lost treasures

24
Cinemas, Theatres and Music Halls of Enfield

Upload: nigel-kellaway

Post on 27-Mar-2016

253 views

Category:

Documents


2 download

DESCRIPTION

An arts project that recreated some of Enfield’s fantastic buildings using the medium of mosaic.

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Lost Treasures

Cinemas, Theatres and Music Halls of Enfield

Page 2: Lost Treasures

1

The Alcazar Moree Way, Edmonrton 51°36’56.51”N 0° 3’53.11”W

5

The Empire Music Hall Edmonton Green 51°37’28.78”N 0° 3’33.88”W

2

The Bycullah Athenaeum Enfield Civic Centre 51°39’16.14”N 0° 4’47.63”W

6

The Premier Eastfield Road, Enfield 51°40’0.33”N 0° 2’29.68”W

3

The Coronation Grove Rd, Arnos Grove 51°36’57.79”N 0° 8’30.97”W

7

Queens Hall (Florida) Genotin Road Car Park 51°39’2.15”N 0° 4’46.67”W

4

The Edmonton Theatre Grove Street, Tottenham 51°36’38.60”N 0° 4’0.75”W

8

The Regal Outside Lidl, Sterling Way51°36’52.19”N 0° 3’54.06”W

The Mosaic Locations

The map shows where the mosaics can be found in the London Borough of Enfield.

Where possible the mosaics have been installed as close to the building that they represent as is possible.

6

7

3

4

8

1

5

4

The Premier Two Lines about max Second Line

8

The Bycullah Athenaeum Two Lines about max Second Line

The Coordinates listed can be used with Google Maps or Google Earth to accurately locate the mosaics

Page 3: Lost Treasures

In June 2009, Art Start applied to the Heritage Lottery Fund for funding to recreate some of Enfield’s fantastic buildings using the medium of mosaic.

Schools were identified as those that were close to the original buildings with children aged 10 years upwards invited to participate in the project.

Five Primary and one secondary school agreed to take part in the project as follows.

St John & St James Primary School Edmonton. Brettenham Primary School Edmonton. Latymer All Saints Primary School Edmonton. St Edmunds RC Primary School Edmonton. Chesterfield Primary School Enfield. St Annes RC Secondary School Enfield.

The buildings were chosen because of their striking architecture or significant events. They are;

The Alcazar The Bycullah Atheneaum The Coronation The Edmonton Theatre The Empire Music Hall The Premier Queens Hall (Florida) The Regal

Page 4: Lost Treasures

“These new public mosaics give Enfield and particularly Edmonton a great sense of character and provide people with a little bit of local history as they go about their daily lives. Art Start has done a great job involving local school children in the creation of the artworks – they certainly had a lot of fun making the mosaics and learnt about the heritage of their local areas at the same time. I am really proud to have been able to support this project and seeing the finished results around the borough is fantastic.”

Andy Love MP

This project would not have been possible without the help of:

Enfield Local Studies UnitEnfield HomesSt Modwen PLCLondon Borough of Enfield

“Lidl are proud to participate in a project which will postively benefit our customers and the local community.”

Page 5: Lost Treasures

The Mosaics

Page 6: Lost Treasures

The Alcazar

The Alcazar Cinematograph Theatre opened on 28th June 1913 with “The Battle of Waterloo”. It was part of an entertainment complex which included an enclosed Winter Gardens, which had a palm court and provision for dancing, and an outdoor Summer Gardens as well as a roller skating rink and a tea room.

Demand for seats at the opening was so great, that the 1,700 seat Alcazar Cinematograph Theatre was filled to capacity and seating had to be placed in the Winter Gardens to take the overflow.

The building was designed like a Moorish palace, with a covered verandah stretching 140 feet along the facade at first floor level. The auditorium ran parallel to Fore Street,

with the main entrance at the northern end, and an entrance at the southern end for the cheap seats beside the screen. Inside the auditorium seating was provided in stalls and circle levels.

The Alcazar Picture Theatre was closed when it was hit by German bombs in the early hours of the morning of 23rd August 1940, which destroyed the dance hall and one wall of the cinema, causing the roof of the auditorium to cave in. Further damage was done by a V1 flying rocket which landed nearby in October 1944.

