Forum Topic

Is Hammersmith Cineworld worth saving?

I saw in the Standard yesterday that Ralph Fiennes and Colin Firth are joining the fight to save the 'art-deco' cinema in Hammersmith. I'm amazed the building is considered to be of any architectural merit at all and doubt Mr. Firth or Mr. Fiennes have ever been to it. It'll be mildly disappointing to see it go but ever since they started charging outrageous amounts for parking in the evening we have been using it less often (which given the audience there when we do go it seems we are not the only ones). With much cleaner nicer cinemas at Westfield, which are not that much more expensive perhaps Cineworld would have closed anyway.

Ellen Kearney ● 5176d47 Comments

You don't bring money into a community by making things more expensive, you take them out. If we are ending up with cinemas, shops and restaurants that a significant proportion of people can't visit we would be better off leaving things as they are.

Karen Taylor ● 4235d

Yes, it will be more expensive, but more Greenwich than Kings Road. If you want to 'regenerate' an area - not just the cinema but shops and restaurants - than more money has to come in.

Rosemary Pettit ● 4237d

Curzon Cinemas are quite expensive - if you wanted to go and see the Diana biopic on Friday evening (I know you probably wouldn't but it serves for comparison) it would cost you £8.64 at Cineworld using their online booking and £14.75 at Curzon on the Kings Road. Picture House in Greenwich are charging £12.10 for the same film.Cineworld may have been a bit grotty but for many families and people on lower incomes upmarket chains like Curzon and Picture House are just too expensive.

Karen Taylor ● 4237d

Well as promised I'm stunned by this news but pleased nonetheless. The one thing I would say is that the programme offering sounds very similar to that of Picture House at the Ballet Rambert site.

Danny Kopech ● 4298d

And none of this would have happened without residents and Save Our Cinema believing that it was possible and sticking in there through thick and thin (mostly thin) until the Council and developers came to understand that Hammersmith cinema was integral to King St regeneration.-----------------------------------Operator announced for new King Street CinemaKing Street Developments (a joint venture between Grainger plc and Helical Bar plc) are delighted to announce that Curzon Cinemas have been selected to operate the proposed new cinema within the King Street regeneration scheme. The cinema, which will be housed in striking suspended auditorium ‘pods’ at first and second floor levels in the former Town Hall Extension building, will form the central focal point of this significant regeneration project and will provide a greatly improved community facility for both existing and new residents.Curzon Cinemas are a leading independent cinema chain with six venues across the capital. Their focus is on the screening of a carefully curated programme combining both independent and international films as well as mainstream popular hits. In addition they run a vibrant events programme including director Q&S, opera screenings and documentary festivals. Matthew Bonning Snook of King Street Developments said: “We are extremely excited that Curzon Cinemas are coming to King Street and believe that they are the perfect operator for this key element of our scheme. We have been very impressed by their varied programme and commitment to the local community and feel that they are the best party to achieve our aim of the cinema providing a focal point for the regeneration of this part of King Street.”Rob Kenny of Curzon Cinemas said: “King Street presents Curzon with the perfect opportunity for our next London cinema. The unique design of the building, turning the “normal” concept inside out and giving true prominence to the cinema, together with a café/bar, is a very exciting prospect and genuinely puts the cinema at the heart of the scheme.”The proposals will be on display at a public exhibition on Friday 5 (3pm - 7pm) and Saturday 6 July (10am - 2pm). The exhibition is being held on the forecourt of Hammersmith Town Hall and will include high quality images and a scale model of the proposals.A planning application for the regeneration project is due to be submitted to the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham within the next two weeks.

Rosemary Pettit ● 4312d

The Hammersmith Society has news which may delight you; expect an announcement soon. The final plans for the Town Hall regeneration (to include a cinema) will be shown outside the Town Hall this coming Friday (5 July) betwen 3-7pm and on Saturday between 10am and 2pm.www.hammersmithsociety.org.uk

Rosemary Pettit ● 4321d

I will most certainly. However, I'd be stunned if the plans included provision for a cinema with an agreed tenant. Picturehouse will cater for the arthouse crowd and Westfield for blockbusters. There's no real niche for a new cinema. Would be absolutly delighted to be proved wrong.

Danny Kopech ● 4321d

Cinema not doomed. Plans for Town Hall to be published early July. Exhibition also. Keep an eye out.

