King Street Cineworld to Close in Mid-April
Building to be demolished as part of King Street redevelopment
Hammersmith's Cineworld cinema will close its doors in mid-April.
The three storey Art Deco cinema, which dates back to the 1930s, is among buildings to be demolished as part of plans for the regeneration of the western end of King Street around the Town Hall.
When the decision to pull down the cinema was first proposed in 2010, it was strongly contested by local residents and a number of leading actors including Colin Firth, Joely Richardson, Dougray Scott, Shameless actor David Threlfall, Carlo Nero, Joely Richardson and Ralph Fiennes, who said: " As one of the last few remaining in London, this is a local building of merit, profitable, and very popular with not just the local community but people from surrounding areas as well.
" It should be preserved for future generations. Any development would not only lead to an irrevocable loss to the spirit of the area, but would also be a blemish on the landscape."
After undergoing a bumpy ride, with the first application given the go ahead by the council then withdrawn in December 2011. After "significant changes" were made by the developers Helical Bar and Grainger, permission for the scheme was granted in 2013.
The mixed-use development will include a new public square, 196 apartments, retail space, restaurant and café space, replacement offices for the local council and a new Curzon cinema at ground/first floor level in the re-modelled Town Hall Extension building. The cinema will comprise three auditoria with a total of 250 seats, together with ancillary space on part of the ground floor where people can gather to collect tickets, buy drinks etc prior to screenings.
A computer generated image of the new cinema is shown below.
Helical Bar says on its website that work is scheduled to start on site "in early 2016".
You can see full details of the King Street regeneration project planning application on the
council's website.
March 2, 2016
March 3, 2016
