Just over a week since the cinema reopened, and a few minor visible changes:
The foyer HVAC system seems to have been reinstalled (it was really cold last Friday) with vents appearing above the temporary concessions stand.
The curved wall has had the top and sides built out to house either a screen or a lightbox, and some of the rest of the ceiling has a sort of boxing on it (see photos) which I’m guessing will house LED wall washers. Presumably they’ll also use this to create a drop ceiling, but can’t really tell.
The door in the hoarding in front of former screens 4 and 5 was open and work was going on inside the entrances to the screens (sorry, didn’t get a photo of that)
According to a friend the LED displays in the foyer are now active and the effect is very striking, and the Supercreen’s hula hoops have been taken down. The endless tinkering here is quite amusing although hardly professional.
It’s definitely new plasterboard and lights under the sloped section. Plasterboard and LED downlights are cheap and when you’re selling stuff you want it to look its best!
Yes, the black marble is next to the old screen 2 entrance. I hadn’t noticed before that the spheres on top of the balustrade are silver rather than brass but now that I’ve seen it it looks a little odd.
Interesting you should say that the walled-off section would be good for concessions, because if you look at older photos this is where they were originally.
easyCinema in Milton Keynes already went for the Passengers style model and that failed. That said, I remember when Cineworld had Haymarket and there was the odd occasion where I went into a screen without anyone checking my ticket…
All of the finishes are very much temporary, for example the rendering on the walls is quite rough and the paint a single, hurried coat.
Sound coming through from the IMAX is more than just low frequency rumbles and rattles, but not enough to make out dialogue. I suspect there’s a lot more to be done with the ceiling and doubt we’ll end up with one big smooth expanse. I can’t imagine that ceiling above the temporary concessions being left white or even with those lights.
I don’t think there’s enough space to provide the full retail offer where the temporary concessions stand is as there just isn’t the height and depth to provide things like ice cream (Cineworld website is listing Baskin Robbins, which isn’t there yet). Perhaps we’ll see something like a McDonald’s/Argos style ordering system to prevent queues snaking across the foyer?
One slightly odd thing I’ve noticed is that where there was previously a disused box office at the top of the stairs as you came in, this is now walled-off and the curved wall brought out to meet it. Seems unusual to take circulation space away but I guess they needed a bigger stockroom.
Work done so far is mostly just stripping-out. All floor finishes in the main foyer have been removed and the floor is covered with plastic, and all wall finishes have been removed bar a little black marble next to the box office. Some walls have recesses with electrical and network outlets, obviously meant to house portrait-oriented screens.
The ceiling has been replaced, bar a large section over what was the kiosk meaning you can see the underside of the risers in the IMAX screen. Current kiosk is a tiny temporary arrangement on the opposite side, which is going to struggle if anything in the IMAX gets a big audience.
On the access to the Superscreen and renumbered screens 5-7 the padded wall panels are gone as is the gold wallpaper on the front of the lift, but the golf finish remains once you get upstairs. The only remnant of Empire branding in the foyer is the IMPACT sign.
Toilets have had a partial refurb, with new floor tiles, sinks and lighting. Work in here also seems incomplete as some of the old lighting arrangement remains and the ceiling is filthy (made only more visible by the fact the floor is a lighter colour and the new lights are brighter). The new sinks and taps are a more conventional design than the old ones which is good as they were prone to creating puddles on the floor.
No changes in the screen I was in and seemingly no maintenance done over the closed period. Side masking inoperative, the fixed masking at top and bottom looking uneven and the focus soft. (At one point during the film there was a thud from someone nearby slamming a door or dropping something heavy which made the image shake!).
At the moment it’s far from finished and just in a state that just about allows them to operate as a cinema, so too early to make a call on the finished result.
Reopens this afternoon. Cineworld have sent this email out to Unlimited members (accompanied by a voucher for free popcorn):
“We are pleased to share that Cineworld Leicester Square is officially open, just in time to catch blockbusters including Fifty Shades Freed and Black Panther.
When catching your movie you’ll notice that Cineworld Leicester Square is going through a refurbishment. We know improvement works are annoying but you’re sure to be amazed by the difference."
