Theatres in Ealing, West London

The Forum Theatre - The Ealing Theatre

The Forum Theatre, 61 New Broadway (Formerly The Uxbridge Road), Ealing, London

Later - ABC / Cannon, MGM, Virgin, UGC, Cineworld / Empire / Filmworks Picturehouse

See also - The Forum Theatre, Kentish Town - The Forum Theatre, Fulham

Above - A Google StreetView Image of the former Forum Theatre, Ealing in July 2008, here branded with the Empire name - Click to interact.

The former Forum Theatre, Ealing, today a Filmworks Leisure Complex including an 8 Screen Picturehouse, is situated at 61 New Broadway, Ealing, although when it first opened in 1934 the street was called the Uxbridge Road. The Forum Theatre was designed in the Italian Renaissance style by John Stanley Beard with, originally, A. Douglas Clare, but a serious illness meant that Clare had to be replaced, by W. R. Bennett, for completion of the details of the Theatre, Bennett would then become Beard's design partner into the future. The Theatre was built for Herbert A. Yapp's Wyanbee Theatres circuit of Forum Theatres by Bovis and Co.

Right - Herbert A. Yapp, owner of the Forum Theatre, Ealing - From the Kinematograph Weekly, 19th of April 1934.

John Stanley Beard designed all three of Herbert Yapp's Forum Theatres; The Forum Theatre, Fulham, which today is run by Cineworld and has six cinema screens; the Forum Theatre, Kentish Town, currently a concert venue called the O2 Forum; and this, the Forum Theatre, Ealing, which was nearly identical to the Kentish Town Forum, and the second of the three Forum Theatres to open, it was opened by the well known film actor and director Jack Buchanan on the 23rd of April 1934.

The Forum Theatre, Ealing was built as a Super Cinema with a large fully equipped stage with a 46 foot wide proscenium opening and a fly tower with a counterweighted flying system, it also had dressing rooms for artists, a Compton Theatre Organ with an illuminated Console on a lift which could rise up from the orchestra pit, played by G.T. Pattman on its opening, and a large Restaurant and Dance Hall with a sprung floor situated above the foyer. There was also a large car park for 300 cars for the Theatre's patrons. On its opening the Theatre's Auditorium could seat 2,175 people in its two levels, stalls and one circle, and its Manager was E. V. Collingridge.

Above - The exterior of the Forum Theatre, Ealing on its opening in 1934 - From the Kinematograph Weekly, 17th of May 1934.

The Acton Gazette reported on the imminent opening of the Forum Theatre in their 13th of April 1934 edition saying:- 'No happier or more appropriate choice could have been made to open the new Forum Cinema in Uxbridge-road, Ealing, than "Love, Life and Laughter," Gracie Fields' newest production. This picture was actually made in the Ealing Studios; the stage attraction for the week will be Debroy Somers and his band. On the opening day, Monday week, at 2.30 pm., "The king" will be sung by Robert Naylor, the celebrated tenor.

The Forum, Ealing, is owned by an independent company, the managing director being Mr. H. A. Yapp, a well known figure in the cinema industry, who is managing director of the Forum, Fulham, and proprietor of the Morden Cinema.

Cinema design during the past few years has been undergoing a change, and the keen observer will have noticed that the traditions of the past, some good and some bad, have in many cases been laid aside, and a new and more severe style is taking their place. For this new cinema, the architects, Messrs. J. Stanley Beard and Clare, F.A.R.I.B.A., considered that, compared with the rather ruthless styles of modern art, a reversion to the more simple proportions of the classic period might be a relief, and they designed the building accordingly.

COMFORT THE PREDOMINATING FACTOR

Above - A Google StreetView Image of the former Forum Theatre, Ealing in June 2008, here branded with the Empire name - Click to interact.

The comfort and convenience of patrons has been the predominating factor in its design, and the shape of the auditorium and the position of the seating has been studied so that everyone can get a perfect view of the screen and stage, and also to ensure that the acoustics of the auditorium is such that sound reproduction will be the best that can be provided. The colour scheme of the theatre is restrained, being carried out in green and gold.

Hidden away in the depths of the building is machinery which will provide over two and a half million cubic feet of clean air per hour; motors fed by an extensive electrical installation, and machinery that will operate a five-ton fire curtain, operate the ventilating plant, feed the film projector, work the vacuum plant, and supply oil into the main boilers at a pressure of 180lbs, for the purpose of heating the theatre. In fact, the theatre is wholly electric, and the magnitude of the installation can be gathered when it is realised that there are about 3,500 lamps used throughout the building.

RUBBER UPHOLSTERY

The latest type of organ has been installed, provided with an illuminated rising control [sic] in the orchestra pit.

Right - An Advertisement for Compton Organs as installed at the Forum, Ealing in 1934 - From The Era, 14th of March 1934.