The remains were demolished and the site stood derelict until the 1960’s, when the local council built a small parade of shops with flats above, and houses at the rear on the site of the Summer Garden.

Created by Art Start working with year 6 pupils from Latymer All Saints Primary School

Page 7: Lost Treasures
Page 8: Lost Treasures

The Bycullah Atheneaum

The Bycullah Atheneaum was a popular venue for those seeking entertainment, where plays and concerts were regularly performed by local drama and music societies from 1883 until it was destroyed by fire in 1931.

Before the First World War, lantern lectures were often held there and in the early years of this century films were an occasional feature of the evenings entertainment.

Little written information is available however some fascinating photographs illustrate this wonderful lost theatre.

Created by Art Start working with help from local people, Adriana, Marlen, Kieran, Amanda, Lyncia and Talia

Page 9: Lost Treasures
Page 10: Lost Treasures

The Coronation

“…plans have been submitted fro an electric picture palace theatre in High Road, New Southgate.”

This entry in the Southgate Recorder during 1910 heralded the construction of the Coronation cinema which opened at the end of 1911. The

owners were Mrs May and Mr Hopkins.

Inside were two aisles, both carpeted with about six seats to a row on the outside blocks and a few more in the centre block. At the rear was a small raised box holding four seats in two pairs – this was the ’balcony’. The walls were divided into panels by

lines of simple plasterwork and in the centre of each panel was an ornate gas bracket. The predominate colour was pink.

With the coming of the ‘Talkies’ no attempt was made to convert the Coronation to sound. Instead another cinema – the New Coronation – was built next door. The old cinema became a dance hall until the start of the Second World War when it later became a factory producing powder puffs. The building was still standing in 1966 but was demolished soon afterwards.

Created by Art Start with help from local people, Bujar, Mikey, Jakub, Naomi, El-Bethel, Gabriel, Dawit, Susan, Tiguist, Ariana, Louise, Sarah and Emilio

Page 11: Lost Treasures
Page 12: Lost Treasures

The Edmonton Theatre

‘The Theatric Tourist’ published in 1805 includes a reference to the Edmonton Theatre ”which is a barn recently erected.”

A print of the theatre shows a small, obviously purpose built theatre standing gable-end to the road. The view of its side wall reveals it to have

been a timber-framed structure with a stone or, more likely, stucco front, with a classic porch and where an upper window suggests the presence of a gallery.

This local theatre did not find favour with the Trustees of the Girls Charity School, Edmonton as shown in a

minute of a meeting held on 2nd July 1804; “That if any girl belonging to this school shall on any pretext whatsoever, visit the Edmonton Theatre, that she be immediately dismissed.”

The Edmonton Theatre, whose manager at this time was named Osborne, was used by a small company of players who also performed at Woolwich, Enfield, Epping, Barnet or any village in the vicinity of London.

The Edmonton Theatre had a short life and it had disappeared by 1825.

Created by Art Start working with year 6 pupils from St John & St James Primary School

Page 13: Lost Treasures
Page 14: Lost Treasures

The Empire Music Hall

The Edmonton Empire was built as a music hall in 1908 and was the venue for Marie Lloyd’s last performance in 1922. It was rebuilt internally in 1933 to be a cinema. It was situated on the east side of New Road towards the south end and many people knew New Road as “Empire Hill”.

In 1951 it became the Granada but like many others entered a period of decline and ended up housing wrestling and bingo before being closed in 1968 and demolished in 1970. The Wurlitzer 3 manual, 10 rank organ is now in St Albans Organ Museum.

Matilda Alice Victoria Wood (12 February 1870 - 7 October 1922) was an English music hall singer, best known as Marie Lloyd. Her ability to add lewdness to the most innocent of lyrics led to frequent clashes with

the then guardians of morality. Her performances articulated disappoint-ments of life, especially for working-class women.

