Eros Cinema
7 Shaftesbury Avenue,
London,
W1D 7EA
7 Shaftesbury Avenue,
London,
W1D 7EA
3 people
favorited this theater
Showing 7 comments
Two views of the cinema from 1976
http://www.flickr.com/photos/khiltscher/3601454180/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/khiltscher/3601454462/in/photostream/
Ali, I was reading your post and at first I could not place you, but then when I read the bit about your romance with a staff member, it suddenly clicked.
Would this ladies initials be PF by any chance?
I think I do remember you now.
At the time you would have worked at Eros, I would have been based at the Classic Oxford street, working under George Park. He was a lovely old guy George. I know he passed away some years back, bless him.
I remember Stuart Hall very well, and I actually got on very well with him. We were both from the North of England, which I think helped. Wonder what he is up to now.
I remember JP Williams too…a rather fussy, strait-laced man as I recall. Didn’t have too many dealings with him, but we crossed swords on a couple of occasions.
Here is a screen capture from the film “An American Werewolf in London”, and a contemporary view today:
View link
If you click on the Google maps function they have added numerous contemporary photos of the building to the photo that they took.
I’ll never forget the double-bill of ‘It Came From Outer Space’ & ‘Creature From The Black Lagoon’ at this place back in late ‘82 – the very first time I ever saw movies projected in 3-D. Guess this was just after the porno audience migrated to home video and the Eros started it’s brief run as an exploitation house. Always get a kick out of seeing the Eros immortalised in 'American Werewolf In London’ – “Two pounds eighty, Sir.”
heres is a shot of the exterior taken yesterday
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/429785471/
This place had a lot of character, that was for sure.
I worked the occasional shift there in my relief manager days during the 80’s
My favorite story is of the ‘bucket’ system.
The paybox was very small, and was directly below the managers office. There was a hatch built in to the floor, and a ladder so that in theory the cashier could climb out and into the office in case of any trouble.
However, it was never used in that way – someone had attatched a bucket on the end of a rope in the office, and when the cashier had collected a few quid, she would shout “Ere – send the bucket dahn!”, and you would lower the bucket down and collect the money to put in the safe.
The auditorium lights were always kept very bright when the films were on, to stop people from getting up to anything unsavoury – it was like daylight in there! Of course in places like this no one ever complained.
In fact the most common complaint was that the films were not actually hard core – the posters always promised much of course, but most of the films were basically like Carry On films with a bit more tit and bum. There was the occasional Russ Meyer season, which were at least watchable.
And it was not unheard of for films to be re titled 2 or 3 times and shown again under different names.
The staff were also an intersting collection of people…no names mentioned for obvious reasons, but think Addams Family and you will know where I am coming from :)