Restored 1930s cinema to be reinvented as London comedy club

Αναδημοσίευση από The Guardian

It was a cinema where Alfred Hitchcock once watched movies and was later a venue for the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and, on his only British tour in 1958, Buddy Holly.

After years of dereliction and decay, ambitious plans have been announced to reinvent the building as what its backers say will be the UK’s finest comedy venue – a 1,000-seat space at the end of the Victoria line in north-east London.

The building is an art deco-inspired former cinema in the centre of Walthamstow, which this week opened up for a day of public tours.

Martin Esom, the chief executive of Waltham Forest council, said: “We’ve managed to clear out all the pigeons so it is pigeon-free today. I can’t say about tomorrow.”

Anyone looking at the white, tatty front of the building from the street would have little idea of just how big it is and how far it goes back. Inside, there is a lot of peeling paint and clear signs of neglect, but a wealth of original features remain in what once was billed as “Walthamstow’s wonder theatre” with 2,700 seats when it opened in 1930.

The council has bought it for £2.8m and estimates it will cost £17m to restore, renovate and reopen.

It is in partnership with Soho theatre, which will operate the building. The plan is for music, theatre, circus, an annual panto and the odd red carpet independent cinema opening, but “the key and most important element to our vision is comedy”, said Soho theatre’s creative director, David Luff.

“We have an opportunity to create the very best venue in the country for comedy, a beautifully restored, bespoke, fitted-out, 1,000-seat venue. A theatre in which every seat is a good seat at affordable prices, a venue that will create amazing intimacy between performer and audience and one big enough to bring in the very best of world comedy,” Luff said.