Don’t let the renaissance pass Walthamstow by! (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)
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Don’t let the renaissance pass Walthamstow by!
10:09pm Thursday 16th April 2009
By Janet Wright »
This week is crucial in the battle to save Waltham Forest’s last cinema. A candlelit vigil is planned outside the Granada/EMD, in Hoe Street, E17, at 8pm on Saturday 18 April – all welcome to join in, and there will be entertainment afterwards.
Meanwhile, the building’s secretive owners, the UCKG, are allowing visitors to an exhibition of their plans to turn it into a meeting place tonight and tomorrow - Thursday and Friday evenings, the 16th and 17th. Go to St Gabriel's Church and Family Centre in Havant Road, E17 and register your views between 5.30 and 8pm Thursday or Friday 4pm-8pm. For friendly company, many cinema supporters will be going at 7pm on the Friday.
The shame of Alfred Hitchcock’s birthplace losing every one of its cinemas has rallied some big names to the cause. Among these former local residents are award-winning author Meera Syal and actor Tony Robinson, best loved for his role as dim-witted servant Baldrick in the Blackadder series.
As Baldrick’s boss once taunted him about his lack of culture: “To you, the renaissance was just something that happened to other people!” Walthamstow today is in much the same position. Not because we lack any appetite for arts or entertainment, but because Waltham Forest council is actively closing down every venue where we could enjoy them. Where it doesn’t own the venue, as with the cinema and the dog track, the council is allowing owners to change the use to one that makes them more money, at the expense of the local community.
Yet small specialist cinemas like the Granada/EMD have been successfully revived in other parts of London. So join the vigil, visit the exhibition, make your voice heard. Don’t let the renaissance pass Walthamstow by!
Comments(9)
Techno2
says...
5:55pm Fri 17 Apr 09
Janet1
says...
6:14pm Fri 17 Apr 09
I know the council has been threatening to build a multiscreen in the arcade site next door. (I say "threatening" as I wouldn't trust Waltham Forest council to build a garden shed competently.)
Anyone who believes we would end up with a functioning cinema if the council took control of the site, and spent £35 million of our money on it, has to be dreaming.
For evidence, just look at the botched £3.5-million makeover of the central library, which has caused extensive damage to the building. Or the arcade site - now derelict - where the council has failed to get anything built at all during a decade-long boom.
With elections looming, councillors don't want to be seen ignoring the will of their voters. So we need to make it clear that we want our real, existing cinema back in use - not a pie-in-the-sky promise of a multiscreen that will never happen.
Redfox
says...
11:00pm Fri 17 Apr 09
typically for the photo opportunity everyone is seen laughing.
Are they all laughing now at having this image recorded for posterity standing alongside such arch-fiends?
the next article I have preserved is dated 26 Aug, 2004. SImon Wright again "Clyde Loakes appointed me to the cabinet and one of the priorites is to get this town centre regenerated. I live in this ward and am determined to get the centre of Walthamstow as people want it"
Oh, I nearly missed this bit: "Henry Boot has not pulled out at all" another quote, same article.
RichieA70
says...
11:25pm Fri 17 Apr 09
Janet1
says...
12:52am Sat 18 Apr 09
He actually seemed to care about this area, unlike his replacement, Liaquat Ali, who is a waste of space.
Back in 2002, the council refused change-of-use permission to the UCKG and opposed them at the public inquiry. Why has the council changed its stance since then?
Richie - sounds as if Wheeler blurted out more than he'd intended. The multiplex always sounded like pie in the sky. Wheeler's comments mean it's pretty definitely not gong to be built.
So it's the EMD/Granada or nothing.
RichieA70
says...
11:54pm Sat 18 Apr 09
"We have tried to compulsory purchase the cinema but the UK Kingdom of God (it's owners) have played cat and mouse with us and the council's lawyers assure me that it would cost a large amount of money to CPO the building. "
A large sum? £1.4M approx. To fund the arcade including a cinema? £35M+
Janet1
says...
12:57pm Sun 19 Apr 09
The point of a COMPULSORY Purchase Order is that it's compulsory. But in the hands of Waltham Forest council, nothing seems to work the way it's meant to.
This looks like further evidence of incompetence by our hugely paid council officers.
mdj
says...
1:58pm Mon 20 Apr 09
Could that just be because it's a lie? Experience shows that these people say whatever they think will shut you up, fob you off or get you out of the room. Like toddlers trying to be crafty, they seem to have no memory of their
previous statements.
Didn't Mr Sarkar post a film on the web that tried to make it look as if he lived in Streatham, when he was hoping to be adopted as candidate there?
Janet1 says...
10:36pm Thu 16 Apr 09