ABC Walham Green
392 North End Road,
London,
SW6 1LU
392 North End Road,
London,
SW6 1LU
2 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Associated British Cinemas Ltd.
Architects: William Riddell Glen
Styles: Art Deco
Previous Names: Regal Cinema
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Located in the southwest inner London district of Walham Green. Built for and operated by Associated British Cinemas (ABC) the Regal Cinema opened on 5th August 1935 with Shirley Temple in “Bright Eyes” and Will Rogers in “The County Chairman”.
It was designed by ABC’s in-house architect William R. Glen with seating provided for 1,129 in the stalls and 800 in the balcony. The Regal Cinema was equipped with a Compton 3Manual/6Rank theatre organ which was opened by organist Charles D. Smart. It had an illuminated console.
It was re-named ABC from 9th July 1962 and closed on 12th February 1972 with Richard Rowntree in “Shaft”.
The building was then used as a recording studio for a while, and it was during this time in 1979 that the video of Roxy Music “Dance Away” was filmed in the former circle area. It then lay derelict. It was converted into a Dickie Dirts shop selling cheaply priced jeans and clothing. It was demolished in December 1984 and a mixed use retail and office building was built on the site, currently Waitrose supermarket operates from there.
Contributed by
KenRoe
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
Can remember in the early 1960’s being in the balcony on a Wednesday afternoon when we were ask to move as there was a very important person coming to watch a preview of a film not advertized ..called the Removal Men..and was ask to move because this person likes sitting in the middle of the balcony..And i said let this person sit somewhere else..in the end i did moved and in walks Cliff Richards…to this day i have always wanted to ask him why he never sat somewhere else
Bruce Cooper
The site or the main frontage is now Waitrose’s The pharmacy is on the corner where the fire exits were. I always remember a letter that was kept in the projection Rooms, complaining about modern western’s and refering to last weeks film, where the sequence of events for the cowboy were, Riding arround on his horse, getting buried, riding arround on his horse again and finally getting killed. Only those of us who ran film on 2000ft reels will understand!
@ Bill Gibbs Hmm.. I remember when we played Purple Rain at Our cinema 2 reels had the wrong leaders and tails on.. The Film Played Sunday and was noticed by a customer on the Thursday night… Nobody else noticed. Friday morning it was corrected.. We traced the effending Circuit Cinema that played it before us and Complained ( I must add “Purple Rains was a very odd film anyway..
I remember getting a Bond film and as I was joining it up I realised that the last two reels were the same,glad I saw it because I would have had heart failure if it had ran!
I used to live in this cinema when it was owned by Emerson ,Lake and Palmer and we were not touring as I spent most of the time abroad
The Roxy Music video is on You Tube here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nT1-eE2E0M Fascinating video to a great song. Such a shame that cinema was amongst the many now lost.
Grand opening ad: