EALING’s long-awaited Picturehouse cinema opened this morning (20).
Cormac O'Connor, senior regional manager at Picturehouse Cinemas and Peter Bonner, manager of the new eight-screen multiplex, welcomed cinema-goers, 15 years since the closure of the art deco Forum cinema nearby.
The Forum Cinema was built in 1934 as a ‘super cinema and café’ opposite Ealing Town Hall with seating for 2,500, a dance hall and a Compton organ.
The Forum became an ABC cinema in 1963, and was converted to three screens in 1975. In 2006 the building was taken over by Empire Cinemas and closed in September 2008.
The building was demolished as part of the major Filmworks redevelopment of Ealing town centre, with the original façade retained as the front of a homes and retail complex.
Some of the Forum’s original fittings have been used in the new eight-screen unit, which seats up to 900 and includes a ground-floor café and first-floor bar.
Since the closure of the Empire in 2008, two other cinemas have opened in the Ealing area: the nearby three-screen Ealing Project and the two-screen in ActOne Cinema & Café in the former Acton Library.
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