Vue Piccadilly

Located on an excellent site in Lower Regent Street, just south of Piccadilly Circus, the Plaza Theatre was built for and operated by Paramount Pictures Inc. It was designed by Frank T. Verity with plasterwork by Marc Henri, and opened on 1st March 1926, with Dorothy Gish in “Nell Gwyn”. It was sumptuously decorated with total seating for 1,896 divided between stalls, Royal circle (mezzanine) and balcony. There was a small stage and live acts were a feature of the programme - including the famous Plaza Tiller Girls. It was equipped with a Wurlitzer 3Manual/15Ranks theatre organ (with piano attachment), and had a cafe.

The World Premiere of the David Lean film “Bridge On the River Kwai” starring Alec Guinness was held at the Plaza Theatre on 2nd October 1957. A Gala European Premiere of “Darling” was held on 16th September 1965. A Gala Premiere of “The Spy Who Came In From the Cold” was held at the Plaza Theatre on 13th January 1966. The World Premiere of “Alfie” was held at the Plaza Theatre on 24th March 1966. The Plaza Theatre lasted without alteration until 27th September 1967 when it closed with Craig Stevens in “Gunn”. The the lovely Italian Renaissance style auditorium was gutted to form two cinemas, designed by Samuel Beverly of architecural firm Verity & Beverley with David Hicks as colour consultant to reflect the tones and conditions of the 1960’s. The Wurlitzer organ was removed and sold to Leonard Bartholomew. The 820-seat upper cinema was used as an extended balcony and the original projection box, retaining the name Plaza. The stalls, which extended into the stage area, became the 972-seat Paramount. They re-opened 28th July 1968.

The Paramount used a new projection box constructed in the former Royal Circle area. The Plaza was renamed Universal from 25th May 1972, but old names linger and from 15th May 1975 they were both renamed Plaza 1 & 2.

Two years later, Plaza 1 (the old stalls) closed and was triplexed. The upstairs cinema now became Plaza 1 whilst the front stalls became Plaza 2 (378 seats), and the rear Plaza 3 & 4 (163 & 181 seats). All original decoration was lost.

Late in 2001, the complex closed and was gutted (yet again!). It reopened as the Apollo Cinemas West End in September 2004 with retail space (Tesco supermarket) on the ground floor and five new cinemas located in the basement. The screens seat: (1)88, (2)59, (3)40, (4)168 and (5)126 Total seating in the five screens is for 481 plus 8 wheelchair spaces (2 in screens 1,2,4,5, none in screen 3). The upper floors of the building have been rebuilt internally for office space. It was re-named Vue Piccadilly in early 2013.

The exterior of the building is Listed Grade II as part of the Regent Street conservation area.

Recent comments (view all 34 comments)

Koistinen on April 25, 2015 at 2:55 pm

Exterior and lobby photographs from February 2015.

SethLewis on December 10, 2016 at 2:09 pm

You go to Paris and have a great range of international film programming…All the US pictures and a well-curated mix of local and international product…The Odeon Panton Street does some good sub-run programming but is seriously out of date…This site just needs good programming to survive (a la the old Swiss Centre cinema)

madorganplayer on December 23, 2016 at 3:22 pm

davepring, I was working at the Apollo installing and updating the plasma a few years ago.Those to the windows and above the staircase are extremely difficult to get at because of the glass staircase and it doesnt surprise me that they are no longer working.The company i was working at no longer work for Vue.Vue are cheapskates and penny pinching and try to do things for themselves and balls it up in the process.At least Apollo under Paul Gregg and later his missus Anita tried to keep things working.

ritzman on April 17, 2017 at 10:34 am

Photo taken during the farewell organ concert 17/09/1967 Added at photo tab

CF100 on September 8, 2017 at 10:46 pm

madorganplayer: In response to your question about whether the roof was “taken off,” it certainly seems to be the case.

This can be seen in Google Earth (desktop application) by turning on “Historical Imagery” and setting the date to 2003.

For convenience, and since Google allow limited use of these images on third-party sites providing attribution is included, I have exported the relevant image from Google Earth and uploaded to the Photos section.

Documents associated with the planning application for the 2000s reconstruction are available. (N.B. Some modifications were made to these proposals in subsequent applications.)

The roof plan shows new glazed roof areas, and most of the remaining part of the roof is a “flat roof to plant enclosure.”

Looking at the section plans, the plant rooms and central section of glazed roofing extend above the original building. Beneath them, there are offices (fourth floor) which also extend above the original building.

Given the extensiveness of the reconstruction, requiring the facades/dome to be “proped up,” I’m afraid that the chances of organ parts remaining up there are, I’d suggest, zero.

CF100 on September 8, 2017 at 10:48 pm

Photos of plasterwork remnants can be seen in documents submitted in relation to the following planning applications:

http://idoxpa.westminster.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=0206506ADLBC — see “PROPOSALS FOR THE SALVAGE & REUSE OF EXISTING DOORS / PLASTERWORK” – PDF page numbers 18-20. Note that this part of the document is excerpted from an earlier 1998 survey. Also within this document are details of a later survey (PDF p4), and on PDF p21-22 are plans from the 1998 survey showing locations where plasterwork and other auditorium decorative remnants were found.

http://idoxpa.westminster.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=I70H4KRP59000 – see “PHOTOS” – which are of a couple of removed sections of plasterwork.

http://idoxpa.westminster.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=IGFO5IRPR1000 – see “PLASTERWORK SCHEDULE” – details of the four sections of plasterwork removed and proposed restoration work (white paint only!) – and “PHOTO” – showing the proposed wall display of these sections.

Ian on November 15, 2017 at 4:44 am

Nightshot of the former Plaza from November 2017:–

PLAZA

Zappomatic on November 15, 2017 at 3:24 pm

Now if only its sister on Haymarket could get a similarly high quality exterior restoration and lighting package.

SethLewis on November 15, 2017 at 4:26 pm

Walked by here around 20:00 recently…appears deserted almost scary Shame…There is always a need for screens in the West End for sub and second runs

rivest266 on May 25, 2021 at 9:44 am

Grand opening ads posted.