I lived at Belmont as a boy.In the war people queuing to get in would grind coins into the soft red brick wall, leaving perfectly round craters.At interval time the exit doors were opened and usherettes would come round spraying some liquid with a Flit gun.As kids we said it was to kill the fleas.But we still liked going to the Herga.
I lived at Belmont 1934 to 1950, my mum was a cleaner at the Plaza /Essoldo.In the war the kiosk closed and I was given bars of chocolate (sweets were rationed) which turned out to be made of cardboard for display only.I was shocked to see the stage curtains that looked so nice lit up by coloured lights during intervals. Under ordinary light they were filthy dirty from the smoking and condense. We used to play around the cinema, at the rear was huge piles of coke, you could hear the soundtrack quite loud.Dumped over a wall into a field were hundreds of carbon rod stubs from the projectors,millions
of fag ends and ice cream cartons. My friend worked in the South Harrow and explained how the projectors worked, the over dot etc.
John Elgin
I lived at Belmont as a boy.In the war people queuing to get in would grind coins into the soft red brick wall, leaving perfectly round craters.At interval time the exit doors were opened and usherettes would come round spraying some liquid with a Flit gun.As kids we said it was to kill the fleas.But we still liked going to the Herga.
I lived at Belmont 1934 to 1950, my mum was a cleaner at the Plaza /Essoldo.In the war the kiosk closed and I was given bars of chocolate (sweets were rationed) which turned out to be made of cardboard for display only.I was shocked to see the stage curtains that looked so nice lit up by coloured lights during intervals. Under ordinary light they were filthy dirty from the smoking and condense. We used to play around the cinema, at the rear was huge piles of coke, you could hear the soundtrack quite loud.Dumped over a wall into a field were hundreds of carbon rod stubs from the projectors,millions of fag ends and ice cream cartons. My friend worked in the South Harrow and explained how the projectors worked, the over dot etc. John Elgin