Campaigners were mounting a last-ditch bid today to save the Kensington Odeon from being turned into a housing development.
The historic cinema is set to screen Othello and the music drama We Are Your Friends as its final offerings on bank holiday Monday. But supporters of the Odeon are appealing to ministers to intervene.
A petition with nearly 25,000 signatures was due to be handed to Communities and Local Government Secretary Greg Clark. Supporters of the cinema hope he will call a public inquiry to stall the destruction of the 1926 site in Kensington High Street.
An Odeon spokeswoman said: “The landlord has given us notice to vacate by September 11, and so the last film is on August 31. We’d like to thank all our guests for their loyalty and support.”
On Monday the cinema will screen the Royal Shakespeare Company’s live performance of Othello from Stratford, with Holby City star Hugh Quarshie in the title role. We Are Your Friends, starring Zac Efron, will also be showing.
Kensington and Chelsea council has given developer Minerva permission to knock down the building, apart from some of its classical facade. It plans to build 42 apartments and townhouses plus 20 social housing flats for older people. An underground movie complex will replace the existing cinema, but many internal features will be lost, such as the marble staircase.
Stars such as Benedict Cumberbatch and Sir John Hurt, and Four Weddings screenwriter Richard Curtis, oppose demolition. Musician Jimmy Page, a local resident, has called the design “hideous”. Former deputy mayor of London Victoria Borwick, now Tory MP for Kensington, opposes the plan.
Campaigner Guy Oliver said: “The character of the high street is being eroded with more and more residential blocks, often bought for investment by investors and unoccupied.”
Minerva said: “We’re progressing with plans to deliver a new Picturehouse Cinema with seven screens, restore the building’s façade and provide a café, bar and restaurant”.