I’m visiting after work so will be sure to report back with some photos, but I’m pretty much expecting a mostly finished foyer and not a lot else.
If you click on the time for a screening, there’s a little red summary tab at the top right of the screen which will show you the screen number. If you want to see thsee seating plan just add a ticket to the basket and click through to the next screen.
Added a photo showing the shiny bits on the foyer ceiling. As predicted a whole load of black and red sofas have been added.
Unfortunately screens 1-5 still have glaring lights but mercifully it looks like a lot of the individual LEDs in the luminaries are dying a premature death.
The “shiny plastic strips” are basically black acrylic or similar material stuck flat to the ceiling in a pattern that centres on the pillars. I’ll take a photo on my next visit (and this time I’ll remember not to wear a red top and be mistaken for staff!)
Regarding the blue/cyan lighting, it can appear a different colour in different photos. The lighting on the foyer pillars is definitely more cyan, whereas I’d say the panels in the corridor are somewhere between cyan and blue.
I was sceptical of this refurb at first as it felt cold and clinical (especially with the removal of the bar area) and the new lighting in the screens was ridiculous, but as they’ve sorted that out and the foyer work comes together it feels fresh and modern.
It’s odd that there’s nowhere to sit in the main foyer (upstairs there are tables and chairs) but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some deceptively hard pleather sofas appear once all the work to the ceilings and the digital displays is finished. An unfortunate side effect of all these bright lighting features is that when you come out of a screen you have to walk through a red-lit door surround which after the darkness of the auditorium is overwhelmingly, almost painfully bright. Coming out of the Superscreen the blue-edged pillars leave an impression on your retinas!
I’m looking forward to seeing how well the extension integrates with the rest of the cinema. The plans don’t give much away about the foyer but there appears to be lots of floor space. Given the VIP screens will have their own bar I’d be surprised if we don’t see a bar for the main screens too as the old one seemed to do a steady trade. I guess a Starbucks is a possibility but there’s already an outlet at the O2.
Foyer refurb update: shiny plastic strips have been fixed to the ceiling, mirroring the pattern on the floor below. I’m now wondering if we’ll see the usual big red star on the ceiling after all, given there’s one on the wall by the escalator. LED screens appear to be complete but aren’t active yet.
Looks like some renumbering of the screens is going on, as The Greatest Showman Sing-A-Long is now bookable from 23 February in screen 5 except the seating plan matches the layout of screen 7. I guess with a clean slate there’s no reason to keep the Superscreen and IMAX as screens 1 and 3 respectively.
Fifty Shades Freed is bookable in the Superscreen (shudder) from 9 February and Black Panther in the IMAX from 13 February. No obvious changes to the seat maps in these screens.
Visited the O2 again today. Installation of the LED displays in the foyer is almost complete but they’re not switched on yet. Ticket machines and Unlimited kiosks still not installed. Access to the upper level isn’t ideal at the moment – with both escalators out of action.
I saw Coco in screen 6 which due to the shape of the building is a reasonably wide but relatively shallow auditorium where the steeply raked stadium section starts fairly close to the screen (three rows at floor level which I think are far too close to the screen). In common with most of the screens here it’s not a curved screen, which combined with the silver coating makes for noticeable hot-spotting. Great sound though and really manages to hit some very low frequencies.
It would seem they’ve have been listening to the complaints about light levels, as the auditorium was suitably dark. The white strips in the floor at the entrance are nicely dimmed during the feature with no light spilling up the walls or onto the screen, and the ceiling lights have honeycomb baffles which completely cut out glare and keep light levels sensible. Even when the lights were brought up to mid-level during the credits they didn’t affect the screen. Also pleased to note that the illuminated fire exit signs don’t cast their green glow on the screen which has been a problem at this cinema in the past.
Screens 6-10 were refurbished after 1-5 and the Superscreen so I’m not sure if this is something that they’ve gone back and changed in all the screens or if they changed the specs and design before the work was started. Certainly an improvement on my visit for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
Regarding Vue West End, the foyer looks nice but the exterior work looks shoddy and half-finished, particularly the canopy over the exit in Leicester Court which last time I passed through was dented, with flaking paint and parts missing.
