Apollo Cinemas West End
19 Lower Regent Street,
London,
SW1Y 4LR
19 Lower Regent Street,
London,
SW1Y 4LR
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a photo of screen 2 with its pop-art wall panels as it was being stripped out, the seat backs have all gone, just the seat cushions left
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/3535004297/
and the box office as it was being dismantled, still with a few bulbs left working
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/3535824888/
all the plasterwork was removed and disposed of safely as it contained asbestos, you wont be seeing it back i’m afraid.
photo taken just before the demolition crew moved in, this panel of original plasterwork was removed and stored and was to have been displayed in the new Apollo lobby.
http://flickr.com/photos/woody1969/63380109/
“Zulu” in 70mm at the Plaza?.
Recently I was viewing a the recent Widescreen DVD of the film “Zulu” and the interesting exta item was the “Making of Zulu”.
There was some details that it was first openned at the Plaza in 1964, but no details if it was in Technirama70 (70mm) or just a 35mm Mag sound version.
The first 70mm film at the Plaza was “Becket” in March 1964 and I wondered if “Zulu” was ever screened in 70mm at the Plaza in this year?.
A pre demolition shot of the Plaza in 1988 here:–
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nightime shot of the exterior of the plaza building, with the discrete apollo entrance on the lower left side
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A recent close-up view of the entrance of the Apollo West End:
http://www.moviebunker.com/apollo_west_end.htm
Here is a July 2006 photo of the Apollo Theater. Nice exterior; didn’t get a chance to few the interior.
It is amazing that the interior of this stunning cinema was not listed although the frontage was. The replacement auditoria were good of their kind though – spacious and comfortable. I went to see all the big Paramount releases here in the 70’s and 80’s. Once it was divided further though it lost all it’s identity and became very bland. How sad to see that the spacious foyer has become another ghastly supermarket. Shopping malls and supermarkets seem to have become the new entertainment centres. Consumerism gone mad!
Here is almost the same view, taken at night in early 2005:
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And a closeup of the colourful roof:
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A 2001 exterior photograph of the Plaza 1-4 just prior to its closing and re-development into the Apollo West End:
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The most expensive cinema in the west end and not a patch on the Plaza when a twin cinema in the 70s.The cleaned exterior is stunning and the basement cinemas bland…avoid!!!!
The ground floor has been open as a Tesco supermarket for a couple of months now, but the five screen Apollo West End opened last Thursday, claiming to be “the West End’s Most Luxurious Cinema”. The stairs from the street lead downwards so I assume it is in the basement, but I have not been able to visit yet.
I loved the Plaza. I loved the movies they used to show there. I still remember fondly seeing flicks from the 70s such as SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT, MIDWAY, AIRPORT ‘77 all the way up to the 90s with STAR TREK GENERATIONS. I loved The Plaza. It’s disheartening to know that they are turning the lower parts into a supermarket. Too many London theatres are dying now…Odeon Haymarker, Plaza, etc, the bastardized Odeon Marble Arch etc. It’s sad really.
I wasn’t impressed with the renderings on the Apollo website…What Picadilly doesn’t need is another set of smallish rooms with the same programming as everyone else. Saw some good films in these theatres in the 70’s-90’s…Quadrophenia in its original run…The Crying Game, Housesitter, Citizen Kane in a 2 week reissue, White Men Can’t Jump, American Beauty, Monty Python the Meaning of Life, Green Card…
the exterior has been beautifully cleaned and the plaza name is back up, but its crowning glory will be when the dome is revealled from under its current scaffolding, ive been up on the roof and its clad in an amazing blue and gold mosaic wave pattern and the little cuppola should be restored with its paramount logo (mountain with crown of stars)
its such a huge shame its not got its original interior, there were a few fragments of the original plasterwork from the rear of the circle when it closed, i assume these have been removed for safe keeping
The Plaza was built by the international division of Paramount Pictures and was intended as its #1 theatre in Britain. For decades, it showed Paramount movies almost exclusively.
Yeah – thanks Woody found the images on the Apollo website a few days after posting my comment above. You know I’d love to beleive that the Apollo may indeed offer London filmgoers something special but the images remind me uncomfortably of the long-gone and unmissed (?) horrible five screen Cannon on Oxford Street – with a few more reflective surfaces! We’ll see! I live in hope!
check out the apollo website, they have some artist impressions of the new lobby areas, it remains to be seen how luxurious they really will be for a cramped basement development
Most of the scaffolding has now come down, and the tesco metro supermarket looks ready to open on the ground floor
Does anyone know any more about the new cinema development on this site? I understand it is to be operated by the Apollo Cinema Chain. Will they be offering us the usual non-descript modern cinema auditoria or something more stylish?