I’m astonished that this has lasted so long when there’s been another Vue literally minutes down the road in Westfield for seven years. Together that’s a huge 32 screens, but films often duplicate in both cinemas.
Can’t be many other London cinemas that cheap – Prince Charles’s lowest tickets start at £4.50 for weekday matinees (Member price), and Empire Walthamstow is still £3.95 on Tuesdays, possibly Sutton too when that reopens next month.
The readograph stopped being used around 2013 (along with most Cineworld cinemas) and I’m not sure there were any staff left who knew how to change it. A closure notice like Staples Corner would have been nice though.
Seating capacities at closure were 205, 226, 113 and 104.
The films shown on the final day are confirmed to be ‘Kong: Skull Island’, ‘Hidden Figures’, ‘John Wick: Chapter 2’ and ‘Logan’. Plans were made to show a series of classic films on the day of closure, including ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ which would have been perfect given the site’s history, but sadly it wasn’t able to happen.
A small if friendly cinema I’ve been proud to call my place of work for the last several months, and as the many hundreds of customers who watched ‘La La Land’ here in recent weeks will prove, a popular site until the very end. King’s Road and its residents will miss it greatly.
The first film shown at this cinema was ‘Justin and the Knights of Valour’ at 2:20pm, 24th October 2013. As the cinema launched with little ceremony it played to an audience of just two people!
Business was slow at first due to lack of customer awareness and the nearby established Cineworld at Staples Corner. Popularity after the initial few weeks increased greatly, particularly amongst Bollywood and Tamil film fans as a significant amount of Indian films are shown here, leading to Staples Corner’s eventual closure in 2016. A large window overlooking Wembley was added to the foyer wall in January 2015, significantly increasing natural light to the space.
Projection has been fully digital from the beginning along with D-Box seating in Screen 7.
Still (half) standing as of August 2016, still with the movie posters from the month of the fire (Kung Fu Panda 3 and Eddie the Eagle) visible in the foyer.
This cinema on several accounts has seriously suffered since the opening of Cineworld Wembley in October 2013, with dated facilities and extreme absence of customers – on my last few visits there in 2014-15 I’ve mostly had the entire screen to myself. On one occasion the film wasn’t started at all, another time it was randomly moved to another screen with no notification from staff, meaning the audience sat in a silent screen for several minutes only for another customer to inform them the film had actually started several minutes earlier in another screen.
Can’t see it lasting long although it does have free parking, and if quiet cinemas are your thing it’s worth checking out.
There’s a phone box in Whitechapel which as of December 2014 continues to advertise the “new” UGC cinema, fourteen years after open and nine years after becoming a Cineworld. It even proudly displays the UGC Megapass, which eventually evolved into the Cineworld Unlimited card.
As perhaps imagined due to the huge amount of former owners, the inside styling is a mishmash of 1990s and 2000s design from its various former incarnations.
The top floor (screens 6 to 9) in particular appears to have been completely untouched since around the turn of the millennium, to the point where as of February 2015 it continues to advertise the long, long closed Virgin Megastore on the ground floor – a brand defunct since 2007!
This cinema was the last place I saw a 35mm screening to date, ‘One Day’ in August 2011 in one of the smaller screens. It was the last Odeon in the country to be fully converted to digital in November that year.
Apparently this was the last cartoon cinema left in the UK when it closed with ‘The Hound that Thought He was a Raccoon’ on August 27th, 1981. I’d been told by my father about them but I never knew how long they lasted.
I’m astonished that this has lasted so long when there’s been another Vue literally minutes down the road in Westfield for seven years. Together that’s a huge 32 screens, but films often duplicate in both cinemas.
Can’t be many other London cinemas that cheap – Prince Charles’s lowest tickets start at £4.50 for weekday matinees (Member price), and Empire Walthamstow is still £3.95 on Tuesdays, possibly Sutton too when that reopens next month.
The readograph stopped being used around 2013 (along with most Cineworld cinemas) and I’m not sure there were any staff left who knew how to change it. A closure notice like Staples Corner would have been nice though.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/billy_hicks/albums/72157677855312853
A gallery of the cinema on its final day of service, including screens, AV and staff areas.
