A local cinema is very important in my opinion.I expect you’re very surprised to hear that statement coming from someone who usually writes on this blog as a lounging vegetable. But, you see, I haven’t always been a couch potato – circumstances have made me that way, and if you read on, you’ll discover why.But first of all, check out the reasons why I think every every community should have its own picture palace:- It offers a value-for-money night out, and we’re all tightening the purse strings.- If it’s within walking distance, it’s good for the environment too.- Regular cinema-goers increase the footfall in the local community, and hence trade in neighbouring shops, cafes, bars and restaurants.
- Both a meeting point and a point of reference, a local cinema encourages social and cultural interaction with fellow residents.
- Local cinemas are great for the film industry. One of the reasons I’ve opted for a life of home entertainment is that I hate multiplexes and to visit a decent cinema of an evening involves compromising my safety travelling home when there are fewer trains.- Local cinemas are great for local filmmakers because they provide a place to screen their movies and generate a buzz around their work.
- If all the locals are flocking to the flicks nearby, couch potatoes like me will be more inclined to get off their backsides to join them.- And, last but not least, local cinemas offer escapism from today’s harsh economic climate, just like in that Woody Allen classic The Purple Rose of Cairo.
I’m sure you can think of many more reasons of your own. What’s most important to you? A chance to sing-along-a-Mamma Mia! with the local traders? The opportunity to discuss the latest Harry Potter movie with your commuting colleagues at the bus stop? The possibility that you might get a chance to enjoy watching that stroppy barmaid from your favourite pub jumping out of her skin at the latest slasher flick?
Who knows, but, the fact is, it’s all very well me painting a rosy picture of neighbourhood picturehouses, but how many towns these days actually have one?Not many.When I was a teenager, I often used to pop to the cinema during a day pottering around town. That was in my hometown in Lancashire, a town now on its knees, having lost its cinema years ago, as well as everything else that creates a sense of community and keeps locals spending locally. Maybe you’ve experienced something similar in your neck of the woods?
Decent cinemas are few and far between, and like dementors, multiplexes have sucked all the joy out of cinema-going. I hate that multiplex ordeal, involving a depressing car ride or unpleasant bus ride to a faceless retail park with overpriced and oversized refreshments, feral kids with phones, unwelcoming popcorn-scented auditoriums, and no sense of occasion.At present, in my neighbourhood of Crystal Palace in South East London, we have no cinema.
To see a film on the big screen involves getting into a car, or onto a bus or train. We residents of Crystal Palace love to support our local shops, bars and restaurants and there’s a great sense of community – unusual for London. However, when we want to go to the pictures, we’re forced to leave our beloved town and inevitably end up spending our ’going out money’ on drinks, meals and such like elsewhere.
It’s incredibly frustrating because we actually have a building in our town centre with planning permission for cinema use and it was recently put up for sale when it finally had its day as a bingo hall.Furthermore, Picturehouse Cinemas were (and still are – check out their Picturehouse Cinemas blog) very interested in this property, which was originally built as a cinema – the Rialto – back in the 1920s. They put in an offer in fact, but were outbid by a wealthy evangelical church who intend to use the building to serve a congregation living miles away in Wimbledon.
This is how I looked when I heard this news:
These canny buyers have to get planning permission for church use first of course, but they may well receive it. If they do, it’s unlikely that their congregation will stick around to eat and drink in the town after attending the services. Furthermore, our already congested high streets will become even more congested, and the environment will suffer from the hundreds of cars travelling the eight miles from Wimbledon to the church every week.
And of course the Crystal Palace residents will have to continue to spend their money elsewhere when they fancy a night at the flicks.Not only that, but if the planning permission is granted, the church will become the eighth church in the town – yes, we’re hardly short of churches. The name of the street the building is situated on is Church Road – get the picture?
But, it’s all very well me blaaaing on about the benefits of a local cinema, spinning my sob story about how I became a remote control-wielding slob who only watches films on TV, and voicing my desire for a cinema in my area. For all you know, I may well be the only person who actually cares about this issue.
But I can prove to you that I’m not alone in my longings for a local silver screen.
“If you build it, he will come.” You remember that classic line from the classic 1980s movie Field of Dreams? It rings so true. Since we Crystal Palace residents got wind of the bingo hall purchase we’ve been lining up to petition for that desired movie house. Over 1800 of us to date have signed a petition asking the council to consider allowing a cinema at the site and over 1800 of us have joined the Cinema for Crystal Palace Facebook group.
If you don’t live near London, you probably don’t care too much about my local concerns. But, if you haven’t got a cinema in your town and you’d love to have one, then keep an eye on this issue (you can check out the Picture Palace Campaign website here) because the outcome may well set a precedent for other communities across the UK.What do you think – shouldn’t every community deserve a cinema if they can prove they want one?
