The Will” starring Dolly Parton, many years ago.
end of an era. How long till it gets pulled down and rebuilt as The Everyman?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/billy_hicks/albums/72157677855312853
A gallery of the cinema on its final day of service, including screens, AV and staff areas.
So it’s finally closed, with little fanfare. No message on the readograph, just a backlit poster outside and one or two inside plus film time screens occasionally showed a “That’s all folks” slide.
All food and drink was 25% off with no fountain drinks available at the lower kiosk and no hot dogs at the upper kiosk (I bought a popcorn combo so had to take my receipt upstairs – Coke Zero had run out so I settled on a Diet Coke which turned out to be almost flat).
One slide before the film advising the cinema was closing today and inviting customers to use Fulham Road or Leicester Square – perhaps rather telling that there was no mention of Haymarket? Once that goes then that’s all elements of ex-Classic cinemas gone from the Cineworld gene pool.
A few customers chatting to staff about what happens to them (employment at other sites) and thanking them.
An interesting account by someone whose mother worked there when she was a child: https://creamcracker.wordpress.com/2017/03/03/the-last-picturehouse/
It’s a shame no pictures seem to exist of the interior of this cinema over the years, as I’d love to see what the bar looked like. Wonder which operator took it out? In my mind I’m picturing the foyers as a sea of brown and orange, for some reason!
Seating capacities at closure were 205, 226, 113 and 104.
The films shown on the final day are confirmed to be ‘Kong: Skull Island’, ‘Hidden Figures’, ‘John Wick: Chapter 2’ and ‘Logan’. Plans were made to show a series of classic films on the day of closure, including ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ which would have been perfect given the site’s history, but sadly it wasn’t able to happen.
A small if friendly cinema I’ve been proud to call my place of work for the last several months, and as the many hundreds of customers who watched ‘La La Land’ here in recent weeks will prove, a popular site until the very end. King’s Road and its residents will miss it greatly.
agreed Zappomatic. And we have the Curzon Chelsea closing soon for yet more flats etc The greedy property developers are out of control
I believe that’s the plan. I’m going to miss this cinema; the two larger screens upstairs are actually pretty decent and it’s been well maintained, and staff are friendly. However I won’t miss the uncomfortable, narrow seats with hard armrests (which nearby Cineworld Fulham Road is also afflicted with) and the screen in the basement is comically small for the size of the auditorium.
With Ealing long since demolished, Hammersmith gone, Chelsea closing and Haymarket transferring to Empire (although this seems to have gone very quiet), this could leave only Fulham Road as the last of the slightly oddball rump of non-purpose built multiplexes Virgin kept when they bought MGM. Kind of a shame as they have their own quirky 90s style.
I assume Cineworld Chelsea is still closing in a couple of weeks time?
GPM10 is this therefore going to be demolished and become bijou flats with Everyman Cinema taking over?
Just been notified that this cinema will close permanently on 9 March 2017.
Planning permission has been granted on appeal.
Three auditoria are proposed for the first floor, 75 seats, 100 seats, and a small cinema for private use. Everyman is cited as the proposed operator.
once existing cinema is demolished I assume the developers will include a cinema of sorts in its place? Everyman were considering taking it over?
Appeal has been allowed and the owner of the site has permission to demolish the building. I wonder when this cinema will close?
An appeal against the decision is currently in progress.
The latest planning application was refused (on 5 February). Case reference PP/14/07843. I’m pleased!