Tuesday, March 19, 2024

A Box Office Balls-up

Section:

Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea council’s decision to approve replacement for Kensington Odeon with a 63% smaller cinema is deservedly condemned as a “box office balls-up”

The much-loved Odeon Kensington cinema closed its box office on the 11th September 2015 in spite of a campaign to save it backed by amongst others Richard Curtis, John Hurt and Prince Michael of Kent.

 

Bar its original neo-classical façade, built in 1926, the unlisted building was subsequently demolished and with its destruction went a cinema premises that originally had a seating capacity of 2,370 in stalls and circle levels according to the Cinema Treasures website.

 

Now, five years later, after round after round of battle between developers keen to construct housing there and activists keen to reinstate the cinema, the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea planning committee have finally approved a new set of revised plans for the site.

 

The new approved £400 million scheme (replacing a previous consent granted in 2016) gives Lodha Properties permission to build a six-screen cinema with just 887 seats as well as 67,000 square foot of commercial space. In addition, the scheme will include 71 private residences and 35 ‘affordable’ homes whilst the developer is also expected to contribute £1.4 million towards affordable homes off-site.

 

Whilst the new Tory MP for Kensington Felicity Buchan predictably took to Twitter to claim this Conservative led council decision “very good news for Kensington High Street,” others were less pleased with the outcome. Referencing the decision as “undermining the character of our community,” the crusading From The Hornets Nest blog condemned the development as adding “yet more empty luxury flats to an already overcrowded Kensington market place.”

 

Illustrative of the council’s “unhealthy developer alliances and disastrous decisions” according to one commentator, the new scheme unsurprisingly contains fewer social housing units and a cinema reduced in size by 1,483 seats. This, indeed, is not a community success but what another termed “a tragedy.”

 

Of the decision Matthew Steeples, editor-in-chief of The Steeple Times added: “Here, yet again, is illustration of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council putting profit before people and cash before culture. The cinema component of this scheme is purely a token sop to attempt to attempt to silence critics of this out-of-touch council’s latest box office balls-up.”

 

Facebook: @TheSteepleTimes

Instagram: @TheSteepleTimes

Twitter: @SteepleTimes

 

A Box Office Balls-up – Kensington Odeon cinema scheme gets go-ahead – Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea council’s decision to approve replacement for Kensington Odeon with a 63% smaller cinema is deservedly condemned as a “box office balls-up.”
A box office balls-up by The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council – ‘From The Hornets Nest’ also highlighted that certain RBKC councillors including Daniel Moylan had accepted hospitality from those associated with previous developers involved in the Kensington Odeon redevelopment scheme. Such behaviour made Councillor Robert Davis of Westminster’s antics – highlighted in ‘The Steeple Times’ in February 2018 – look amateurish and frankly it is time for the final curtain call on such behaviour.
Matthew Steeples
Matthew Steeples
A graduate of the London School of Economics, Matthew Steeples is a writer and marketing consultant. He conceived The Steeple Times as a media arena to fill the void between the Mail Online, The Huffington Post and such organs as the New York Social Diary in 2012.

4 COMMENTS

  1. Plenty of corruption at Royal Borough of K&C Council. Remember Grenfell Tower? Cladding? Bungs aplenty. Also look up Candy & Candy.

  2. The council is run by a load of Tory crooks propped up by Emma Dent Coad who does nothing to try and stop them

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

£1 per week Supports The Steeple Times

Help journalism to remain honest & independent. You can make a difference to the world today.

3,573FansLike
2,068FollowersFollow
16,731FollowersFollow
4,962SubscribersSubscribe

Subscribe For DAILY NEWS

Please subscribe, like and share this unique site, it helps us tremendously. The Steeple Times in return will send you an email at noon each and everyday, that we sincerely hope you will enjoy & look forward to seeing in your inbox.

AD
Advertisement

Trending Now

Getting One’s Goat – A Cheesy Conundrum – Goat vs Goats vs Goat’s vs Goats’ Cheese

Matthew Steeples explores conundrum of how to describe cheese made from goat’s milk and shares thoughts of Susie Dent to Alan Rusbridger, Christine Hamilton, Jay Rayner, Matthew Jukes, Mic Wright, Nigella Lawson, Matthew Wright, Tom Parker Bowles and Samantha Markle on goat cheese.

Most Popular Articles

The Phil & Matt Show

Phillip Schofield filmed smoking shisha with his alleged ex-lover Matt McGreevy (and pictured in bed thereafter); another image shows the pair together in photograph...

Was Mucky Minx Meghan Markle A ‘Yacht Girl’ For ‘Randy Andy’?

As author Kirby Sommers suggests that the then Meghan Markle likely spent time with Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein before she met Prince Harry, we again highlight the mucky, murkiness and mendacious manner of this alleged “yacht girl.”

SchofieldLite

‘Politicalite’ suggest Phillip Schofield orchestrated his ‘mass coming out’ after a former ‘This Morning’ runner had gone to the press about a supposed relationship...

Meddling Meghan Markle Expose – Attwood, Hopkins & Steeples

Expose interview with Matthew Steeples by Shaun Attwood and Jennifer Hopkins about the former Meghan Markle watched over 73,000 times in 16 hours since it aired; Steeples condemns hapless Prince Harry and his meddling menace wife.

Ampika Pickston

Oldham born divorcee and former glamour model Ampika Pickston describes herself as “feisty, fun loving and warm hearted”. Now based in Hale Barns, Cheshire...

Justice for James Scurlock

Power of social media proven after senseless killing of James Scurlock in Omaha, Nebraska allegedly by a controversial bar owner named Jake Gardner who has been photographed with Donald Trump.
[td_block_6 custom_title="Most Liked..." sort="popular7"]