The conversion of the cinema into a primark superstore is now almost complete. The interior was completly gutted and a totally new reinforced concrete structure has been built within the “skin” of the brick and stone facade, which they cleaned and preserved, however without the awning there is little to tell you that this was once a cinema. Another step down the road to high street anywhere for Leeds.
Primark are proabaly cursing themselves as the Allders department store opposite the theatre closed down shortly after building work started, they could have moved into this far more cheaply than effectively building a whole new store and destroying a Leeds landmark. Incidentally the chain that owns the new 13 screen multiplex that crushed the odeon merged with a larger chain recently – such consolidation is a sign that even the big multiplexs aren’t having a easy time in the current climate.
The closure of this cinema is a terrible loss, one that needn’t have happened. There was a total lack of imagination on the part of the managers with regard to the schedule. Showing recent blockbusters, which put the cinema in direct competition with the local multiplexes was never going to be a viable strategy, but they chose to ignore this. On the other hand there are many arthouse and foreign films that, despite good reviews, never get a showing in Leeds.
I recently tried in vain to find somewhere to see “The story of the weeping camel”, and before that “Old Boy”. In the middle of a student area, the Lounge would have been a perfect complement to the only other art cinema in Leeds, the Hyde Park.
They should at the very least have tried changing their strategy rather than plowing regardless on until the credit ran out.
I am deeply suspicous of the motives of the cinemas owners. There is now talk of turning the building into yet another nightclub in an an area that already has far too many, permanent residents are outraged. I wonder if this was the plan all along.
The conversion of the cinema into a primark superstore is now almost complete. The interior was completly gutted and a totally new reinforced concrete structure has been built within the “skin” of the brick and stone facade, which they cleaned and preserved, however without the awning there is little to tell you that this was once a cinema. Another step down the road to high street anywhere for Leeds.
Primark are proabaly cursing themselves as the Allders department store opposite the theatre closed down shortly after building work started, they could have moved into this far more cheaply than effectively building a whole new store and destroying a Leeds landmark. Incidentally the chain that owns the new 13 screen multiplex that crushed the odeon merged with a larger chain recently – such consolidation is a sign that even the big multiplexs aren’t having a easy time in the current climate.
The closure of this cinema is a terrible loss, one that needn’t have happened. There was a total lack of imagination on the part of the managers with regard to the schedule. Showing recent blockbusters, which put the cinema in direct competition with the local multiplexes was never going to be a viable strategy, but they chose to ignore this. On the other hand there are many arthouse and foreign films that, despite good reviews, never get a showing in Leeds.
I recently tried in vain to find somewhere to see “The story of the weeping camel”, and before that “Old Boy”. In the middle of a student area, the Lounge would have been a perfect complement to the only other art cinema in Leeds, the Hyde Park.
They should at the very least have tried changing their strategy rather than plowing regardless on until the credit ran out.
I am deeply suspicous of the motives of the cinemas owners. There is now talk of turning the building into yet another nightclub in an an area that already has far too many, permanent residents are outraged. I wonder if this was the plan all along.