Empire Cinema
59-61 New Broadway, Uxbridge Road,
Ealing,
London,
W5 5AH
59-61 New Broadway, Uxbridge Road,
Ealing,
London,
W5 5AH
2 people
favorited this theater
Located in the West London district of Ealing. The Forum Theatre was one of two near identical Forum Theatre’s which were built for Herbert Yapp in 1934 (the other is the Forum Theatre, Kentish Town in the north of London) and both were taken over by Associated British Cinemas(ABC) within a year of opening.
Designed by J. Stanley Beard & Clare both had almost identical facades dominated by eight tall columns with a double row of windows between the inner six. Each theatre seated 2,175 on two levels and each had a large stage with fully equipped fly tower.
The Ealing Forum Theatre was the first to open on 23 April 1934, and its interior has a spacious Classical style design with a wide 46 foot rectangular proscenium opening. It was equipped with a Compton 3Manual/9Ranks organ.
It was renamed ABC in 1961, and has undergone many name changes since then (Cannon, MGM, ABC, UGC, and Cineworld, Empire).
Under ABC control it closed in March 1975 for tripling, reopening 26th June 1975 with 764 seats in screen 1 (the former circle) and 417 seats and 210 seats in screens 2 and 3 (the divided stalls).
From December 2006 it came under the ownership of Empire Cinemas, UK. The seating capacities were: 1. 550, 2. 330 and 3. 170. It was a popular cinema in good condition, showing first run films. The Empire Cinema was closed on 6th September 2008. The auditorium and foyer areas were demolished in early-2009, and a new 16-screen multiplex cinema for Empire Cinemas is planned to be built behind the original facade. It is also planned that the original facade of the former Walpole Cinema, Ealing will be incorporated into the design of the new multiplex. By April 2012, work has not begun on the rebuild, and the original facade stands shored up supported by scaffold.
The Forum/ABC/Empire Cinema’s sister cinema, the Forum, Kentish Town, survives as a concert venue and is basically unaltered (Listed Grade II). Some original wooden doors from the Forum/ABC/Empire Ealing were saved, as were pieces of plasterwork. The doors will be installed in the Forum Kentish Town, replacing ones lost in that building over the years.
Contributed by
Ian Grundy
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Recent comments (view all 34 comments)
I have uploaded some photos I took today of the Empire.
View link
does anyone know when it’ll be reopened?
It was the best quality periscope projection I’ve ever seen, as it happens, but the nature of the conversion enabled everything to be pretty ‘square-on’, so the geometry was correct right from the start. Also, unlike a lot of periscope projected screens, the distance between the two mirrors was not great, since ABC1 was the former circle, rather than the former stalls. As an aside, Studios 1 & 2 in Guildford – now demolished – used the original projection area, and both had periscopes, even though you could see screen 2 from the box. The bottom mirror of Studio 1’s periscope was immense, with the resultant loss of quality.
Whilst trawling through the ealing council website on another matter, I found the following link which refers to the planning consent for the new 16 screen cinema. Most interestingly, it shows exactly how big the new development is going to be.
View link
View link
If the previous link doesn’t work, follow this one and enter ‘cinema uxbridge road’ into the search area at the top of the page
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.
The original planning approval was dependent on the developers being able to guarantee completion of the project, so this doesn’t surprise me at all. My only concern about the whole thing concerns parking in the Ealing area – becoming virtually non-existent – so where 16 screens worth of punters are going to go is a bit of a puzzle!
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=72614
This is a link to a British Pathe film about the original building of the cinema. It also contains footage of the side view of the Walpole cinema, which was around the corner.
http://www.ealingtoday.co.uk/info/eaempire005.htm
For latest news.
Alas, Empire Cinemas have still not started work on re-building Ealing’s cinema after closing it nearly 4 years ago for “re-building”. It remains the sad pile of rubble in my avatar photo here.
Ealing residents have started a petition to encourage the council to put pressure on Empire to start work, or to pursue compulsory purchase of the cinema site if Empire won’t start work.
Please could you support the campaign by signing the petition: http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/saveealingcinema