I remember being taken to see Disney’s Aladdin as a pre-Christmas treat in 1993 and there being a brief stage show before the film. From memory it was mostly a costumed cast dancing to songs from the film (or am I going mad?)
Installation of the LED ribbon display in the foyer continues at a glacial pace… as of last night there were power cables hanging out of the wall where previously there were none! Ticket machines and Unlimited kiosks still not installed.
Coke dispensers have now been replaced by Pepsi, rolling out across the chain. Lavazza replaces Coffee Republic and the cups have shrunk drastically, for which Cineworld are rightly getting a pasting for on Twitter (I had an interesting email exchange with their customer services department where the agent denied that the new cups are smaller).
In screen 3 last night, three out of the eight obnoxiously bright and glaring LED downlights in the ceiling were off – not sure if this is a response to complaints about light levels or if they’ve just died a premature death.
The refurbished corridors feel wider than before. It took me a while to work out why – the old curved wood effect door surrounds stuck out a lot more than the new ones, which are incredibly brightly backlit in red. Slight design flaw in that the screen number is only on the outside of the enclosure, but some of the screen entrances are side by side eg. screen 2’s number is obscured by the entrance to screen 3.
The Superscreen at the O2 certainly sounds good, but it’s not quite on a par with its counterpart in Leicester Square (not helped by the acoustics). My point of reference is the Dolby Atmos “Unfold” trailer – the larger room means the separation is a lot more effective at the O2 but it lacks the sheer depth, warmth and immersion achieved in Leicester Square.
Just over a week since the cinema reopened, and a few minor visible changes:
The foyer HVAC system seems to have been reinstalled (it was really cold last Friday) with vents appearing above the temporary concessions stand.
The curved wall has had the top and sides built out to house either a screen or a lightbox, and some of the rest of the ceiling has a sort of boxing on it (see photos) which I’m guessing will house LED wall washers. Presumably they’ll also use this to create a drop ceiling, but can’t really tell.
The door in the hoarding in front of former screens 4 and 5 was open and work was going on inside the entrances to the screens (sorry, didn’t get a photo of that)
The IMAX screen has been numbered as screen 8.
According to a friend the LED displays in the foyer are now active and the effect is very striking, and the Supercreen’s hula hoops have been taken down. The endless tinkering here is quite amusing although hardly professional.
It’s definitely new plasterboard and lights under the sloped section. Plasterboard and LED downlights are cheap and when you’re selling stuff you want it to look its best!
Yes, the black marble is next to the old screen 2 entrance. I hadn’t noticed before that the spheres on top of the balustrade are silver rather than brass but now that I’ve seen it it looks a little odd.
Interesting you should say that the walled-off section would be good for concessions, because if you look at older photos this is where they were originally.
easyCinema in Milton Keynes already went for the Passengers style model and that failed. That said, I remember when Cineworld had Haymarket and there was the odd occasion where I went into a screen without anyone checking my ticket…
All of the finishes are very much temporary, for example the rendering on the walls is quite rough and the paint a single, hurried coat.
Sound coming through from the IMAX is more than just low frequency rumbles and rattles, but not enough to make out dialogue. I suspect there’s a lot more to be done with the ceiling and doubt we’ll end up with one big smooth expanse. I can’t imagine that ceiling above the temporary concessions being left white or even with those lights.
I don’t think there’s enough space to provide the full retail offer where the temporary concessions stand is as there just isn’t the height and depth to provide things like ice cream (Cineworld website is listing Baskin Robbins, which isn’t there yet). Perhaps we’ll see something like a McDonald’s/Argos style ordering system to prevent queues snaking across the foyer?
One slightly odd thing I’ve noticed is that where there was previously a disused box office at the top of the stairs as you came in, this is now walled-off and the curved wall brought out to meet it. Seems unusual to take circulation space away but I guess they needed a bigger stockroom.
Work done so far is mostly just stripping-out. All floor finishes in the main foyer have been removed and the floor is covered with plastic, and all wall finishes have been removed bar a little black marble next to the box office. Some walls have recesses with electrical and network outlets, obviously meant to house portrait-oriented screens.
