 |
 |
|
|
___________________________________________________________________________________________________ Theatres and Halls in Clapham Junction and Battersea Grand Theatre/ New Grand Theatre of Varieties / Essoldo Cinema / Mecca Bingo / The Grand Nightclub, 21 St. John's Hill, Clapham Junction, Battersea Also see in this area the Battersea Palace
Above - The Grand, Clapham Junction, which is the
tallest building on the right.
Above - The Grand, Clapham Junction in 2005 - Photo Courtesy Alan Garner & Richard Milsom
|
||
|
The remarkable thing is that despite its history of various uses and even its current incarnation the Grand is still in a pretty good state, has much of its original decoration, most of its structure remains intact and it could be readily converted back into a Theatre if the inclination and funds were present. The Grand is Grade II listed. Left - Programme for the Grand - October 6th 1947 |
||
|
A visitor to the site recently sent along some interesting memories of the Grand and other places of entertainment in the Clapham Junction and Battersea area. Read his personal reminiscences below:
Right - Excerpt from 1947 programme under the Nat Tennens' Management. The Manager of The Grand was always immaculately dressed. I can still visualise him standing in the foyer as we queued up to go in; a black dress suit with velvet lapels, white shirt and black bow tie. I believe he was a friend of Anthony Newley. Before Anthony Newley became a big star he was often seen talking with the manager at The Grand, and interestingly, the film that made him a star, Idol on Parade, was premiered at The Granada, Clapham Junction. Incidentally, when The Grand opened in 1900 it was originally called The New Grand. The New Grand was mainly financed by Dan Leno, the Music Hall star, who lived nearby in Clapham Park. Artistes who subsequently appeared at The Grand, included Marie Lloyd, Little Tich and Harry Tate. A little further down St. John’s Hill on the same side, stood The Imperial Cinema, later known as The Ruby. This was much smaller in size than The Grand. The whole building was demolished about 30 years ago, and the present site is now occupied by a new Barclays Bank. The Imperial Cinema in St. John’s Hill originally opened as the Grand Hall of Varieties in 1894, but because of the competition from The Grand which opened in 1900, it was rarely used and was converted to a cinema in 1914 with 800 seats.
Left - The Grand, Clapham Junction in 2005 - Photo Courtesy Alan Garner & Richard Milsom I believe it was demolished later in the 60’s or 70’s in favour of a supermarket. The Century Cinema originally opened as The Bio Picture Palace in 1908, converted from a former assembly room. It changed to The Standard Electric Theatre in 1912, then The Bolingbroke Picture Hall, The Globe, and lastly The Century. Going straight on at the bottom of St. John's Hill, takes you into Lavender Hill. About 200yds up on the left-hand side is an Asda supermarket. On this site in the mid 1950's stood the remains of the Pavilion Cinema which opened in 1916 and was destroyed by a V1 flying bomb in 1944. As a boy my friends and I used to play amongst the debris. I would point out that there is a popular misconception about Clapham Junction. When the railway station opened in 1863, it was called Clapham Junction because of the criminal reputation of the Battersea area. It was thought that by calling it Clapham it would give the station a more acceptable image. Clapham Junction is in fact in the heart of Battersea. Clapham lies further south. How times change. When I grew up there, Battersea was a working-class area. It’s now a very up-market place – the home of the rich and famous. Also, according to my memory, The Grand was never known as The Clapham Grand. It was just called The Grand (Clapham Junction, Battersea)
The Washington Music Hall in York Road originally opened as The Royal Standard. It had nine name changes between 1886 and 1917, including The Washington Music Hall and The Palace of Varieties. It opened as a cinema in 1924 and was called The Super Palace. Above Text Kindly sent in by Alan Garner with some factual details gleaned from ‘Battersea Past’ by Patrick Loobey. Above Right - Excerpt from 1947 programme under the Nat Tennens' Management.
