Turnpike Lane
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Burghley Road
Former pumping station of 1897 decorative shaped gable, ingeniously
converted in 1983 by Marde & Knight
to a parents' and children's club; cart-shed converted to a playroom opening on to a secluded open area.
Dovecote Avenue
Site of Dovecote House, a former moated manor house and also called Ducketts Manor.
Frobisher Road
North Haringey Board School 1893
Frobisher Road
New
Curzon Cinema, A notable contender for the earliest cinema in the country. Behind the Queens Head Inn and facing
Duckett's Common is a very early purpose-built cinema. It opened as the Premier
Electric Theatre on Saturday 16 April 1910.
The entrance was seen as "particularly handsome". The Premier
Electric seated 900 on a single raked floor with the now obligatory enclosed
fireproof projection box The Mayor of Stoke Newington, Alderman J. R. Brough
opened the cinema and C. R. Royce was the residen manager.
The programme was changed on Mondays and Thursdays with three matinees per
week, afternoon tea being served free on Mondays and Wednesdays. Seats, which
were reservable free of charge, cost one shilling, six pence and threepence,
with children paying sixpence, fourpence or tuppence. The cinema started off
with its own orchestra while the nearby competition, the Coliseum Green Lanes,
added a pipe organ to compete.The Premier Electric was built for London Picture
Theatre Ltd. as part of a small chain of Premier Electrics. It was designed by the architectural partnership
of William Emden and Stephen Egan of Garrick Street in central London. In the
early Thirties, the name was shortened to Premier and Kelly's Directory lists
the proprietor as River Park Cinemas. By
1938, the Premier was owned by Gaywood Cinemas, headed by Harry Pearl. The same
company also owned the early Palais de Luxe in Station Road, Wood Green, and
both were closed at the same time that year for modernisation, using the
Brighton builders J. T. Braybon. The Premier closed on 22 January for seven
weeks after showing Topper. A plan still held by Haringey L. B. shows pink
shading to indicate a new frontage, the work of architect F. E. Bromige of
Rayners Lane Grosvenor fame, leaving the box and body of the hall untouched
apart from electrical work, new seating and work on the ventilation. The restricted entrance at Wood Green
resulted in a vertically ribbed art deco
front while the freestanding site in Frobisher Road allowed the Regal to
have a more expansive, if ponderous, art deco front behind which the 1910
curved auditorium arch was visible (as it is today). The two cinemas shared
press advertising until 1948
Green Lanes
Duckett's Common, named after the ancient manor and a local farmer
Drove road into London
Ladder of roads up the left side of Green Lanes built between 1886 and 1900. All variegated brick with stone facing. Romantic street names, cut off by marshalling yards of the North East Railway
Hampden Road
New River can be seen from the bridge on Hampden Road.
High Road
7 Halifax Building Society. Some of the facade remains from Wood Green Empire opened 1912 Located in the north London district of Wood Green. The Wood Green Empire Theatre was built for Sir Oswald Stoll, as one of his chain of Stoll-Moss Empire variety theatres. It opened on 9th September 1912. Designed by theatre architect Frank Matcham, the exterior of the building was included in a parade of shops named Cheapside.. The auditorium ran parallel to the High Road, behind the Cheapside shops. Inside the auditorium the decoration was typical of an Edwardian variety theatre, with finely detailed plaster decorations. There was a large dome in the ceiling, which contained a sliding roof, to allow for ventilation. a capacity of almost 3,000 (including standing). there were eight dressing rooms. As it was a purpose built variety theatre, it was equipped with a Bioscope box from its opening, and films were a part of the variety programme.It was popular from its opening, and many stars appeared over the years, Plays were also produced In the late 1920’s, converted into a cinema, and screened Al Jolson in "The Singing Fool". Film use had ceased by the end of World War II, and it reverted back to full stage use. Top stars still appeared at the theatre, one of the Stoll-Moss Theatres chain of suburban London theatres, the final production was a pantomime "Cinderella It was taken over by Associated Television(ATV) which was owned by Stoll-Moss Theatres chain, and they used it as a television studio theatre, staging spectacular shows, but this only lasted a short while until they had built their own purpose-built television studio. The auditorium was demolished in the mid-1960’s, and a Sainsbury supermarket was built on the site with its entrance on Lymington Avenue, The entrance building to the theatre on the High Road, survives as a branch of the Halifax Bank PLC, The Cheapside parade of shops also survives intact.
Located at the Turnpike Lane
south-east end of Wood Green High Road, just north of Whymark Avenue. The Crown
Picture Theatre was possibly a shop conversion. It was operating by 1913 and
was closed around 1915.
The Picture Palladium was opened in 1913. It was equipped with an organ (possibly a Hope-Jones straight organ). The cinema was closed in 1915, possibly due to conditions during World War I, or by being requisitioned by the government?re-opened around 1920. fitted with an RCA sound system in 1929. Later a Western Electric sound sytstem was fitted and it was closed as the Palladium Cinema at the end of 1937.A branch of Marks & Spencer stores was built on the site, which still operates in 2012.
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