The ceiling has been replaced, bar a large section over what was the kiosk meaning you can see the underside of the risers in the IMAX screen. Current kiosk is a tiny temporary arrangement on the opposite side, which is going to struggle if anything in the IMAX gets a big audience.
On the access to the Superscreen and renumbered screens 5-7 the padded wall panels are gone as is the gold wallpaper on the front of the lift, but the golf finish remains once you get upstairs. The only remnant of Empire branding in the foyer is the IMPACT sign.
Toilets have had a partial refurb, with new floor tiles, sinks and lighting. Work in here also seems incomplete as some of the old lighting arrangement remains and the ceiling is filthy (made only more visible by the fact the floor is a lighter colour and the new lights are brighter). The new sinks and taps are a more conventional design than the old ones which is good as they were prone to creating puddles on the floor.
No changes in the screen I was in and seemingly no maintenance done over the closed period. Side masking inoperative, the fixed masking at top and bottom looking uneven and the focus soft. (At one point during the film there was a thud from someone nearby slamming a door or dropping something heavy which made the image shake!).
At the moment it’s far from finished and just in a state that just about allows them to operate as a cinema, so too early to make a call on the finished result.
Reopens this afternoon. Cineworld have sent this email out to Unlimited members (accompanied by a voucher for free popcorn):
“We are pleased to share that Cineworld Leicester Square is officially open, just in time to catch blockbusters including Fifty Shades Freed and Black Panther.
When catching your movie you’ll notice that Cineworld Leicester Square is going through a refurbishment. We know improvement works are annoying but you’re sure to be amazed by the difference."
I’m visiting after work so will be sure to report back with some photos, but I’m pretty much expecting a mostly finished foyer and not a lot else.
If you click on the time for a screening, there’s a little red summary tab at the top right of the screen which will show you the screen number. If you want to see thsee seating plan just add a ticket to the basket and click through to the next screen.
Added a photo showing the shiny bits on the foyer ceiling. As predicted a whole load of black and red sofas have been added.
Unfortunately screens 1-5 still have glaring lights but mercifully it looks like a lot of the individual LEDs in the luminaries are dying a premature death.
Reopens this Friday.
Screen 6 is now screen 3
Screen 7 is now screen 5
Screen 8 is now screen 6
Screen 9 is now screen 7
Nothing is listed for the former screens 2, 4 and 5. My guess is that screen 2 will become screen 4 (for 4DX) and 4 and 5 will become 1 and 2.
The “shiny plastic strips” are basically black acrylic or similar material stuck flat to the ceiling in a pattern that centres on the pillars. I’ll take a photo on my next visit (and this time I’ll remember not to wear a red top and be mistaken for staff!)
Regarding the blue/cyan lighting, it can appear a different colour in different photos. The lighting on the foyer pillars is definitely more cyan, whereas I’d say the panels in the corridor are somewhere between cyan and blue.
I was sceptical of this refurb at first as it felt cold and clinical (especially with the removal of the bar area) and the new lighting in the screens was ridiculous, but as they’ve sorted that out and the foyer work comes together it feels fresh and modern.
It’s odd that there’s nowhere to sit in the main foyer (upstairs there are tables and chairs) but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some deceptively hard pleather sofas appear once all the work to the ceilings and the digital displays is finished. An unfortunate side effect of all these bright lighting features is that when you come out of a screen you have to walk through a red-lit door surround which after the darkness of the auditorium is overwhelmingly, almost painfully bright. Coming out of the Superscreen the blue-edged pillars leave an impression on your retinas!
I’m looking forward to seeing how well the extension integrates with the rest of the cinema. The plans don’t give much away about the foyer but there appears to be lots of floor space. Given the VIP screens will have their own bar I’d be surprised if we don’t see a bar for the main screens too as the old one seemed to do a steady trade. I guess a Starbucks is a possibility but there’s already an outlet at the O2.
https://ebay.co.uk/itm/Leicester-Square-Odeon-A-Pair-of-Theatre-Auditorium-Fold-Down-Cinema-Chairs/30261189835
Various quantities and configurations on there from the seller
The leopard print seats are now on sale on eBay from a seller called old2gold – yours for £90 a pair.
