Fulham Road Picturehouse

C20 Society have just announced the cinema has been designated Grade ll and can’t be demolished

According to a post on Reddit the cinema was occupied by squatters a day after closure, who broke a window and barricaded the doors from inside.

A real shame to lose this…one of my locals when I lived in the neighborhood 1990-2000…Saw Big Lebowski…O Brother Where Art Thou…Buena Vista Social Club…Sixth Sense…House of Sand & Fog…State & Main…Other People’s Money…JFK…Godfather III…White Palace…Bad Lieutenant New Orleans…A Quiet Place and probably some others here

To give you an idea of how busy this cinema used to be in the recent past, on January 20th 2018 this cinema had a massive 2,689 admissions in a day, a probable record from at least 2012 onwards until closure. This was a combination of being a Saturday in January with the peak of Oscar-nominated films being released, and the Cineworld in Leicester Square being closed for refurbishment that month so many of their regular customers went to Fulham instead. January was by far the biggest month for the cinema but they also had huge admissions in the autumn for James Bond films, and before the refurb Avengers: Endgame also did significant numbers there on its opening weekend in April 2019.

As an extreme contrast I also worked a run of very quiet days during the hot summer of 2018 and the football world cup, and on the day of England’s semi final match with Croatia they had just 89 admissions - the biggest audience being 9 people for a 2:30pm matinee of Ocean’s Eight!

Unfortunately it looks like the closure is true as it’s now been announced by email and social media, the last day is 11th July. This was my workplace from 2017 to 2019 (just before the Picturehouse refurb) and it really was very busy back then particularly during Oscar season, the refurb made it look stunning but cinema attendances have dropped so much in recent years it all came a bit too late. Demolition would be an incredibly sad end to this place.

The Forum is in Kensington, more than a mile from Fulham.The opposite side of the road is in Chelsea. Fulham road starts just north of Putney bridge, running through fulham until Stamford bridge, then along the Kensington, Chelsea border until it meets Brompton road near south Kensington underground station.
Chelsea football ground is on the Kensington Fulham border and actually in Fulham, about 50 yards from Chelsea. Regarding the cinema, the off-licence on the Fulham road elevation was the projection rooms for the original cinema. It was rear stalls and below the circle. It was one of the first cinemas equipped for Cinemascope with the 4 track magnetic sound. Due to the reluctance of the chains to include the new sound systems, the optical track was put back, reducing the ratio from 1:2.55 to 1:2.35. One problem was that magnetic Cinemascope had a true optical center, not offset by the optical soundtrack, thus causing problems for changing from one to the other and for the adverts, newsreel and trailers. Later magnetic prints solved the problem by adding the optical soundtrack and offsetting the optical center to match standard 35mm layout. At the start of 70mm, projectors and sound systems could play 35mm stereo, but distributors did not see the additional costs of recording and striping the prints justified for a few theaters.

Surely this should be under Fulham rather than Chelsea?

I worked as a house manager here in the late 80’s and got to know the building very well. I would just like to clarify how it got to its present six screens. In 1974 it was converted to three screens, one in the circle and two in the stalls. In 1975 a fourth screen was added in the upper part of the stage house/fly-tower which was entered from a long corridor down the eastern side of screen one. The new auditorium was entered from the screen end and a projection box built within the old fly-tower on the rear wall. Next to it a staircase, built in the old dock door scenery area, descended to the street. The old stage and dressing rooms became squash courts and offices. In 1977 screen one in the old circle was divided into two, making five screens in total. Later, the squash courts on the old stage were converted into a sixth screen, when a new leisure complex and squash courts were built behind and adjoining the building. Very confusing but this is definitely what happened!

Another licensed catering establishment with cinemas included for good measure. Seriously though, I suppose this is as good as you are likely to find these days putting aside ‘genuine’ restorations such as the Plaza Stockport, Odyssey St Albans etc.

I don’t know what they think a proscenium arch is but the original ‘pros’,if still in situ, will be concealed behind the subdivision works of 1975 when ABC quadrupled the original theatre.

In screens 1 & 3 there are ‘legs’ at each side of floating screens as opposed to ‘tabs’ (curtains) but at least lip service has been paid in these areas.

I think that if I lived in London I would prefer this venue to most of today’s purpose built multiplexes. The Odeon Theatre Leicester Square, of course, retains the circle/stalls principle (and the Compton organ) which I happen to like – if only they would use their TABS!!

Just been to Screen 2 – the new seating is fantastic, so much legroom and space, even more so than at Picturehouse Central, and reclining backs also in the first few rows!

They’ve really gone all out on making this look fantastic, if you liked what Odeon did at the OLS this goes to a whole other level. Even the screens themselves are beautifully done up, with detailing and I think even curtains in Screen 3! All feels so much more spacious.

Official: opening Friday, December 6.

Peak adult ticket price to be £16.90 – the same as Picturehouse Central.

Closes as a Cineworld on 7 October. No details on Picturehouse website as to when it will reopen as a Picturehouse.