A campaign to save one of London’s most cherished cinemas is about to take off with the help of one of Hollywood’s biggest superheroes.
Residents furious at plans to turn the Odeon Kensington into luxury apartments will tomorrow stage a demonstration outside the building - led by Batman’s batmobile.
The car used in Tim Burton’s Batman movies is being borrowed from this weekend’s London Film and Comic Conference in Olympia as protesters draw attention to the potential loss of what they say is one of the city’s finest cinemas.
The building was designed in the 1920s by Julian Randolph Leathart and W.F. Granger and has been described by film director Michael Winner as “a wonderful piece of cinema architecture”.
But unlike several other classic original Odeon cinemas, it has not been listed by English Heritage and is now under threat from plans from property developer Minerva, which bought the building in 2005.
The company has for years been bidding to create 100,000 sq ft of private residential accommodation on the site, with a basement car park and cinema built underneath.
Planning permission was granted in 2008, but the project - which has long been opposed by residents who formed an action group to fight the plans - failed to get off the ground due to the credit crunch.
Paul Wiffen, a film maker, is organising tomorrow’s march on the cinema on Kensington High Street after discovering a council planning meeting is being held next week to discuss the plans.
“Once again the developers and their partners are threatening to bury the Kensington Odeon three storeys underground and turn the beautiful existing cinema into apartments for the super-rich,” he said.
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The 53-year-old said he believed recent house price increases fuelled by a large injection of wealth into central London from elsewhere in Europe was behind the plans being resurrected.
“We haven’t gone away. We’re not going anywhere. I will be lying in front of the tractors before they are allowed to do anything,” he added.
Another campaigner, Caroline McLean, 45, a housewife who lives behind the cinema, said: “I think it’s a real London issue. It’s not a West End cinema but it’s on the very next level. The main screen is bigger than any in Leicester Square. It’s a landmark building when you look at an aerial map of Kensington and central London.
“It has huge amenity value with people travelling from east London to go there.
“It’s ridiculous that they want to consign the cinema to a basement below underground car parks.”
Minerva say they have agreed a 25 year lease with Odeon Cinemas to operate the new underground cinema.
