EMD Cinema
186 Hoe Street,
London,
E17 4QS
186 Hoe Street,
London,
E17 4QS
3 people
favorited this theater
The Granada Theatre opened in 1930 and has seen much better days. Finally closed as the EMD Cinema in 2003 after several years of stop-start open-shut status.
It was sold by the last operator to a dubious quasi-religious organisation to convert into church use ‘help centre’. This use has been refused by the local council and their decision was backed up by a Public Inquiry that stated the building must be retained in cinema use for the local community.
Since closing in 2003 the building has been boarded-up awaiting negotiations to be finalised regarding purchase from the ‘church’ and finding a cinema operator.
The former Granada Theatre is a Grade II* Listed building.
Contributed by
phil clark
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Recent comments (view all 28 comments)
Save
Walthamstow’s
Last Cinema
“One of London’s two finest surviving cinemasâ€
Andrew Gilligan, Evening Standard, 2008
This hidden gem should be reopened
and available to all, but we are
about to lose it forever unless we act NOW!
Come to the Public Meeting
4.30pm, Sunday 29th March 2009
St Mary’s School Hall
Rectory Road, Walthamstow
some photos taken summer 2008 of the exterior showing the deterioration
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/3376246995/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/3377080624/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/3377072098/
There’s a Facebook group for those trying to get the cinema reopened. A high profile campaign supporting this has attracted support from Sir Mick Jagger, Meera Syal, Tony Robinson and Tony Benn… the Facebook group can be found here: View link
Another photo is here.
UCKG – the church who have owned the cinema since 2003 (and kept it closed since then) have just submitted a new planning application to convert it into a church.
If Waltham Forest Council approve the plans, the borough loses it’s last and greatest ever cinema. Cinema operators including City Screen/Picturehouse want to buy and restore the building (which happens to be on a site used for entertainment since the 1870’s).
Please visit www.mcguffin.info and ‘Save Walthamstow Cinema’ on Facebook to find out what’s happening and how to object to the plans so we can get this beautiful building returned to the nation as a cinema in Hitchcock’s birthplace.
An article from 30 March 2010: View link
A set of vintage photographs of the Granada Theatre:
View link
This 2009 article from the BBC has an undated interior picture within it (scroll down): View link
According to this blog item, the theater has suffered significant deterioration and damage caused by some squatters that temporarily occupied the theater and from neglect on the part of the church that owns the property. The blog has links to some videos about the theater that include some historical photos as well as one of the flooded main auditorium:
View link
The cinema’s owners UCKG had their 2nd application to convert the building into a church (with some community access) REJECTED unanimously by Waltham Forest Council on 18 May 2011. The church plans to appeal, as they did for their original application in 2003.
Meanwhile a charitable building preservation trust called Waltham Forest Cinema Trust' has been established to buy and restore the building as a full time cinema and live events venue.
See www.walthamforestcinematrust.org
www.savewalthamstowcinema.org
www.mcguffin/info
Facebook ‘save our cinema'
Twitter 'save our cinema’