{"id":26759,"date":"2020-06-24T16:10:13","date_gmt":"2020-06-24T15:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsblogsnew.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=26759"},"modified":"2020-06-24T15:41:37","modified_gmt":"2020-06-24T14:41:37","slug":"ihbcs-heritage-from-the-doorstep-kensington-odeon-cinema-development-approved-by-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=26759","title":{"rendered":"IHBC\u2019s \u2018Heritage from the doorstep\u2019: Kensington Odeon Cinema development approved by Council"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-26760\" src=\"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/TheSteepleTimes_250620.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"202\" \/>Royal Borough of Kensington &amp; Chelsea (RBKC) council\u2019s decision to approve replacement for Kensington Odeon with a 63% smaller cinema is a \u2018box office balls-up\u2019, argues <em>The Steeple Times.<\/em><\/h3>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h3><em>The Steeple Times <\/em>writes<em>:<\/em><\/h3>\n<p>The much-loved Odeon Kensington cinema closed its box office on the 11<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0September 2015 in spite of a campaign to save it backed by amongst others Richard Curtis, John Hurt and Prince Michael of Kent.<\/p>\n<p>Bar its original neo-classical fa\u00e7ade,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/rbkclocalstudies.wordpress.com\/2019\/03\/21\/the-kensington-a-high-street-cinema\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">built in 1926<\/a>, the unlisted building was subsequently demolished and with its destruction went a cinema premises that originally had a seating capacity of 2,370 in stalls and circle levels according to the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/cinematreasures.org\/theaters\/13801\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Cinema Treasures<\/em><\/a> website&#8230;..<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;.the Royal Borough of Kensington &amp; Chelsea planning committee have finally\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.egi.co.uk\/news\/lodha-wins-consent-for-kensington-odeon-scheme\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">approved a new set of revised plans for the site<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The new approved \u00a3400 million scheme (replacing a previous consent granted in 2016) gives Lodha Properties permission to build a six-screen cinema with just 887 seats as well as 67,000 square foot of commercial space. In addition, the scheme will include 71 private residences and 35 \u2018affordable\u2019 homes whilst the developer is also expected to contribute \u00a31.4 million towards affordable homes off-site.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst the new Tory MP for Kensington Felicity Buchan predictably took to Twitter to claim this Conservative led council decision\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FelicityBuchan\/status\/1263047292254388224\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u201cvery good news for Kensington High Street,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0others were less pleased with the outcome. Referencing the decision as \u201cundermining the character of our community,\u201d the crusading\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/fromthehornetsnest.blogspot.com\/2020\/05\/cinema-non-verite.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>From The Hornets Nest<\/em><\/a> blog condemned the development as adding \u201cyet more empty luxury flats to an already overcrowded Kensington market&#8230;..\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;.<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/M_Steeples\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matthew Steeples<\/a>, editor-in-chief of\u00a0<em>The Steeple Times<\/em>\u00a0added: \u201cHere, yet again, is illustration of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council putting profit before people and cash before culture. The cinema component of this scheme is purely a token sop to attempt to attempt to silence critics of this out-of-touch council\u2019s latest box office balls-up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesteepletimes.com\/the-fog\/kensington-box-office-balls-up\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Read more&#8230;.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Royal Borough of Kensington &amp; Chelsea (RBKC) council\u2019s decision to approve replacement for Kensington Odeon with a 63% smaller cinema is a \u2018box office balls-up\u2019, argues The Steeple Times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ihbc-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26761,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26759\/revisions\/26761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}