Foyer refurb update: shiny plastic strips have been fixed to the ceiling, mirroring the pattern on the floor below. I’m now wondering if we’ll see the usual big red star on the ceiling after all, given there’s one on the wall by the escalator. LED screens appear to be complete but aren’t active yet.
Looks like some renumbering of the screens is going on, as The Greatest Showman Sing-A-Long is now bookable from 23 February in screen 5 except the seating plan matches the layout of screen 7. I guess with a clean slate there’s no reason to keep the Superscreen and IMAX as screens 1 and 3 respectively.
I wonder if there will be a 4DX version of Fifty Shades? ;)
Fifty Shades Freed is bookable in the Superscreen (shudder) from 9 February and Black Panther in the IMAX from 13 February. No obvious changes to the seat maps in these screens.
Visited the O2 again today. Installation of the LED displays in the foyer is almost complete but they’re not switched on yet. Ticket machines and Unlimited kiosks still not installed. Access to the upper level isn’t ideal at the moment – with both escalators out of action.
I saw Coco in screen 6 which due to the shape of the building is a reasonably wide but relatively shallow auditorium where the steeply raked stadium section starts fairly close to the screen (three rows at floor level which I think are far too close to the screen). In common with most of the screens here it’s not a curved screen, which combined with the silver coating makes for noticeable hot-spotting. Great sound though and really manages to hit some very low frequencies.
It would seem they’ve have been listening to the complaints about light levels, as the auditorium was suitably dark. The white strips in the floor at the entrance are nicely dimmed during the feature with no light spilling up the walls or onto the screen, and the ceiling lights have honeycomb baffles which completely cut out glare and keep light levels sensible. Even when the lights were brought up to mid-level during the credits they didn’t affect the screen. Also pleased to note that the illuminated fire exit signs don’t cast their green glow on the screen which has been a problem at this cinema in the past.
Screens 6-10 were refurbished after 1-5 and the Superscreen so I’m not sure if this is something that they’ve gone back and changed in all the screens or if they changed the specs and design before the work was started. Certainly an improvement on my visit for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
Regarding Vue West End, the foyer looks nice but the exterior work looks shoddy and half-finished, particularly the canopy over the exit in Leicester Court which last time I passed through was dented, with flaking paint and parts missing.
And some more https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dYGIl8b1Yo
Footage from the MGM Hammersmith in 1995 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rs3RhrGyqE
A rare photo of the cinema as an MGM: https://rbkclocalstudies.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/kings-road-south-side-mgm-cinema.jpg
Nope. I’m not going mad! http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/first-night-disney-genie-conjures-a-childrens-delight-aladdin-odeon-leicester-square-1505204.html
I remember being taken to see Disney’s Aladdin as a pre-Christmas treat in 1993 and there being a brief stage show before the film. From memory it was mostly a costumed cast dancing to songs from the film (or am I going mad?)
The condition report is an interesting read – love the photo of the abandoned bar area looking very 1960s/70s!
Installation of the LED ribbon display in the foyer continues at a glacial pace… as of last night there were power cables hanging out of the wall where previously there were none! Ticket machines and Unlimited kiosks still not installed.
Coke dispensers have now been replaced by Pepsi, rolling out across the chain. Lavazza replaces Coffee Republic and the cups have shrunk drastically, for which Cineworld are rightly getting a pasting for on Twitter (I had an interesting email exchange with their customer services department where the agent denied that the new cups are smaller).
In screen 3 last night, three out of the eight obnoxiously bright and glaring LED downlights in the ceiling were off – not sure if this is a response to complaints about light levels or if they’ve just died a premature death.
The refurbished corridors feel wider than before. It took me a while to work out why – the old curved wood effect door surrounds stuck out a lot more than the new ones, which are incredibly brightly backlit in red. Slight design flaw in that the screen number is only on the outside of the enclosure, but some of the screen entrances are side by side eg. screen 2’s number is obscured by the entrance to screen 3.
The Superscreen at the O2 certainly sounds good, but it’s not quite on a par with its counterpart in Leicester Square (not helped by the acoustics). My point of reference is the Dolby Atmos “Unfold” trailer – the larger room means the separation is a lot more effective at the O2 but it lacks the sheer depth, warmth and immersion achieved in Leicester Square.