Gaumont State Kilburn
199 Kilburn High Road,
London,
NW6 7HY
199 Kilburn High Road,
London,
NW6 7HY
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favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 52 comments
Dear Sir/Madam,
You might wish to update your website entry for the Kilburn State. The building has, it is believed, just been sold (28 August 2007) by RankMecca PLC to â€" it is rumoured â€" a Bahrain based investment vehicle whose first intentions were rumoured to be a housing development…. Despite repeated requests, RankMeccaâ€\s head of property, one Tony Robinson, has declined to provide any details of who has bought the building and organ.
The building and Wurlitzer organ has grade II* listed status from English Heritage, has a planning designation for entertainment and that is being reconfirmed in the new Local Development Framework â€" which makes precisely no mention of housing on this site. There is just about zero chance of Brent Council agreeing to any change in planning designation and I would imagine the same response from English Heritage. The question has to be asked what the intentions are of the new owners and when they will identify themselves?
There is a question mark over the organ â€" notwithstanding the listed status applying to the organ as well. The Chief Engineer employed by RankMecca has been made redundant and there are no longer any technical staff at the State to keep it on a care and maintenance basis. Unless there is regular maintenance to the leather bellows of the pipes, these will start to dry and will then crack, rendering them useless.
Here and now, there is an online petition organised by a local resident http://savethekilburnstate.blogspot.com/ and I would encourage you to distribute this to your members, subscribers and enthusiasts so that they too can add their names. The State is a rare architectural gem in the area with the added bonus of the magnificent Wurlitzer. It simply must not be imperilled.
On behalf of Kilburn residents and lovers of the State, I would appreciate your assistance.
Regards,
Anthony Dunn
LibDem councillor for Kilburn Ward (London Borough of Brent)
Garden Flat,
44 Montrose Avenue,
LONDON NW6 6LB
Tel: 020 8962 0443
Email: .uk
The lobby lights are still on!
stripped of its mecca signage, lots of fitting piled up in the lobby but no signs that the building has been secured. Whats the chances of it being victim to vandalism and illegal rave clubbing nights
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/1226291019/
My American organist friend, the late GENE GAYNOR of San Francisco, made some live and BBC radio recordings of the Gaumont State Wurlitzer of which I have on Reel-to-Reel tapes.
All are “historic,” many in stereo, boxed in excellent condition with title listings, some pictures and facts, etc., and are now
FOR SALE.
I also have numerous other Reel-to-Reel & Cassette archive recordings of British cinema-theater organs!
If interested, please write to my personal e-mail address for further info-to-know:
Simon Overton:
Hope that Mecca seal the building up tight whilst the future is uncertain, so that no illegal raves can take place with all the damage that is associated with these events.
Did the closeing last niht come about fast?
Sorry, just read it . Thank God.
Whats next for the building Ken? Is it protected?
The Mecca Bingo Club which operated out of the former Gaumont State Cinema closed on Sunday 19th August 2007.
The Kilburn State is under threat!
When it opened in 1937, The Kilburn State — a Grade II* listed building — was the biggest auditorium in Europe, with seating for 4,004 people. Since then, The State has played host to a galaxy of stars — The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Marilyn Monroe, David Bowie, Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, George Formby, Deep Purple, and many many more. And for the past 20 years, The State has been run by Mecca Bingo.
But now Mecca is selling up. The State is closing, and its future is in the balance.
An application to turn The State into a live music venue has hit a snag… and property developers have pounced. There’s a danger that these developers will deliberately allow the The State decay, and then, when it is beyond repair, tear it down to build flats.
Don’t let The Kilburn State be destroyed! Join the campaign to save it from the developers, and to return it to its former glory as a vibrant cultural centre in the heart of London.
What you can do:
Your help will be invaluable in saving The State.
Thank you in advance,
Oliver
http://www.savethekilburnstate.blogspot.com
For more information on The State, see:
View link
http://www.brent-heritage.co.uk/gaumont.htm
/theaters/1478/
For photos of The State, see:
View link
A couple more exterior photos here:–
View link
View link
Update, Am told by my Mecca manager that the old club has been secured by an irish man.
I have been told by a senior manager for Mecca that the theatre has indeed been sold for the sum of £10.1 million enough to build two / three new modern bingo clubs. The new owners have said that the chandelier and the organ are safe. The new owners do own other entertainment centres both here and in the USA.
The final concert (for the immediate future) was held on the Wurlitzer organ on Sunday 1st July 2007. The Mecca Bingo Club operation will close in August.
The building has been sold. Word of mouth says ‘to an American owned entertainment group who own some live theatres’. The Gaumont State Theatre will be closed for around 18 months. There are plans to retain the Wuritzer organ in the building for future use.
The Gaumont State Theatre is a Listed Grade II* building.
rumoured to be closing for bingo in august, a huge tragedy if it is boarded up and allowed to rot.