There is accommodation in the theatre for 2,175, and the seats are entirely upholstered in rubber. Over the entrance foyer is a luxurious tea-lounge and dance hall with a sprung door. Behind the lounge is a foyer giving access to the grand circle, and this is provided with settees and chairs. There is a fully-equipped stage, and ample dressing-rooms have been provided for the artistes and staff. At the rear of the cinema there is a large car park for the free use of patrons.'

The above text in quotes was first published in the Acton Gazette, 13th of April 1934.

Above - A Google StreetView Image showing Filmworks, Ealing in September 2022, formerly the Forum Theatre - Click to Interact.

The Forum Theatre had first opened on the 23rd of April 1934 for Herbert A. Yapp but, like its twin, the Forum, Kentish Town, was taken over by ABC the following year, 1935. Despite ABC taking over the Theatre in 1935 they wouldn't rename it as such until 1961. The Theatre's Compton Organ was later removed and reinstalled in the chapel of Wormwood Scrubs Prison, and the Cinema Tripled in 1975. The Theatre had many other changes of ownership and names over the following years which culminated in the Theatre becoming an Empire Cinema in 2006 showing first run films.

Empire later closed the Theatre on the 6th of September 2008 so that it could be demolished for a planned 16 screen replacement. However, although the Theatre was demolished, apart from its facade, the replacement multiplex never materialised.

Right - A Google StreetView Image showing all that remained of the former Forum Theatre, Ealing in August 2012 - Click to Interact.

Consequently in 2015 Ealing Council compulsory purchased the site and plans were put in place for Picturehouse Cinemas to build an 8 screen replacement for the former Theatre along with an apartment building, shops, bars and restaurants all situated behind the Theatre's original facade and branded as a Filmworks Leisure Complex.

The Facade was subsequently restored and the apartment building was constructed by the Berkeley Group where the auditorium and stage used to be, along with a restaurant called Teatro Hall situated behind the original facade, but the Cinema complex itself didn't materialise for many years until it was finally added, and the completed site, still branded as a Filmworks 'Leisure Complex' but now with the Ealing Picturehouse 8 screen cinema included, finally fully opened on the 20th of October 2023.

You may like to visit Filmworks' own Website here.

If you have any more information or Images for this Theatre that you are willing to share please Contact me.

The Ealing Theatre, Broadway, Ealing, London

Formerly - The Lyric Hall - Later - The Ealing Hippodrome / The Broadway Cinema / The Broadway Palladium Cinema

Above - A sketch of the Ealing Theatre - From the ERA, 16th December 1899 - To see more of these Sketches click here.

The Ealing Theatre, with a capacity of 2,000 people, opened on Saturday the 23rd of December 1899 with a production of the pantomime 'Dick Whittington'. The Theatre was built as part of a complex of buildings which included the Theatre itself and to the east of it, connected by a corridor, the Lyric Restaurant, which it was said at the time resembled a miniature Holborn Restaurant. The Theatre and the Restaurant were built on the site of the former Lyric Hall, see programme shown right, which was built in 1881 and was eventually demolished so that the new Ealing Theatre could be constructed, the Lyric restaurant took the name of the former Concert Hall.

Right - A Programme Cover for 'Jim The Penman' by Chas Young at the Lyric Hall, Ealing in April 1890 - Courtesy Simon Moss, stagememories.

The restaurant consisted of a ballroom on the ground floor, called the Montague Rooms, which had a dance floor some 65 foot by 35 foot; the Percival Rooms at the end of the building of 51 foot by 20 foot; and running along the building's Broadway frontage on the first floor, the Leopold Rooms, with the largest being 40 foot by 35 foot. There was also a Masonic Temple on the second floor above the Leopold Rooms, a Grill Room, a cafe, a billiard room, a buffet, and a reading room.

Both the Ealing Theatre and the Lyric Restaurant were constructed by Beer and Gash for a project which was created by Edwin Stephens and designed by the architects George Pargeter and Walter Emden. The Manager chosen to run the Theatre was George Lee who had been running Toole's Theatre for many years previously, and his office was located on the top floor of No. 19, The Broadway.

Construction of the buildings was unusually long for the period and although local press reports were saying in March 1899 that the Theatre would soon be opened it wasn't until December that construction was finally complete. In their December the 16th edition, a week before the Theatre opened, the ERA printed a sketch of the Theatre, shown above, and a review of the building saying: 'Entering direct from the Broadway the visitor finds himself in a spacious outer vestibule 32ft. by 21ft., from the right hand side of which extends the grand corridor. This corridor, by an ascent of four steps, leads to the reception lounge, which will extend at the rear of the grand circle the entire width of the theatre. The stalls are attained by a descent on either side of the grand circle. The balcony is reached by a short flight of steps leading direct to that portion. The patrons of the pit gain access thereto by a sloping corridor leading direct from the Broadway...

