ABC Baker Street

I saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show here when it was a double bill with Young Frankenstein. It ran for ages!! My Dad was a projectionist here at the time.

SimonD, The J.D. Wetherspoon Metropolitan Bar is not in the former cinema space. It is located several yards to the left of the ABC Baker Street, in a space originally occupied by Baker Street station’s Buffet/Restaurant, adjacent to the station entrance.

I used to see cartoon shorts as a child here while waiting for trains home. At that time there was an entrance from the station booking hall. Later, after the space had been split, in the early 80s I saw “Les Vacances de M. Hulot”

Hi, I’m writing about Balch at the moment for a BFI book and would be grateful for any memories of his programming at the Times or indeed the Jacey Piccadilly.

I’d forgotten about the Beatles' Apple store. It’s more than probable that Anthony Balch had a preview copy of the White Album, which is why we were all knocked out when it was played in the cinema.

I just looked up Balch on Wikipedia and found that, together with William Burroughs, he made some of the films we went to see. And although there was an aborted film with Mick Jagger, it does seem likely that he could have had access to preview albums – on vinyl of course! Sadly, Balch died in 1980 of stomach cancer at the young age of 43. But I see his films, or bits of his films, are all up on Youtube. Rogers & Hammerstein he aint! But if you’re into avant garde stuff that’s pre-Bowie etc, there are some interesting things to explore.

After reading the above, I send my heartfelt thanks to Mr Anthony Balch for providing me and all my friends with the most exciting and bizarre cinema programming in London in the late 60’s. After a few visits, we didn’t even bother to look at the listings – we just turned up, knowing that whatever it was, it would be good. For some special screenings, we used to pile in around 7ish in the evening and then pile out again at 1 in the morning, after watching several Polanski films and a few weird shorts. The following week, we’d be treated to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and the week after that, it would be some extraordinary film by Bunuel. The strange thing was that we’d see the same people in the audience for all these films. And with the plethora of joints being smoked, you could cut the air with knife! It was at this cinema, in 1968, I first heard the Beatles White Album – it was being played as intro and interval music.

From marijuana to Bob Hope is rather a long stretch – nevertheless Mr Balch…. thanks for the memory!!!

August 2006 photo of the shop – the cinema canopy remains:–

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