Crystal Palace – great place for a Picturehouse
It is no secret that Picturehouse Cinemas are always on the look out for new sites. We tend to add a cinema to the group once every one or two years so we’re always sniffing around for suitable venues in locations we think would benefit from an excellent local cinema. Crystal Palace Bingo Hall was just such a place and so we put in our offer. Unfortunately, on this, as on many occasions, we were pipped to the post. Truth be told, we were outbid. A shame really, but it’s happened before and it will no doubt happen again. End of the story, you win some you lose some, etc. etc.
Or so we thought. It turns out a few of the locals would rather have a new local cinema than a new church (the successful bidders for the site) and they’ve started a petition (1040 signatures) as well as a blog and even a Facebook group (1057 members). We are truly inspired by grassroots enthusiasm for a new Picturehouse cinema. Of course, this enthusiasm for a cinema is not necessarily for the Picturehouse variety, but we are flattered nevertheless.
Don’t just be flattered and give up.
What the Picturehouse cinema offers is exactly what people are hoping for.
You’d be on a winner!!
Picture House we need you..Crystal Palace needs a picture house. All we have near by is the crappy odeon in beckenham.
There is huge local support for this cinema in Crystal Palace. We don’t want another church – we want a cinema!
If the church is refused planning permission please try again.
We don’t need another church to add to the 7 or 8 that already exist. We need a cinema!! I’m tempted to put my own bid in, if only I knew how.
cp would welcome you with open arms- please come
We don’t just want any cinema, we want a Picturehouse Cinema, they’re the best in London, and Crystal Palace is just the sort of area for one.
There is another empty building next to the Gala Bingo building which could also have the potential.
You would get a lot of support from people in the area and surrounding areas. Please come to Palace!!
I wouldn’t be signing a petition for a Vue multiplex – I’m signing in the hope of a Ritzy-on-the-Palace!
I can only concur with the other comments. When I lived in Brixton the Ritzy was a mainstay: well run, a genuine hub of local interest as well as a commercially viable business that attracted people to the area. This is exactly what the Crystal Palace area is crying out for, I’d love to have you in the area!
Picturehouse Cinema would be a perfect fit for CP. I’m sure opening in the area would prove not only to be of great benefit to the community but also a sound commercial decision.
Just as everyone before me has said and no doubt everyone else thinks – it’s a Picturehouse Cinema we’re crying out for. It would do wonders to the surrounding area and there’s certainly no shortage of people to make it a commercially viable business.
Please keep trying! Brixton is too far to travel for a comfy cinema seat and a tasty toastie and cappuccino…
Also, there’s now 1800 online signatures and 1200 paper signatures!
Please come and join us in CP!
Here here. Eight churches and no cinema?! I think he have a clear inbalance here.
I don’t normally join groups and write posts on things but I feel strongly that a picture house would be great for CP.
Thank you for all the positive comments. Really encouraging to see that a Picturehouse Cinema what be so welcome in Crystal Palace. Now then, to secure that elusive venue!
Please keep fighting for a cinema in crystal palace.
The art deco building is lovely, and as an area it is crying out for a picture house cinema!
its not just the locals that it would benefit, its the surrounding area, who (like me) are members of places like clapham. If it was in SE london, we would be able to go a lot more!
I think it would be a busy cinema, not to mention when the east london line comes in this time next year!
having lived in Brixton and been a member of the Ritzy, I think your company coming to Crystal Palace would be a real bonus for the community.
When I lived in Brighton, I went weekly to the Duke of York (walking distance). When I lived in Edinburgh I went to the Picturehouse. Now I’m in East Dulwich, I’d love a Picturehouse cinema up the hill in Crystal Palace (cycling distance).
I’ll be filing a formal objection to the church/change of use plans (I’m now an old hand at planning battles), and starting a Pledgebank pledge to get others to do the same. I’m already trawling through the Bromley Local Plan to gather evidence for the objection.
By the way, there are now 2,252 on the Facebook group, and over 2,100 petition signatories online (plus the paper petition). And we have only just begun!
My comment will only echo most of the above, I lived in Brixton and used to walk to the Ritzy I then lived in Clapham and walked to the Picturehouse, I have lived in Crystal Palace for 7 years and have stopped going to the cinema because of the inconvenience of having to travel either back to Brixton or Clapham or to a mainstream Multi-plex in Beckenham, Croydon, Streatham or Bromley. I usually don’t sign petitions but I too would love to have a Crystal Palace Picturehouse.
purlease it would be good for the neighbouring areas such as west dulwich also!
As the previous commenter put it, please don’t give up! Please persevere, you will be most welcome in this area.
Please do it! We’d love not to have to come over to Brixton or Greenwich!
It’s simple…
Cinema = Inclusive
Church = Exclusive
Lets give Crystal Palace something the WHOLE community can be a part of.
Shall we pray?
I’m sure you are aware of the previously planned multiplex in the Crystal Palace Park that was to involve UCI. A huge campaign ensued and the people in the end won and the cinema and hideous building were not to be. I was overjoyed at that result having been one of the campaigners myself.
Now we see so many local residents begging for a cinema just a few hundred metres from the site of the one they were all so against! A Picturehouse cinema in the old art deco cinema built by George Coles in 1928.
I would say that this means that this enthusiasm for a cinema IS necessarily for the Picturehouse variety, wouldn’t you?
So you have every right to feel very flattered but if you have any passion for what you do (which you surely must do as it would be easy to make profits in this field without reclaiming original buildings and returning them to their former glory) then this site surely would be one that you would be prepared to fight for.
Opening a Picturehouse at Church Road wouldn’t just be another Picturehouse cinema but a symbol of just how appreciated you are by the cinema goers of London and how they want this variety of cinema in their local areas over the cold and sad mainstream multiplex varieties. Surely something you cannot afford to turn your back upon.
Oh and there are now 3594 signatures to the petition and 4240 members of the Facebook Group and still growing. An opportunity I think many would think you mad to ignore.
If you really have chosen to forget about the Church Road building please do let us know your reasons. It will be so sad not to see it re-embellished and re-used just as it was intended.
there is also a large building in Forest Hill which used to be a cinema many years ago. It is now a Weatherspoons Pub – I think that would be a perfect resurrection.
@Melvin
He he
My response is
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”
Apparently, that’s from Matthew. (You learn something every day.)
So I’d say do stuff to make it happen would seem to be the message.
(I’m doing some big asks right now, of the six degrees of Kevin Bacon variety. Slightly scary.)
I have just left a comment on Boris Johnson’s forum ‘ask Boris’. he can over rule local planning consent. Why don’t we all ask Boris? Matt
What more can I say? 25 Church Rd is the perfect spot for a Picturehouse Cinema in Crystal Palace, it would be great for local businesses and residents and a shame to miss such a great opportunity don’t you think?
Church Road needs it, Crystal Palace needs it, The people need it!
No longer would we have to trudge over to Beckenham with it’s boring chain restaurants and boring cinema and boring 358 journey,power to the people power to the cinema…do it, do it NOW!
Sly and Reggie are thinking of you in these trying times..wheres Dawkins when you need him!
Come to Crystal Palace please, we all want a Picturehouse cinema here, it’s that kind of place.
Please come to Crystal Palace, it’s far away from the other Picturehouses and the area has good rail and bus connections. It’s a Picturehouse kind of place, as in the words of Rachel.
If we don’t get a Picturehouse, there’s going to be a Palace Revolution!
louise is right!!