Rosemary Pettit ● 4343d

Don't agree with you on public transport links - there is a slightly longer walk from the tube to the Chiswick site and most of the buses that serve Cineworld go past the new site.Parking is likely to be more of an issue. It is relatively easy to park near Cineworld in the evenings without paying. No need to use Kings Mall which is a fair old walk away. On the other hand much of the core audience for the Hammersmith cinema comes from the west and they may walk to the new one or be able to park near it using local knowledge.I think the cinema on the current site is doomed.

Danny Kopech ● 4343d

There is a growing demand for specialist cinemas. The one in the old Ballet Rambert, now owned by Picture Houses, will find good custom in about 15 months' time. But this site is far from public transport, and there is no parking nearby. The cinema on the Hammersmith Town Hall site is very well served by public transport and has good parking nearby at the King's Mall car park. Cinema is retail: Leicester Square offers hundreds of films in dozens of cinema.There is everything going for a continued cinema offering at the Town Hall.

Una Hodgkins ● 4358d

I don't think anybody would now want to open a cinema now in the new development around the Town Hall. It would be a real struggle for viability and a good chunk of the existing cinema's audience come from Chiswick. Are they really likely to pass a cinema on the way to one in Hammersmith?

Danny Kopech ● 4358d

The tide has turned in favour of local cinemas - a Rambert cinema in Chiswick? Just shows the demand for a local, individual cinema and a great night out.Next stop Hammersmith cinema......

Rosemary Pettit ● 4361d

The news that Picture House cinemas have bought the Ballet Rambert site on Chiswick High Road does will cause some people to doubt the need for and viability of a cinema on the current site. This probably goes for Cineworld who own Picture House.

Paul Corcoran ● 4361d

If you can get to the King St Regeneration public exhibition please do so. It will include new plans for the cinema. It's at Hammersmith Town Hall on Thursday, 21 March, 3-8pm, and on Saturday, 23rd, 10am-2pm. Make your views about the need for a Hammersmith cinema on the site known!

Rosemary Pettit ● 4426d

Don't want to appear like a salesperson for Cineworld but seats are even more discounted on Tuesday nights in Hammersmith. Monday night Watermans is discount night but there is no longer free parking there so actually it is now probably cheaper to visit Cineworld which has more uptodate films.

Paul Corcoran ● 4426d

After a few bad experiences at Acton Vue I have been searching around for a first choice cinema in the area. The prices at Westfield are jaw dropping particularly if you are taking a family and you have to add that the cost of parking. The W12 Centre is only marginally better so I have started going to Cineworld most often now - you can park for free in the evenings and there is a much better choice of places to eat in the evenings plus the ticket prices are about 25% cheaper.

Andy Jones ● 4441d

Hate to sound like their marketing department but if your register online with Cineworld - myCineworld you can get further discounts. Also Tuesday nights are heavily discounted. I'm no expert but the screens and the sound quality appear to be just as good as Westfield.

Paul Corcoran ● 4558d

I was trying to book tickets for a family group to go and see the new Spiderman film. I tried to book online for Vue Westfield but their site just froze - the cost for four tickets was over £35 with presumably booking fees to add. So I then tried Cineworld Hammersmith - just over £30 and easy to carry out the transaction.

Karen Hartnell ● 4672d

It is a shame that the plan envisages changing the more characterful end of King Street when most of the rest of it could be bulldozed without a murmur from most people.

Paul Corcoran ● 4726d

High streets are dull, repetitive places these days, the same chain shops endlessly repeating. The Cinema is in the true sense an architectural landmark building in King Street. To keep the Cinema, at least the facade and the entrance lobby with perhaps modern spaces for showing films behind, will preserve the sense of Hammersmith and London's past for ourselves and for coming generations. Film is a vital modern artform and the Cinema is economically viable.  Too many interesting local buildings are being lost and replaced by anonymous moneymaking megaliths. The Oxford and Cambridge pub has just disappeared. Conservation Areas are worthy of more respect.

Mina Martinez ● 4739d

I wouldn't trust either of them

Stephen Hill ● 4747d

....Absolutely right!!

Una Hodgkins ● 4747d

....which is why it's important to get rid of BJ at the mayoral election....

