Vue West End
3 Cranbourne Street,
Leicester Square,
London,
WC2H 7AL
3 Cranbourne Street,
Leicester Square,
London,
WC2H 7AL
7 people
favorited this theater
Originally on this site was a playhouse theatre, Daly’s Theatre, which was opened in June 1893. It was closed on 25th September 1937, and was purchased by Warner Bros. to be demolished. Warner’s built the new Warner Theatre on the site which opened on 12th October 1938 with Errol Flynn in “The Adventures of Robin Hood”.
The architects of the original cinema were E.A. Stone and T.R. Somerford. The frontage was faced with reconstructed marble with a large relief panel by sculptor Bainbridge Copnall in each corner depicting spirits of sight and sound. There is a large central tower feature in a concave recess bearing the Warner name. The 1,789 seat cinema was equipped with a 3Manual Compton organ. The original Warner Theatre was twinned in 1970 and by 1981 there were 5-screens inside the building and it was known was the Warner West End. It was time for a major change and the auditorium section of the original Warner Theatre was demolished in the mid-1990’s.
The new nine auditoriums were built behind the original facade. In 2010 the seating capacities in the screens are: Screen 1: 177, Screen 2: 126, Screen 3: 300, Screen 4: 298, Screen 5: 414, Screen 6: 264, Screen 7: 410, Screen 8: 180 and Screen 9: 303.
It has an excellent location on Cranborne Street on the corner of Leicester Square and occasional premieres are held here.
Contributed by
Ian Grundy
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Recent comments (view all 42 comments)
A history of the former Daly’s Theatre which stood on the site, including vintage photographs and memorabilia, plus some more recent photographs of the Village West End/Vue:
http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/DalysTheatre.htm
I went to see the first of the Christopher Reeve ‘Superman’ films at the Warner, and was very disappointed with the picture and sound quality by comparison with the Dominion Tottenham Court Road and the Odeon Marble Arch.
The Warner and other West End theatres can be seen in this 1949 newsreel footage: http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=26610
Only the facade was kept for the multiplex conversion. The rest of the building was new including the gutted out basement.
A vintage photograph of the Warner Theatre in April 1955 screening Judy Garland in “A Star Is Born”:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/allhails/5153872149/
When it was the Warner West End in 1973, I saw ‘O Lucky Man’ here. The ending of the film itself took place right outside this very theatre.
Here’s a link to B&W newsreel coverage of the 1955 London premiere of the Judy Garland version of “A Star Is Born”: britishpathe
When it comes to THX, it should be noted that the largest auditorium was the first European cinema to be equipped with a THX sound system in 1986, using JBL amplifiers and speakers.
Another Vue (sorry) of the cinema
VUE CINEMA
I have put an early picture of the Warner