Greenwich cinemas -before the Granada

 

Greenwich - other cinemas

I thought this week that I ought to give you another break from all my endless articles about Greenwich’s water supply and Brookmill waterworks – and there’s a lot more to come!

A couple of weeks ago I did a piece about the opening of the Greenwich Granada Cinema in the 1930s down in Trafalgar Road.  I thought to myself then about all the cinemas that had opened here before the Great War. In Greenwich two of them survived the Second World War and lasted into the 1960s. Anyway, I thought perhaps I should write something about them – just about Greenwich itself.  Woolwich is another, very long, story and so is Eltham – and there were others in areas in between.  

And, yes, I am aware that there are some real experts on old cinemas out there who will see all my mistakes. So - please correct me if what I say is wrong,

There is a very good website on old cinemas, despite being American - Cinema Treasures - which apparently aims to list every cinema that ever was, worldwide. (https://cinematreasures.org/ )   On their main page for Greenwich, London, England, they list eleven – three of which are still in business as cinemas, plus Greenwich Theatre.   It then lists those cinemas which have functioned for a while and then closed.

In 1912 you would have had a lot of choice in which cinema to visit. There were also many other cinemas opening in Deptford, New Cross and Woolwich - and everywhere else.  Some of them don’t seem to have lasted very long.  I don’t know what proportion of the local population went out to them.  Clearly early cinemas were a very big thing but there must have been some people who never ever went to them. But did too many open at once?

One of the earliest Greenwich cinema openings of 1912 was in what had been ‘Morton’s Theatre’.   There are many press reports of Morton’s. For instance one story from 1898 describes a crowded house on a Wednesday evening for a show which includes a pantomime “Red Riding Hood" and songs from someone who I think may not be the actual real Marie Lloyd.  William Morton came out and spoke to the audience. He said that they were closing for a while but hoped people would return to their new building which would be ‘thoroughly up-to-date.’  The theatre was then rebuilt but the audience did not really return.

Morton’s was in Greenwich High Road on part of the site which became Greenwich Park Station and is now the Ibis Hotel, Rivington's, and, of course,  the Picturehouse Cinema.  After the rebuild it was known as The Theatre, then as the Carlton Theatre, then the Greenwich Theatre. There were various new managements, with plans for variety, and other entertainment, and it all proved a failure.  In 1912 it became the Greenwich Cinema de Luxe, described as a ‘high-class picture theatre’. They aimed to attract a 'better class of people' who would visit and then come again. They also had a ‘bijou orchestra’.  One advert is for a ‘stupendous attraction ... on the 20th inst., to wit ‘The Fighting Parson’.  Within as a year the newspaper stories are about bankruptcy and court hearings. However, films were still advertised there in 1919.

The ‘Greenwich Electric Theatre’ opened in 1912 at 29 Bridge Street (aka Creek Road) which was allegedly an old Chapel. It was also known as ‘Chapman’s Pictures’ after its manager.  No 29 was the Lord Hood public house, now Vaxime. Next to it was St.Peter’s Hall – now home of the Greenwich Comedy Club and obviously an old chapel. St.Peter’s Church was on the other side of Creek Road and did not close until Second World War bombing.  I know no more about this cinema, but one other 1912 opening was the Trafalgar Cinema – and I’ll return to that in a moment.

The ‘Electric Fun Palace’  opened in 1913. It was in Greenwich Church Street on the corner with Creek Road and it was the building which is now called ‘Desperadoes’.  It was said to have an imposing frontage and seating for 1000, which seems to be a lot for what appears to her a smallish site.  However, the 1914 map shows a big building going back to Lamb Lane at the rear. It is said to always been known as 'The Blue Lights' – I have no ideas why and would be interested in suggestions.  Press reports of its opening suggest that it is also a reopening but I can find no reference to an earlier bulldog.  I’ll  return to it also in a moment.

The final cinema which opened in 1913 was the building we now know as Greenwich Theatre.  It had been used as a theatre and musical hall for some time and its re-opening as the ‘Greenwich Hippodrome Cinema’ was most likely an attempt to keep the building in popular use. It didn’t last and soon closed, despite having between show acts of escapologists and the like.   Interestingly Cinema Treasures lists it as a cinema currently open, although not showing films.

There are two further cinemas  mentioned by Cinema Treasures but for neither can I find any reference in the local press. Cinema Treasures seem to have sourced their information from Police licensing records and lists in trade magazines but any cinema looking for an audience would need to advertise itself in the local papers.  One of the cinemas they list as ‘Greenwich Market Cinema’ but admit they could find no location for it.  The other reference is to what they describe as the ‘London Bioscope’ which they say was in Trafalgar Road in the shop which is now Collins Cleaners.  ‘London Bioscope’ was a company rather than the name of a specific venue which did work of great interest, including a trade journal and staff training courses.  However, whatever they did in Trafalgar Road in 1913-14 was not widely advertised, if at all.  It was also short lived because by 1915 a Penny Bazaar was operating from the building.

To return to the Electric Fun Palace and the Trafalgar Cinema  Both survived the Second World War, albeit under changed names ,becoming the Empire Theatrre and the Odeon..

 

The Electric Fun Palace was converted into the Empire Theatre during the Great War and survived until around 1945.  In 1913 it had promised that ‘the highest class of film only will be shown ... presenting that magnificent and unique film.... entitled "Quo Vadis? “  It claimed to compare with any ‘superior suburban theatre with admission prices at two pence, four pence and sixpence and ‘young lady attendants wear ‘Quaker dresses’.’   In 1917 they held beauty competitions for ‘young ladies”.and  were regularly collecting for wartime charities – with special reference to St. Dunstan’s. There showed many Chaplin films.  I remember my mother hose only memories of the silent films of her teens seemed only to be of’ ‘our Charlie’..

 

The Odeon was on the corner of Maze Hill and Trafalgar Road and even the new building there now looks a bit like a cinema – although old photographs show a building with a fancy tower and a dome above the corner entrance. It could seat 815 patrons originally all on one floor. At first it operated as an ‘independent’ but in 1934 was taken over by the D.J. James circuit. A great many changes ensued making it virtually a new building.   Inside a balcony was added, taking the seating capacity up to 1,400.  Variety shows were often part of the programme and it had a 20 feet deep stage and two dressing rooms.  In 1945 it was taken over by Odeon Theatres Ltd and was renamed ‘Odeon’. It eventually closed in 1960. 

 

I don’t remember the Odeon as a cinema at all. Cinema Treasures says it became a car showroom and then a supermarket. What I do remember is that the supermarket acquired all the unsold stock of an upmarket Piccadilly grocer which had gone out of business.  The shelves were stocked with expensive delicacies at knockdown prices!  My cupboard at home was soon full of exotic pickles, fancy fruit jam and fruit cake in tins oozing with expensiveness. When that ran out they started selling job lots with a line in one-legged turkeys.  And why not?  The building was semi demolished in the 1990s and became flats and offices in 2004.

I suspect this story of Greenwich cinemas could be repeated all round the country.  Early on small music halls and theatres converted into cinemas, others opened in unsuitable buildings and both likely to have inexperienced or ignorant management- closing after four or five years.  Those Greenwich cinemas which survived past the Second World War had been joined in the 1930s by the Greenwich Granada, which I wrote about the other week.

We now have many screens in the Dome and in the new Odeon, just off Bugsby’s Way.  In central Greenwich there is the Picturehouse which was partly set up as the result of a campaign following the closure of the Roxy/ABC. The Roxy was outside Greenwich town centre at Blackheath Standard so perhaps it is story for another day.