Lewisham is the only borough in London without a cinema. There used to be some. They have shaped the landscape: in Catford Broadway Theatre still dominates the main roundabout.
In Catford the Eros cinema opened in 1952 in a building known as the Hippodrome. Before the Eros Cinema, the Hippodrome was already a cinema, belonging to Paramount. The Eros Cinema was closed 7 years later and replaced by the Eros building.
The architect of the Eros building is called Rodney Gordon. Rodney Gordon was one of the brains behind the brutalist phase.
Like most arts (writing, painting, sculpture) architecture offers a range of products from the popular to the elitist. The elitist can only be fully understood by learning the history of this art. The popular is easy to appreciate.
Unlike other arts, architecture is imposed onto us. It is not possible not to see it. Worse, it seems that the most audacious, hermetic attempts are destined to populations who have no background to appreciate it: these attempts systematically end up in poor neighbourhoods.
How come that the brutalist buildings are only residence to poor populations? How come, for instance, that none of them can be seen in Westminster, or Canary Wharf, or in the City?
Or when they do, like in Notting Hill gate, how come that none, NONE, of their flats end up on the list of the top sought-after locations? How come that, after fifty years, regardless of their location, their rents are always low-rents?
How can it sound a good idea to call a movement "brutalist" and force people to live in it?
And why call such a building "Eros"? Did the association of the name and the design sound like a funny irony to Rodney Gordon?
There is nothing erotic about the building. What is there to love? What relation does the building bear to the ancient god of love, apart from a vaguely phallic shape?
The Eros cinema was not even an erotic cinema. "Eros" was created by two brothers, Phil and Sydney Hyams. They entered the industry in 1912. After the Second World War, they created their own company. It was essentially a distribution outfit. They produced a few small films (The Man who watched trains go by, 1952, The Sea shall not have them, 1954). The company went into liquidation in 1961 (1).
Mind you, it had an outlet in Liverpool, not far from Crosby Beach. Liverpool town centre too was shaped by the cinema industry. But there, the buildings have remained.
http://brockleyjackfilmclub.co.uk/lewishams-lost-cinemas/
http://www.catalystmedia.org.uk/issues/misc/articles/cinema_history.php
In Catford the Eros cinema opened in 1952 in a building known as the Hippodrome. Before the Eros Cinema, the Hippodrome was already a cinema, belonging to Paramount. The Eros Cinema was closed 7 years later and replaced by the Eros building.
The architect of the Eros building is called Rodney Gordon. Rodney Gordon was one of the brains behind the brutalist phase.
Like most arts (writing, painting, sculpture) architecture offers a range of products from the popular to the elitist. The elitist can only be fully understood by learning the history of this art. The popular is easy to appreciate.
Unlike other arts, architecture is imposed onto us. It is not possible not to see it. Worse, it seems that the most audacious, hermetic attempts are destined to populations who have no background to appreciate it: these attempts systematically end up in poor neighbourhoods.
How come that the brutalist buildings are only residence to poor populations? How come, for instance, that none of them can be seen in Westminster, or Canary Wharf, or in the City?
Or when they do, like in Notting Hill gate, how come that none, NONE, of their flats end up on the list of the top sought-after locations? How come that, after fifty years, regardless of their location, their rents are always low-rents?
How can it sound a good idea to call a movement "brutalist" and force people to live in it?
And why call such a building "Eros"? Did the association of the name and the design sound like a funny irony to Rodney Gordon?
There is nothing erotic about the building. What is there to love? What relation does the building bear to the ancient god of love, apart from a vaguely phallic shape?
The Eros cinema was not even an erotic cinema. "Eros" was created by two brothers, Phil and Sydney Hyams. They entered the industry in 1912. After the Second World War, they created their own company. It was essentially a distribution outfit. They produced a few small films (The Man who watched trains go by, 1952, The Sea shall not have them, 1954). The company went into liquidation in 1961 (1).
Mind you, it had an outlet in Liverpool, not far from Crosby Beach. Liverpool town centre too was shaped by the cinema industry. But there, the buildings have remained.
http://brockleyjackfilmclub.co.uk/lewishams-lost-cinemas/
http://www.catalystmedia.org.uk/issues/misc/articles/cinema_history.php
(1) (source British Cinema of the 50s - a celebration, Ian Duncan MacKilltop and Neil Sinyard, Manchester University Press, 2003, 236pm p.178)
