Tonight:
9°c
Coming soon: £92m blockbuster at Kensington Odeon
Gideon Spanier, Evening Standard21.11.08
PLANS to turn the Kensington Odeon cinema into a £92 million housing development have been given the go-ahead.
Developer Minerva has won final approval to build 35 apartments and five town houses as well as a multi-screen cinema complex under the site in Kensington High Street.
Council chiefs agreed the proposals on condition that Minerva, and its partner Northacre, also builds 30 affordable housing units within the royal borough.
Minerva, which bought the site for £24 million in 2005, revised its plans last year after film director Michael Winner led a successful campaign to save the Art Deco exterior from possible demolition.
The Department of Culture had ruled that the cinema, opened in 1925, could not have listed status because it had lost much of the original interior. Winner said today: "They are keeping a large amount of the fascia. As compromises go, it's as good as you could hope for." Minerva said it could not say when work might start.
Reader views (1)
Many of the grand old theatres and other London landmarks such as pubs are disappearing in large numbers as fast as the blink of an eye. I've been in London only 10 years, and even in that short time there's been large changes. London's character is changing right in front of our eyes, landmarks being replaced by drab concrete slabs. Tourism is largest money-maker in London, and tourists simply are not going to pay to see a transposed copy of New York. It's about time that those on high started to take a comprehensive look in their totality of all of the 'little' changes going on all over London. What's needed is a plan to look at the overall picture of how London is changing due to the cumulative effect of a lot of little Kensington Odeon approvals. Huge changes are planned for Leicester Square. Has anyone looked at its effect on tourists' perceptions?
- Phil Jones, London UK