Please share your thoughts. It would be great to get a discussion going on this.
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A well run independent cinema would be a real boon for any town. A multi-cultured area like Crystal Palace really needs a space that everyone can have access to regardless of their faith or culture.
Great article, hopefully everyone who agrees will sign the petition and join the facebook group to show their support.
I agree with everything said and could not have written it any better. Crystal Palace is passionate about having a cinema. We have had three in our history plus one in the original Crystal Palace. We are devestated that a church has taken over the most ‘suitable for cinema’ builiding in the area and will strive to right this wrong. They are talking about congregations of 500 plus coming from far away areas. Many will drive here taking up our precious parking spaces and they will have no other interest in our town. Their church could go anywhere else in London. Our cinema can only go in this builiding. I pray that they realise that and take a sympathetic view.
“Sometimes when you believe the impossible the incredible comes true.” We’ll it is not impossible!
I feel trully inspired by this blog Couch Potato and I can tell everyone who supports the cinema campaign that I will personally go the distance to try and bring a cinema back to Crystal Palace and to its rightful home on the site of the old Rialto on Church Road.
I too can remember going to the cinema as a child – I saw Star Wars probably 6 times at our local odeon. Mum took me to see Jaws and Dad used to take me and my best friend to see the James Bond movies. As I got older it was snogging on the back row graduating to smoking on the back row, – those were the days of intervals and ice creams in tubs. Going to the cinema was fun and it was local and you always used to bump into friends – it was an event.
We want to bring back that event and sense of community and shared experience to the people of Crystal Palace.
Please please sign our petition and register your support at the Picture Palace Campaign website http://www.picture-palace.org
I think you are wonderful…
So many points so well made.
I hope a cinema does return to Crystal Palace.
xx
When I was a child there was a real sense of occasion going to the local cinema. I can remember the first film I saw, the Fox and the Hound with my Nan. When I got older, I did Film A-level, so going to the cinema was a regular pastime.
As well as being great for socialising, it also offered an escapist experience from the rigours of everyday life.
I would be delighted to have a cinema in Crystal Palace, as I know the benefits to the community would be immense. Especially a cinema under the CityScreen/Picturehouse brand. They really know how to integrate the cinema with the surrounding community, making not just a place to see a film, but also a social hub offering far more than just your average blockbuster films.
So bring it on, let’s make it happen!
Completely agree with this post, a cinema could be the life and soul of the community, something that people of all ages and backgrounds can use and share.
This has got to happen!
Plucky townsfolk fight for a local cinema against the might of corporate Christianity… tracking shot of a dinosaur being helicoptered over Crystal Palace Park… where’s Fellini when you need him!
Yes, let’s have a cinema.
Agree with everything you say – Crystal Palace needs a cinema, not another church. I urge everyone to write to Bromley Council to lodge an objection against change of use for this site. Can we do it? Yes we can!
Totally agree with all your points. I walked around the triangle last night and the area is crying out for regeneration. The boarded up shop fronts are multiplying and Church St in particular looks like an area that has been abandoned.
The cinema would bring regeneration and more. It would offer a community that has traditionally suffered from straddling so many separate and feuding london councils some welcome cheer.
The last thing SE19 needs is an another church, we aren’t short of places of worship.
I have emailed my local councillors, and the planning people at Bromley – lets make sure they hear our voices!
Wholeheartedly agree with you, Couch Potato. It would be wonderful to have a cinema close to home; it’s a real problem if you work in town – the early performances are too early and the late performances are too late! It would be great also to have a cinema which provided more of a community experience than the soulless, plastic multiplex ordeal you describe. In my home town of Leeds, I used to live close to the wonderful Hyde Park Cinema; I once took my hotwater bottle in when I had tummy ache! It’s still thriving (see http://www.hydeparkpicturehouse.co.uk)
Here’s hoping for Crystal Palace!
Kalina
Contact:
planning@bromley.gov.uk and ask for a consultation letter.
Let’s make it happen! Brixton & Clapham have their Cinemas – an ornament to their communities, time CP had one!
I think that it will be great to have a cinema just up the road from were i live instead of traveling miles to one.
why do they have to put the church there when there are eight other churches around the area and it wont really look right there when a cinema would look perfect.
There’s a great scene in Hannah and Her Sisters that draws some interesting parallels with the Crystal Palace campaign. It’s all about someone searching for enlightenment and peace in faith, when actually it can be found in your local cinema!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftiIPJky_Vs
Thanks so much to everyone for sharing your views on this subject – the desire for a local cinema is clearly very strong.
It’s great also to hear you talking about those films you remember seeing in your local cinema as a child as well as those movies like Hannah and Her Sisters that truly celebrate the cinema experience, so please keep sharing. And come back soon, because I can feel another post on this topic coming on…