Cineworld Cinema - Hammersmith

Grand opening ad posted.

Visited the site a number of weeks ago, sadly unlike the much more recently demolished Cineworld Chelsea the only ‘progress’ seemed to be a wraparound placed on the exterior (presumably by the local council) showing an artist’s impression of the proposed replacement cinema. This will be though a much larger job : there will be a very substantial retail and residential element to the rebuild, though local agitation at the loss of a very popular facility has seen the council announce that the rebuild of the cinema will be a priority. Nearby, up the road in Chiswick, plans to convert the old Rambert Dance Studios to a five-screen cinema have been revived and construction is understood to be in hand, with a possible opening before the end of 2019. It seems that Picturehouse Cinemas are no longer attached, though, and the cinema will be a stand-alone independent.

Footage from the MGM Hammersmith in 1995 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rs3RhrGyqE

I’m not sure there will be a big rush for Curzon, Picturehouse or Everyman to come in with new screens in the old BBC complex in Shepherd’s Bush due…I agree that the Western corridor is underscreened in terms of quality films not in terms of blockbusters when you have 5-7 screens in the two Vues showing the same product

Sad to update that, less than 50 weeks after closure, this wonderful cinema has been demolished – the clearing site is massive, and reminds you just how big this place was. Of all of London’s cinemas, this was personally my most loved, and I estimate having seen a high three-figure sum of films here between 1992 and 2016 having lived in nearby Bayswater between 1995 and 2004 and continuing my journeys there after leaving the area. There has been zero work on the ‘replacement’ Curzon (planned for next door) and much uncertainty about the building of the Picturehouse Chiswick cinema (straight down the road in the old Rambert Dance Studio) so it seems that one cinemaless year on, the local residents will have little to service their filmgoing needs in the short to medium term at least. Ealing all over again, methinks.

Closing down mid-April

Still going ‘strong’…some Polish programming in view of neighbourhood demographic as well as blockbusters

still open november 2013 with some of the friendliest staff your ever meet in a cineworld

Compare the sc2 upstairs view with this 1988 circle shot! :–

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stagedoor/5032145079/

Also a shot of the exterior around dusk from 1988 with the Cannon signage:–

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stagedoor/5032765272/

I’ve lived in Chiswick since 1986, and I’ve witnessed the cinema close down for refurbishment and then reopen under a different name many times. But it would always get so dilapidated so quickly. It has never lost its “Hammersmith Flea Pit” tag. Learning that it’s owned by Tesco explains a lot! We need a decent cinema in this area. Shepherds Bush is too far and rather dodgey at night. If it had a proper, caring management and regular publicity (as well as more competitive pricing), I’m sure it would be a success. As Tina Turner might say, “We don’t need another Tesco”!

There has been a talk of a Tesco supermarket in this location for quite some time. It’s a perfectly serviceable fourplex where over the past few years I’ve seen The Fog of War, Scary Movie 3, The Loony Toons Movie, Bad Santa, Mystic River and probably a couple more while I was recovering from surgery.

For anyone resident in the Chiswick corridor this is the closest option besides Richmond, for those of us now closer to Shepherds Bush we have the 12 screen Vue with some brave programming and coming soon a 12 screen National Amusements Cinema delux in the Westfield Mall…So the end may finally be near for this one

six months later the canopy still has a wonky letter P
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