Seating capacities at closure were 205, 226, 113 and 104.
The films shown on the final day are confirmed to be ‘Kong: Skull Island’, ‘Hidden Figures’, ‘John Wick: Chapter 2’ and ‘Logan’. Plans were made to show a series of classic films on the day of closure, including ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ which would have been perfect given the site’s history, but sadly it wasn’t able to happen.
A small if friendly cinema I’ve been proud to call my place of work for the last several months, and as the many hundreds of customers who watched ‘La La Land’ here in recent weeks will prove, a popular site until the very end. King’s Road and its residents will miss it greatly.
The first film shown at this cinema was ‘Justin and the Knights of Valour’ at 2:20pm, 24th October 2013. As the cinema launched with little ceremony it played to an audience of just two people!
Business was slow at first due to lack of customer awareness and the nearby established Cineworld at Staples Corner. Popularity after the initial few weeks increased greatly, particularly amongst Bollywood and Tamil film fans as a significant amount of Indian films are shown here, leading to Staples Corner’s eventual closure in 2016. A large window overlooking Wembley was added to the foyer wall in January 2015, significantly increasing natural light to the space.
Projection has been fully digital from the beginning along with D-Box seating in Screen 7.
4DX seats were added on 9th December 2016, London’s first cinema to receive them.
Currently undergoing a major refurbishment, still ongoing as of February 2017 but looking brilliantly modern already!
Zavvi closed in early 2009 at this location.
All three movies were January 1998 release dates in the UK, so probably Jan/Feb that year.
Probably February 1999 (Bulworth 22/01/99, YFAN 12/02/99 and TGAAG 29/01/99).
This cinema closed in about 1990.
This cinema closed in June 2014, and as of November 2016 remains empty and derelict.
Alien Resurrection was released 28/11/1997, so this is from very late that year or very early the next.
This is from early 1999 judging by the films, ‘Little Voice’ released 8/1/99 and ‘Stepmom’ 29/1/99.
Still (half) standing as of August 2016, still with the movie posters from the month of the fire (Kung Fu Panda 3 and Eddie the Eagle) visible in the foyer.
Closing on 14th August 2016.
This cinema on several accounts has seriously suffered since the opening of Cineworld Wembley in October 2013, with dated facilities and extreme absence of customers – on my last few visits there in 2014-15 I’ve mostly had the entire screen to myself. On one occasion the film wasn’t started at all, another time it was randomly moved to another screen with no notification from staff, meaning the audience sat in a silent screen for several minutes only for another customer to inform them the film had actually started several minutes earlier in another screen.
Can’t see it lasting long although it does have free parking, and if quiet cinemas are your thing it’s worth checking out.
The website proudly states “All Tickets, Everyday all day £3.50” which is unbelieveably cheap for 2015.
£3.95 tickets for most films on a Tuesday makes this easily one of the least expensive cinemas in the London area as of April 2015.
There’s a phone box in Whitechapel which as of December 2014 continues to advertise the “new” UGC cinema, fourteen years after open and nine years after becoming a Cineworld. It even proudly displays the UGC Megapass, which eventually evolved into the Cineworld Unlimited card.
As perhaps imagined due to the huge amount of former owners, the inside styling is a mishmash of 1990s and 2000s design from its various former incarnations.
The top floor (screens 6 to 9) in particular appears to have been completely untouched since around the turn of the millennium, to the point where as of February 2015 it continues to advertise the long, long closed Virgin Megastore on the ground floor – a brand defunct since 2007!
The black area with the Cineworld logo on the left was converted into a large window looking into the foyer in January 2015.
This cinema was the last place I saw a 35mm screening to date, ‘One Day’ in August 2011 in one of the smaller screens. It was the last Odeon in the country to be fully converted to digital in November that year.
Still as of 2014 displaying obsolete ABC logos around the entrance, many years after said cinema chain went defunct!
Apparently this was the last cartoon cinema left in the UK when it closed with ‘The Hound that Thought He was a Raccoon’ on August 27th, 1981. I’d been told by my father about them but I never knew how long they lasted.