|
||
|
Another visitor to the site, Tony Rogers, has sent along some interesting memories of his time at the Grand when he was Chief Projectionist there in the late 1950s: Reading your article about the Grand Clapham Junction brought back many fond memories as I was the Chief Projectionist at the Grand (Essoldo) between 1956 and 1958. It was used as the shop window to demonstrate the new "Essoldomatic" automatic projection system so the projection room had to be kept spotless at all times. The Manager at that time was Terry Cooke and was indeed a personal friend of the late Anthony Newley who often visited the theatre. Terry Cook had been a POW in Germany during the war and would tell some great stories of his time spent in captivity. After the war he got into theatre management and before coming to the Grand had managed a large theatre in Harrogate. The managers office at the Grand was very lush, it even had its own washing and changing room.
Left - The Projection Room at the Grand / Essoldo in the late 1950s - Courtesy Tony Rogers. The Projection room at the Grand was in the old Lime (Spotlight) room way up above the upper circle. We had to carry the film transit cases up numerous flights of stairs (we must have been very fit then) and we were equipped with Two Kalee model 21s projectors, President Arc lamps and Duosonic sound system. This in 1956 was state of the art. The grand was chosen by Sol Sheckman (Essoldo) to promote the Essoldomatic Projection system. They were trying to sell this to other cinema chains, and eventually did in 1958 when it was sold to the Rank organisation and re-named Projectormatic. We were still using twenty minute reels of film in those days and this gadget would auto change-over reels, close the screen curtains Etc. The projection room being so high up and away from living beings meant that we could only see the stage and screen from the projection ports, this meant we had no idea if we had an audience of 20 or 2000. I well remember showing some big blockbusters during my time there. "Oklahoma", "The King and I", "High Society" were just a few that come to mind. The upper circle had no seats but was often used by policemen who should have been on the beat but decided going to the pictures was much more to their liking. In 1958 I was moved on to run two cinemas in Hertfordshire, sadly I said my farewell to the Grand, and then in a few years it was to become a Bingo Hall. I was delighted to learn that it became a listed building, and long may it prosper in whatever form it is used for. Above text and image kindly sent in by Tony Rogers. |
||
|
I was very interested in the Grand Clapham page. During the mid 1940s I knew this theatre very well, and was friendly with the Stage Manager Ernie Skeggs. Right - Variety Programme for the Grand, Clapham in
1945 - Courtesy Alan Chudley. |
||
|
Above - Variety Programme for the Grand, Clapham
in 1945 - Courtesy Alan Chudley. Also see in this area the Battersea Palace
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
The
Grand, Clapham Junction, Battersea, designed by E.A. Woodrow (the only
completely surviving example of his work) was built by Gray Hill of
Right
- Poster for the Grand for the week of October 13th 1947, during Nat
Tennens' Management who ran the Grand between 1946 and 1949.
In
response to your article on The Grand -
I was born in Clapham Junction in 1946, and lived there until 1967 when
I married and moved from the area. In the 1950’s, Clapham Junction
was a great place to grow up in. The Granada Cinema
stood at the top of St. John’s Hill and The Grand was situated
on the right-hand side, going down towards Arding & Hobbs. It was
always known as The Grand, even though the name had changed to The Essoldo
Cinema. But even in the mid 1950’s, I can remember my older
sister taking me to see a Circus/
Turning
right at the bottom, takes you along St. John’s Road and into Northcote
Road. Just past the traffic lights on the left-hand side stood The
Century Cinema, formerly known as The Globe.
I can vividly recall being taken there in 1953 with a party from my
school, Belleville Junior Boys, to see a film of Edmund Hillary conquering
Everest.
A
little further along Lavender Hill on the same side of the road, stood
The Shakespeare Theatre which was also
badly bomb damaged during World War II. It stood to the left of the
still existing Battersea Town Hall, separated by Theatre Street. It
is still called Theatre street, and the current site of The Shakespeare
is now occupied by a modern office block called Shakespeare House. It
originally opened in 
I
remember Terry Cook showing me some old tickets and sales books from
the Theatre's early days with Dan Leno and even Charlie Chaplin.
Alan
Chudley writes on the Grand Clapham:
