We took time out to visit a couple of local Buildings during the Open House week, The Ram Quarter and Tooting Granada Cinema.
The Ram Quarter is a nice scheme by EPR architects and the hour long tour helped explain the masterplan and historical aspects of the site. Original 3d marketing renders showed the main central square having life, shops and vibrancy. Sadly the present government visa office has removed this option – but in time things may change.
Tooting’s Granada Cinema, now BuzzBingo, is a joy to behold. So much to learn including how the Wurlitzer organ sadly ceased to work only 2 weeks after the opening in 1931 – due to a major flood in the area. The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Roy Orbison and many more played to crowds back in the heyday here. Grade 1 Listed now – it was initially listed as Grade 2* when the cinema closed in 1973 but upgraded due to the high quality and extent of retained internal finishes. Herein a link to the Historic England listing. We had to paste in the below text to emphasize just how amazing this place really is – go see next year!
“A world class cinema – without doubt the most lavishly decorated interior of any cinema in Britain and among the most lavish in Europe; the finest evocation of the sumptuous movie palaces of the 1920s and 1930s, the flagship of the Granada circuit.”
The internal ceilings mouldings and the hall of mirrors are quite astounding.
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1357668?section=official-list-entry