Apart from becoming a concert venue like hammersmith apollo or brixton academy which would damage the fragile interior, i cant imagine what it could be used for, its simply too big to be a theatre or cinema again neither of which is needed in the area.
set of photos here
View link
I remember the State Kilburn during the late 40’s and 50’s because for a short period of time my father Alexis was the resident organist! I can recall going with him to his rehearsals and was able on one occassion to visit the pipe chamber and being most impressed. As a young budding pianist I once had ‘a go’! But never took up music as a profession. I understand that the instrument is still there, but is it used for concerts, and if so when? I would like to revisit the scene of my childhood!
Until the Granada Tooting re-opens for organ stuff the State is still the best soaring auditorium experience for a theatre organ despite the garish gold and green decor from dear Mecca who have so splendidly kept this huge palace alive and well (Thank you Dave!).
At Open House weekends they let you up into the (still seated) circle and explore the back-stage, and Dave will give you a sample of the Wurlitzer. Long may it’s friends and supporters and bingo players keep it alive and, maybe, sometime, in a more enlightened future it will again become a movie palace and live venue, like so many of the refurbished US palaces on this website.
The opening night of the Gaumont State Theatre was on Monday 20th December 1937 at 7:30pm. Artists performing on stage were Henry Hall and His Orchestra, Gracie Fields, George Formby, Carroll Levis, Vic Oliver, Larry Adler, Stone & Lee, Van Dam and His Band and Sydney Torch at the console of the Wulitzer organ. The complete stage show was broadcast live by BBC radio from 8:00 until 8:45. On the big screen Will Mahoney and Will Fyfe in “Said O'Reily to McNab” plus Pat O'Brien and Henry Fonda in “Slim”. The programme was supported by an edition of Gaumont British News.
The opening night was filmed by Gaumont British News and shown on subsequent evenings for the first week. Henry Hall and His Orchestra continued on stage as the headline act for the remainder of the week.
My mother her father and his father were there on the night it opened. She remembered it had live acts between each film, and the night just went on and on as each act took their turn. I also remember the fish and chip shop just up the road. Many an hour has been spent sitting in the cinema watching one of the many films they had on. I also remember going to see Paul Anker playing live on stage, and Antonio the famous Spanish dancer.
Such a pity it is now just a shell of it’s former self.
So nice to see that someone still cares about it!
This place was awesome in the 60’s, though I rarely remember it being more than half full at the best of times. It felt really grand, even if seeming a bit of a white elephant by then. The foyer was like the entrance to a great opera house. I think seeing movies on a giant screen from hundreds of feet away still beats sitting in the matchbox auditoriums of modern multiplexes. But these movie palaces belong to a bygone age, killed off by TV. Will DVD and online streaming finish off cinemas altogether?
ive put up a load of photos of the State at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969
the chandelier in the pic in the main lobby was copied from one in Buckingham Palace
An exterior photo and some history on the Gaumont State Kilburn, Kilburn, London here:
http://www.tnunn.f2s.com/state.htm
well i have fond memories of going to the kilburn state cinema way back in the 1970’s when i was a young boy.
i can remember going to see stars wars there when it was first shown in the uk and at the end of it i remember going home with my chewbacca mask on my face!!
and i remember seeing sindbad and the eye of the tiger there
and countless other films.
saturday morning pictures was always the best thrill of all!!
i can hardly remember the films i would wacth but i certainly remember the unforgettable pearl and dean adverts!!
such as the classic carpet shop adverts!! situated just around the corner!!! remember i was only about 7 years old at the time!!! oh those were the days!!
i remember seeing saturday night fever there!!
and when i came out i was copying john travolta’s dance steps!! and i remember there was a shoe shop a few yards down the kilburn high road and i remember putting my foot alongside the shoes just like mr trav does in the film!!
i also remember going to the late night cinema when they would show kung fu films!! that was a big avent for me!! i remember my mum walking with me up to the corner of victoria road and she stayed there till i got to the kilburn state!! awwww aint that good!!
that was the only time i went to late night pictures, i think my mum wouldnt let me go anymore after that!!!!
i read sometime ago the late great buddy rich played there with his big jazz band at some point, can anyone confirm that?
i didnt know about buddy rich till i saw him playing on bbctv’s pebble mill show and boy did he play those drums!!!
since that day i was hooked and still am on big band drumming!!
im lucky enough to have my own drumkit now and i play along to my many buddy rich albums at home..for the record im not as good as buddy!!..but i do try lol.
anyway my parents upped sticks in 1980 and we left kilburn for good and since then i never went back to the kilburn state.
im glad the old building is still there, just a pity its no longer a cinema.
if there is one cinema that i always felt at home in its the kilburn state cinema
and one last thing, does anyone remember the fish and chip shop just along the kilburn state?
they made the best fish and chips in town!!!
i must of ate a ton of fish n chips , pies and such from there!!
if i remember rightly it was run at that time by an italian family?
i was a regular there and always got the best service whenever i went in.
ill never forget them and ill never forget the great gamount kilburn state!!!
The photograph above of the enormous chandelier is the lobby chandelier.
I have some LP’s at home of Reginald Dixon and on the liner notes it says that Reginald Dixon played the Wurlitzer Organ in this theatre, is this true?? I think this was after he retired from the Blackpool Tower Wurlitzer in 1970. This would have been during the mid or early 1970’s when he gave concerts at this theatre?