TO: RT HON GREG CLARK, SECRETARY OF STATE FOR COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Please help save the Kensington Odeon. Immediately order a public enquiry into the recent decision by Kensington and Chelsea planning committee to allow this beautiful 1920’s Art Deco cinema in a conservation area, to be demolished and replaced with luxury flats and a tiny amount of social housing.
If a cinema re-opens on the site it would be a small box cinema buried underground with the associated fire and security risks. Our cultural and community heritage is under threat.
Why is this important?
We risk losing a magnificent iconic community venue. Kensington does not need any more empty luxury flats being bought up by foreign investors.
With the largest screen in London, a beautiful Art Deco exterior, stunning marble staircases and a mosaic floor in the foyer as the best cinema in London for premieres (already this year it has hosted Sir Ian McKellern in Mr Holmes and Sir Alan Rickman and Dame Kate Winslet in A Little Chaos), special events or just the best family night out!
On previous occasions we have managed to get Kensington & Chelsea planning committee to listen to the objectors to this scheme. But on July 21st, the committee gave in & voted to allow the scheme and as a result, the cinema will close on Sept 3rd and the bulldozers can move in any day after Sept 11th. Schemes like this are supposed to allocate 50% of the space to affordable housing for public service employees like firemen and nurses but Kensington & Chelsea are letting them get away with under 10% just for the elderly. It seems that the councillors on the Planning Committee are more in favour of corporations making money than the people who elected them being able to enjoy historical buildings for the original purpose they were designed.
A public enquiry is now the only thing which can Save The Kensington Odeon from the bulldozers moving in on September 12th. But first the Minister needs to hear from us that we are not happy with Kensington & Chelsea’s decision and want the Odeon to remain as a place that all Londoners can enjoy! Please let him know that you want this historic cinema with its iconic facade and monumental towers to remain as it is for the benefit of the entire community, not just a rich few who will leave their investment empty for most of the year.
Join Richard Curtis, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jimmy Page, Elle McPherson, John Hurt, Dave Prowse & Jeremy Bulloch from Star Wars, Brian May & Anita Dobson and many other celebrities who have already expressed their disapproval of this development and please sign now to Save The Kensington Odeon for all Londoners to enjoy for another 90 years.
http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-the-kensington-odeon-from-demolition
Grenfell Action Group 