On 4 October 1922 she was appearing at the Empire Music Hall, Edmonton. During the last song in her act I’m One of the Ruins That Cromwell Knocked About a Bit, she staggered about on the stage. The audience laughed delightedly when she fell, thinking it was all part of the act. However, she was desperately ill, and died three days later on 7 October.

Created by Art Start working with year 6 pupils from St. Edmunds Roman Catholic Primary School

Page 15: Lost Treasures

The Empire Music Hall

Page 16: Lost Treasures

The Premier

In January 1921 the hitherto neglected residents on the eastern side of Enfield were provided with their own cinema. The Premier, on the corner of Eastfield Road and Hertfor Road, Enfield Wash, was built as a speculative venture by Mr W. Grenfell, a local builder.

The cinema was opended at 2pm on 17th January 1921 by Mr George Ketteringham, Vice Chairman of the Cheshunt Urban District Council when he addressed an audience of nearly 700 people.

In 1930 a Weston Electric sound system was installed and was considered by many to provide the finest acoustics in any cinema.

Mr Larry Hyde recalls his keen interest in the Premier which was his local cinema and from the age of twelve he spent a great deal of his time there. In 1946 at the age of 16 he started work at the Premier as a boy projectionist and he worked there for about three years. The staff at this were dressed in red uniforms.

Closure came on 19th April 1961. It then became a bingo club which lasted until early in 1985 when the building suddenly closed and was quickly demolished.

Created by Art Start working with year 5 pupils from Chesterfield Primary School

Page 17: Lost Treasures
Page 18: Lost Treasures

Queens Hall (Florida)

The Queen’s Hall Cinema opened on 11th November 1911, originally with 650 seats on one floor. It was independently operated and was the first purpose-built cinema in the area. In 1928 the cinema’s seating was increased to 1,300 with the installation of a circle. A tea lounge/cafe was also one of the facilities on offer.

It sustained some damage during an air raid in 1940 and was closed, becoming a government Ministry of Food store. After the war it was taken over by Davies Cinemas Ltd. and re-named the Florida Cinema, re-opening on 19th May 1947 with the seating capacity reduced to 878.

The Florida cinema closed on 17th December 1976, the final films shown were “Sky Riders” with James Coburn

and “Peeper” starring Michael Caine.

The building was converted into a banqueting hall and function suite known as The Town House. Its last use was as a nightclub named the Townhouse Leisure Lounge which closed on 31st January 2004. It was demolished in early 2005.

Created by Art Start working with year 8 pupils from St. Anne’s Catholic High School for Girls

Page 19: Lost Treasures
Page 20: Lost Treasures

The Regal Edmonton

The Regal, Edmonton, which opened on 8th March 1934, was one of the five mammoth cinemas built in Middlesex and was said to occupy the largest site of any cinema in the world.

There was seating for 3,000 persons with standing room for another 1,000.

In the building there was a café and a large ballroom which had its own stage for an orchestra and of course

there were all the attendant features provided by these modern cinemas: cloak rooms, a fully equipped first aid room etc.

By the 1960s falling attendances meant that much of the seating was redundant and in 1968 it was divided internally between a small cinema holding 1200 people and a bingo hall for 1850 people and re-named The Sundown Theatre. The cinema lasted for a few years but eventually

closed down in 1972. Bingo continued for another twelve years and the café and ballroom were used as the Regal Banquetting Suite.

During its lifetime some of the most famous performers in the world played there including: The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, The Who, Bob Marley and the Wailers and T. Rex.

Created by Art Start working with year 5 pupils from Brettenham Primary School

Page 21: Lost Treasures
Page 22: Lost Treasures
Page 23: Lost Treasures

Art Start started in 1997 as a small organisation providing after school activities for children in Edmonton Green Shopping Centre.

Over the past 13 years Art Start has grown into Enfield’s primary community arts provider working in schools and the community and taking part in high profile festivals and events both locally and regionally.

Art Start exists to give all members of the community access to high quality arts activities.

Art Start is a registered charity number 1096634

Page 24: Lost Treasures

Art Start11 South Way

Claverings EstateMontagu Road

EdmontonN9 0AB

www.artstart.org.uk

[email protected] 020 8345 5369

‘producing excellencethrough creativity’