Page 34 - CR

The UK

By Gerry Kennedy

uring October 2011, I enjoyed a trip
Dto the UK staying in London with
Cinema and Theatre Association (CTA)
and CATHS member, Ken Roe. CATHS
members will remember Ken as the tour
leader of the Australian CTA tour and later
as a guest speaker at a CATHS meeting.

Ken arranged a wonderful itinerary of visits
to cinemas and theatres in London’s West
End, suburban London and to places such Above: Granada/ABC at Tooting.
as Manchester, Blackpool and Brighton.
We also joined CTA tours to Newcastle In most major suburbs the various chains
and the Tyneside area. All of this touring such as Odeon, ABC, Gaumont and
was via public transport which really Granada were often represented.
worked well.
Many building features were quite different
Many of the buildings were photographic to the Australian experience. Most theatres
stops but we also visited many that were of the 1920’s and 30’s were multi-purpose
now bingo halls, hotels, churches, or venues built as cine/variety houses. They
still cinemas or theatres. Bingo, which were built with extensive stage facilities
preserved many of the buildings, is now and usually included café/restaurants and
waning due to the introduction of no- sometimes dance halls or billiard rooms.
smoking policies. Every self- respecting theatre had a theatre
organ. Car parks were sometimes included.
One interesting discovery was the former
ABC Cinema in Tooting. ABC, in its later An unusual feature in of some of
years, in order to improve business viability Granada’s picture palaces (i.e. Tooting)
converted some spaces in their buildings was a wave curved balcony front. Seating
into licensed bars; these were accessible in the front circle was often arranged in a
from both the street and the theatre foyers. similar manner.
The former Tooting cinema still has such
a facility but incongruously, the rest of the Most UK cinemas screened on a
building is now an Islamic centre. continuous basis with the starting time of
the feature film advertised. Continuous
I was very impressed by the size of many screening required many theatres to
of the suburban and regional theatres. have large queuing or assembly areas for
Capacities of around 3000 were common patrons awaiting admittance. These areas
and the State Theatre in Kilburn (London) could be either indoor (even in basements)
seated over 4000. Why was this so? It or outdoor under large verandahs.
finally dawned on me that because of
the dense population there was sufficient In the 1950’s and 60’s the introduction
demand to warrant the construction of of the prestigious road show films led to
these huge theatres. defined session times in many cinemas.

Most of the UK population lives in two London’s extensive public transport system
and three story, attached terrace houses allowed neighborhood patrons easy access
containing two or three flats. Even the to a variety of venues.
miles of strip retail premises along the
“High Streets” had flats above them. All in all - a most interesting ten days. +
Above: The State at Kilburn.

34 2012 CINEMAREC ORD