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Open House London Cinemas
posted by
kevinp
on
September 7, 2005 at 4:24 am
Hi Folks,
London has a traditional couple of days where it opens the doors to closed buidings. those that have changed use, or those in use, but allowing you to have a better peak! Dates are 17th and 18th September. Link is here: www.londonopenhouse.org
You will need to get a guide on line, which will cost only a few pounds.. but you wil be able to see..
The former cinemas; the stunning Gaumount State in Kilburn (bingo); the fabulous Tooting Granada (bingo); the Regal, Uxbridge (nightclub); plus many other beauties that are still open as cinemas: East Finchley Phoenix; The Gate Notting Hill; The Ritzy in Brixton; Muswell Hill Odeon; and about another 15 buildings either open as cinemas or other uses.
good luck
kev p
Comments (4)
Listed in the American Motion Picture Directory 1914 – 1915 as the Royal Theatre.
The 1926 Film Daily Yearbook lists it as the East Side Beauty Theatre with 257 seats.
My above posting seem to have somehow strayed on here by mistake and it refers to a theatre in New York.
Regarding open House theatres open to view, out of the ones mentioned above by Kev Phelan, the Gaumont State, Kilburn, the Granada, Tooting, the Gate, Notting Hill and the Ritzy, Brixton currently all featured on their own pages on Cinema Treasures.
As do their modern counterparts, the Greenwich Picturehouse and Stratford East Picturehouse which are also taking part in Open House Weekend.
Additional art deco gems open for inspection include the Isokon Flats in Belsize Park and the Park Lane Hotel
Interested to read about the Regal at Uxbridge. It was, if memory serves, one of three cinemas in the town back in the 1950s. One of the others was the Odeon at the end of Uxbridge nearest the canal. I was a regular there for Saturday Morning Pictures, and was greatly excited when on one such occasion the manager came out onstage to tell us all to go home after the show and let our parents know that Cinemascope had been installed.Does anyone know the name of the third cinema in Uxbridge at the time — and it was geographically? The Regal was I think in the centre of town.