I’ve been meaning to elaborate on my earlier posts for a long….. long time. I have a few videos taken during the last months of The London Experience. These are unfortunately on Video 8 tape format and I no longer have a player. I did manage to convert some of the tapes to digital and have put them on You Tube at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfenFFYN-C8&t=390s
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8fBx5CjzBk
I do have a copy of the souvenir program somewhere but can’t find it just now. However, I have scans of an article from Audio Visual magazine for August 1977 which describes the original London Experience. And a cutting of unknown origin which mentions the same. Also scanned a flyer and complimentary admission ticket for the “new” London Experience". These can be viewed here:
I can probably answer most questions about the later L.E. I still have manuals for most of the equipment used somewhere have schematics. I was projectionist, technician and duty manager for about five years until it was forced to close due to Trocadero re-development.
Not truly a cinema but it did show a movie…… albeit the same one over and over about 20 times a day.
I joined The London Experience as a projectionist / technician in 1983, or was it 1984? Shortly after it opened.(Old man, memory problems)
There were five 3m x 3m screens, side by side. Each screen served by six Kodak 2010 carousel projectors loaded with 46mm superslides and retro fitted with auto lamp changers. Each bank of six projectors was controlled by an Electrosonic “box” which could step forward or back, home the carousel and fade the lamp at controlled speeds. Rapidly stepping and fading all of the projectors could produce an impressive “moving” effect. There was a movie projector. A Philips, Kineton FP20 fitted with an anamorphic lens covered the centre three screens. 35mm filmstock ran in an endless loop, starting and stopping at various points in the presentation and blended with the carousel content. Optical stereo sound from the film was mixed with a five channel soundtrack (FL,C,FR,RL,RR)from a Studer A80 (1", 8 track)tape machine. Six 18" JBL speakers lurked behind the screens with two more at the rear of the auditorium. Amplification was four Quad 405-2 and an Ampex (or was it Ampeg?)Two 36" EV speakers in custom housings provided bass effects such as WW2 bombs. A theatre lighting rig provided further effects with photoflashes and flame and cloud effects which would be projected over the entire auditorium. Add a smoke machine for fog and smoke effects. A single button push started the show with everything from that point controlled by data tracks on the Studer.The presentation lasted 35 minutes. Tape auto rewound and everything synced ready restart 5 minutes later.
The last year of it’s life was blighted by jackhammers and a leaky roof caused by construction work as the building was extended upwards. Finally closed in 1989 but by that time in dire need of content upgrade. My last job was decommissioning and removing everything. I’ll find a few key photos and post them somewhere.
I heard that “The Ritz Club” may also have had problems due to the London hotel of the same name objecting to the use of the name.
Slightly off topic regarding it’s cinematic heritage but of architectural / historical interest. A swimming pool was created in the basement of the building and still mostly exists. The beer cellar is in the pool itself, with the lower half of the walls still clad in small ceramic tiles. There are a number of hatches in the upper half of the wall giving access to the poolside which is largely untouched. A hatch in the cold cellar opens into one end of the pool where the round spa or jacuzzi can be seen.
I’ve been meaning to elaborate on my earlier posts for a long….. long time. I have a few videos taken during the last months of The London Experience. These are unfortunately on Video 8 tape format and I no longer have a player. I did manage to convert some of the tapes to digital and have put them on You Tube at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfenFFYN-C8&t=390s and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8fBx5CjzBk
I do have a copy of the souvenir program somewhere but can’t find it just now. However, I have scans of an article from Audio Visual magazine for August 1977 which describes the original London Experience. And a cutting of unknown origin which mentions the same. Also scanned a flyer and complimentary admission ticket for the “new” London Experience". These can be viewed here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15c_mGmPNMQrc37OLSicAy9N0f-t65Rrd?usp=sharing
I can probably answer most questions about the later L.E. I still have manuals for most of the equipment used somewhere have schematics. I was projectionist, technician and duty manager for about five years until it was forced to close due to Trocadero re-development.
Credit to Kevin Wheelan. Above links to his pics.
You have one of those in your garage? Nice…
A little info about its bingo days and some pics here.
View link
A couple of pics here.
View link
Not truly a cinema but it did show a movie…… albeit the same one over and over about 20 times a day.
I joined The London Experience as a projectionist / technician in 1983, or was it 1984? Shortly after it opened.(Old man, memory problems)
There were five 3m x 3m screens, side by side. Each screen served by six Kodak 2010 carousel projectors loaded with 46mm superslides and retro fitted with auto lamp changers. Each bank of six projectors was controlled by an Electrosonic “box” which could step forward or back, home the carousel and fade the lamp at controlled speeds. Rapidly stepping and fading all of the projectors could produce an impressive “moving” effect. There was a movie projector. A Philips, Kineton FP20 fitted with an anamorphic lens covered the centre three screens. 35mm filmstock ran in an endless loop, starting and stopping at various points in the presentation and blended with the carousel content. Optical stereo sound from the film was mixed with a five channel soundtrack (FL,C,FR,RL,RR)from a Studer A80 (1", 8 track)tape machine. Six 18" JBL speakers lurked behind the screens with two more at the rear of the auditorium. Amplification was four Quad 405-2 and an Ampex (or was it Ampeg?)Two 36" EV speakers in custom housings provided bass effects such as WW2 bombs. A theatre lighting rig provided further effects with photoflashes and flame and cloud effects which would be projected over the entire auditorium. Add a smoke machine for fog and smoke effects. A single button push started the show with everything from that point controlled by data tracks on the Studer.The presentation lasted 35 minutes. Tape auto rewound and everything synced ready restart 5 minutes later.
The last year of it’s life was blighted by jackhammers and a leaky roof caused by construction work as the building was extended upwards. Finally closed in 1989 but by that time in dire need of content upgrade. My last job was decommissioning and removing everything. I’ll find a few key photos and post them somewhere.
I heard that “The Ritz Club” may also have had problems due to the London hotel of the same name objecting to the use of the name.
Slightly off topic regarding it’s cinematic heritage but of architectural / historical interest. A swimming pool was created in the basement of the building and still mostly exists. The beer cellar is in the pool itself, with the lower half of the walls still clad in small ceramic tiles. There are a number of hatches in the upper half of the wall giving access to the poolside which is largely untouched. A hatch in the cold cellar opens into one end of the pool where the round spa or jacuzzi can be seen.