Charles Lawrence ● 4747d

Dear Elizabeth,Those who voted for the Conservative councillors at the last local election (and the previous one) thought that they were voting for (1) a change from Labour and (2) old-style local, truly local councillors. They did not realise, and I hang my head in shame as I write this, that Hammersmith Council has gradually turned into a breeding ground for young men and women who aspire to a career in national politics. They often don't live in the ward they represent, or they move around at frequent intervals to claim that they do "live in the ward". They are "young Turks": ignorant about local issues, callous about the vulnerable and determined to bring about the "localism revolution" (as they see it) based on the bald fact that there are more safe, Conservative wards in Fulham than floating or Labour wards in the rest of Hammersmith and Fulham. That is how we have ended up, as you rightly say, with these "gargoyles" in power.

Una Hodgkins ● 4747d

I am completely puzzled as to who actually elected this tory council as everyone seems to rightly loathe them. They are stunningly callous,can't listen or hear, crush opposition, have no evident interest either in supporting the vulnerable or in preserving beauty and heritage - who are they and why did anyone vote for them? We have lovely Andy Slaughter and Steve Cowan in opposition, and these gargoyles in power - how? Deeply weird

Elizabeth Spring ● 4749d

Dear JenniferPlease go to the website of "Save Our Skyline", where you can read about the plans for the gigantic redevelopment scheme next to Hammersmith Town Hall, of which the demolition of the Cineworld cinema is a part. If you would like to, please add your comment at http://www.saveourskyline.co.uk/support.php. We have received messages of support from Dame Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave and Sir Trevor Nunn, among others.There is also a separate petition of 6000 signatures to "Save Our Cinema" which was submitted to the Council back in 2011 as a separate objection to the scheme.We await the result of the Mayoral election. If elected, Ken Livingstone seems much more likely to reject any amended scheme than Boris Johnson.

Una Hodgkins ● 4756d

I'm just surfing from the Chiswick W4 forum and came upon this post.  It reminded me that when my husband and I first moved to W4 we used to visit this cenema - having a drink in Red Lion lane (nr St Peter's Sq) first and then an Indian or Chinese meal after in King Street.  Parking back in 1975-1980 wasn't a problem.  Our jobs became more far flung and we stopped going (from memory it was rather dirty and scruffy even then).  However, I do think it's important to have a vibrant and affordable local cinema and free parking is an important issue - especially for the more elderly who don't feel safe walking the streets & travelling on public transport on dark evenings.  Can't say I can even "picture" what the building looks like but if it's genuine art deco and can be restored, well then keep it.  Whatever, the interior needs to be clean with comfortable seats, good films, affordable prices (possibly special offers for afternoon visits).  I shall keep an eye open to seewhat happens.  Good luck to all the supporters and if you make a good job of it, I may be lured back.

Jennifer Selig ● 4757d

Please read the comment of Rosemary Pettit of 04/04/2011. Yes, it is worth saving, and not just for architectural heritage reasons. Local cinemas are making a comeback: see the Roxy in Brixton and the Ocean in Hackney in the hands of PictureHouse cinema group. The "Regal", as it used to be known, has fallen on hard times since the freehold was sold to St James (Tesco) and now it is in the hands of developers. Since the owner of the freehold wants to push in underwater the fabric of the building has of course suffered. But "Save Our Cinema" would like to release it from these dead hands. We want to see it refurbished and flourishing in the hands of new owners who will invest in a new "cultural centre" cinema. It CAN work!

Una Hodgkins ● 4795d

Having been to the cinema on and off for the last 30 years it has, to my mind, always been on the 'dive' spectrum of things. I recently went to watch the muppet movie and found it a totally unspecial experience, grim staff, overpriced & unhealthy snacks (but thankfully no mice - although admittedly I wasn't looking). I find the architecture singularly unspectacular - but perhaps I'm just uneducated in the art deco way. I have much more sympathy with the plight of Shepherds bush market and also the Palais -which I must admit I very much enjoyed as a teenager.

Emily Manson ● 4795d

Andy says Tesco have sold the lease....so who are the new owners?

Charles Lawrence ● 4817d

Here are some more reasons to save the cinema from Andy Slaughter MP after his recent visit.http://www.andyslaughter.co.uk/?p=6486

Karen Cooper ● 4817d

Over 6000 people have signed a petition to save the Hammersmith Cineworld, and if anyone would like to see the report prepared by Save Our Cinema we'd be happy to send it. Or go to www.saveourskyline.co.uk and take it from there. Yes, it needs money spending on it but it's a genuine cinema built during the heyday of cinema construction and its 1930s facade complements the (to be revealed) Town Hall of the same period. Its the only mainstream cinema in Hammersmith so of course it is needed. And its a lot less expensive than Westfield.

