Picturehouse Says Ealing Cinema 'Coming Soon'
Could 15 year saga finally be coming to an end?
Work is continuing at the site. Picture: Picturehouse Ealing
October 5, 2023
The latest update from Picturehouse is that its new Ealing cinema will be opening soon.
Although no date has been given, it has confirmed that a launch ‘is approaching’ and it is offering free tickets and membership deals for the eight-screen, 900 seat, state-of-the-art cinema.
If you sign up to its mailing list, Picturehouse says your first visit to the Ealing site will be free.
Previous opening dates have come and gone but work at the site appears to be progressing.
The long saga of the cinema at this site has been running for over fifteen years since the demolition of the original cinema building.
The new complex was meant to form the centrepiece of the Filmworks development but construction delays, Covid-19 and the bankruptcy of Cineworld, the owner of the Picturehouse chain of 24 cinemas, meant that the Ealing Project was the first venue to restore a local venue to go to the movies.
The original 2,175 seat Forum Cinema was built in 1934 on the site with an Egyptian style façade becoming the fifth out of six cinemas built in Ealing and the last to survive. It had a range of operators, including ironically Cineworld, and was converted into a three screen cinema in 1975. Empire Cinemas took over in 2005 but closed it three years later leaving Ealing without a cinema until the launch last year of The Ealing Project.
Ground was broken on the Filmworks project in 2016 with the new cinema very much at the heart of the project and a pledge from the then leader of the council, Julian Bell, that it would be opening.
Subsequent announcements promised a launch in 2019, 2020 and the Summer of 2021 but the pandemic added to the delays. It had been originally hoped that the cinema would start operating last Spring as flats in the film-themed development were being marketed but this deadline was shifted until the end of this and perhaps finally this one might be met.
Picturehouse is known for its commitment to arthouse cinema and support of independent filmmakers but the Hollywood screenwriters strikes means it may be challenging to find a range of titles for eight screens next year.
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