Rosemary Pettit ● 5135d

When the future of the site is assured, I hope the owners of the cinema will spend some money on the inside, especially the seats.

Anthony Aust ● 5138d

There are two separate issues here: the building and the cinema.  I don't think that the building itself has any architectural merit and I won't be sorry to see it go.  The cinema is a facility which, if at all possible, I should like to keep.  Could the developers be persuaded to incorporate, in the vast new development, a cinema with one or two screens?

George Ross ● 5153d

I'll give it a go and let you know what happens

Beccy Thorp ● 5165d

They are based just down the road in Chiswick - try customer.services@cineworld.co.uk.

Ellen Kearney ● 5166d

Beccy, that's truly bizarre. I'd suggest going to Westfield and seeing if they have the same policy and if not pointing this out to Cineworld. I did visit their web site to see if there was a contact address for you but it seemed to be down.

Paul Corcoran ● 5166d

The consensus seems to be that we all like having a cinema in that position - but feelings are mixed on architectural worth. I use it when i cant be bothered to go to westfield  - but I have found service is mixed, you do see the odd mouse, the loos aren't great and it never feels clean. Maybe we should be petitioning for any redevelopment to include a cinema, rather than to keep the existing building? Also - and this has nothing to do with this debate at all really, but it is annoying and we all like a rant - they will not accept my daughter's valid York University student card as proof she's a student to get student discount! She's on a 3 year course, started Oct 2010 - but whilst the card has a start date it has no expiry date. Very annoying....

Beccy Thorp ● 5167d

As well as the Salutation there are a good number of good value, good quality places to eat in the area. Although I accept the Westfield cinemas are nicer (although the sound is set too high for my taste) the food choices afterwards is poor. All formulaic chains with little personality.

Paul Corcoran ● 5169d

I think it was the ABC when I first went there. Proximity to the Salutation has always been a bonus!

Helen Gardner ● 5170d

The cineworld is our local cinema and its so pleasant to go stroll down to it, no need to take a car, no pollution. As a local its way better than other, small, local cinemas. Plus the architecture is to be preserved. Westfield is a monster overgrowing on us. Its a flat, unpersonalised machine for money. And parking is extortionate, even if you spend money in there!

Elena Cavalli ● 5170d

There are so many possibilities for this cinema, turn it back into a one screen cinema, have film evenings/afternoons where it shows films from different cultures, an Elvis week.  I just think there is an opportunity to move this away from the multi screen environment that Westfield/W12 can offer and make this into a cinema that can offer something different.So YES it should definately be saved.

Carol Burge ● 5171d

That was the first cinema I ever went to as a boy. I agree it's been steadily getting worse over the years but in the right hands surely it could be brought up to scratch?Unfortunately, as was mentioned about the Palais, not to mention the sale of buildings such as Fulham town hall and the Irish Centre, we have a council with no respect whatsoever for this borough or its history.

Alexander Smith ● 5172d

Unfortunately it seems within the Hammersmith and Shepherds Bush area anything that has any historicial/architectural heritage will be demolished.  Hammersmith Palais, for example, how much history did that have attached to it, and what are they going to build in its place, student accommodation with possibly a dance hall........a dance hall that was already there that with decent management and refurbishment could, and should in my view, have remained.  I appreciate you have to build today for the history of the future but that should not mean bulldozing buildings that are already part of our history.

Carol Burge ● 5173d

I'm not sure about architecturally but in terms of cost and convenience definitely. Easier to park near that Westfield and a few pounds cheaper which does add up if you are going with the family. They have also cleared up their act - haven't seen a rat in there for ages!

Paul Corcoran ● 5175d

That's a fair point but this end of King Street seems to be dying anyway and I'm not sure how much the cinema is helping. With more of its customers going to Westfield the downturn has already started. Has the proposed development got any retail space in it - if there were some decent shops then perhaps things would perk up generally.

Ellen Kearney ● 5176d

My view is that it is critical that this cinema stays. So many small businesses - cafes and restaurants - are very dependent on the footfall it brings and I know many of them find it a real struggle even at the moment. If the cinema closes you'll get more shuttered shops at this end of King Street and the luxury flats will become effectively a gated community.

Karen Cooper ● 5176d