...The stage is one of the largest in London, and will have an area of 700 square feet. Above it there is height enough to allow the scenes being lifted bodily out of sight, and below will be a drop of 20ft. The special attention which has been given to all the stage details enables any of the great dramas that may be sent on tour from London to be mounted with ease... The dressing-rooms are up-to-date and thoroughly well appointed. They are situated in a self-contained block, separated from the main building by fireproof doors... The internal fittings and decorations are most ornate, and uniform good taste has been observed in carrying them out. The ceiling is saucer-domed, and treated in the early Greco-Classic style. This style, indeed, is the key-note of the whole interior decoration. The grand circle front is divided into panels by small Corinthian columns. The panels are, tilled with Wedgwood representations of Thespian subjects. The panels of the family circle front contains representations of the Fine Arts, and are separated by Grecian vases. The gilded proscenium frame is square, and forms a beautiful and fitting border for the act drop, which represents a piece of tapestry from the famous Baranth collection...

Eastward of the theatre, leading direct from the Broadway, runs an 8ft. corridor giving access to the Lyric Restaurant.

Right - A period postcard depicting the Ealing Theatre and Lyric Restaurant.

This corridor opens into a noble reception hall, surmounted at a height of 50f t. by a handsome glass dome. Round this apartment, on the first floor level, runs a marble balcony from which ascends the grand marble staircase leading to the principal rooms on the first and second floors. This ball-room suite, named the Montague Rooms, is entered from the ground floor. The, ball-room itself has a dancing space of 70ft. by 40ft., and when used for concerts, &c., will have a seating accommodation for 550 persons. At one end is a permanent orchestral platform, and at the other, the south, is a balcony somewhat similar to that in the old Lyric Hall, save that it has a flat floor instead of one consisting of raised tiers. On the east side of the bail-room are two spacious ante-rooms, thus providing that great desideratum, "sitting-ou." accommodation, on the same floor as the ball-room. The floor of the ball-room itself will be laid upon springs. The walls are lined with fitted mirrors, and the appointments renders this suite unsurpassed as a centre for dances, soirees, concerts, at homes, and all similar functions. A smaller suite is arranged at the end of the buildings to be called the "Perceval Rooms." These rooms measure 54ft. by 20ft., and should prove extremely popular for smaller social functions. The entire Broadway frontage on the first floor is occupied by a suite of rooms called the "Leopold Rooms." The largest of these is 40ft. by 30ft., adjoining which is a reception-room, 29ft. by 16ft., and the ante-rooms. Running the Whole length of the Broadway frontage is an open balcony on to the street. This balcony, like its counterpart at the Parisian Opera House, communicates with the suite by French casement windows, and will doubtless be much appreciated in the summer. The Masonic Temple forms the second floor of the Broadway frontage. The walls are lined with high wainscot oak, and the room is thoroughly equipped in every way. The domed ceiling is as fine as that of the Holborn. The "Glory" is illuminated by electricity, the source of the light being invisible; the same remark applying to the "Starry Firmament."'

The above (edited) text in quotes was first published in the ERA, 16th December 1899.

The Building News and Engineering Journal also reported on the new Ealing Theatre in their 22nd of December 1899 edition saying:- 'The new Ealing Theatre, erected on the site of the old "Lyric" in the Broadway, is the largest for a place of public entertainment yet sanctioned by the Middlesex County Council. The architects are Mr. George Pargeter and Mr. Walter Emden. Doulton ware is largely used in the elevation. The mouldings have been specially designed and executed in biscuit-coloured material. Four doorways give entrance to the various sections of the building. The back elevation facing Haven-green is treated in fancy brickwork, the north-west corner being capped by an open-domed turret.

The scheme includes a theatre, a restaurant, a ball-room suite, which will be available for dances, concerts, at homes, &c., a small suite for minor social gatherings, a second large suite opening on to a balcony overlooking the Broadway, a Masonic Temple, a grill-room, a cafe, a billiard-room, and a buffet and reading-room, and all the necessary rooms for service, storage, &c.

Entering direct from the Broadway the visitor finds himself in a spacious outer vestibule 32ft. by 2lft., from the right-hand side of which extends the grand corridor. This corridor, by an ascent of four steps, leads to the reception lounge, which will extend at the rear of the grand circle the entire width of the theater. The stalls are attained by a descent on either side of the grand circle. The balcony is reached by a short flight of steps leading direct to that portion. Seating accommodation is provided for 2,000 people. The stage is one of the largest in London, and will have an area of 700sq.ft.

The whole building is of entirely fireproof construction, and the illuminant both for auditorium and stage effects will be electricity, with gas in reserve. The ceiling is saucer-domed, and treated in the Early Greco-Classic style. The grand circle front is divided into panels by small Corinthian columns. The panels are filled with Wedgwood representations of Thespian subjects. The panels of the family circle front contain representations of the Fine Arts, and are separated by Grecian vases. The gilded proscenium frame is square, and forms a border for the act drop, which represents a piece of tapestry from the famous Baranth collection. The building is heated throughout with hot water.

Eastward of the theatre, leading direct from the Broadway, runs an 8ft. corridor giving access to the Lyric Restaurant. This corridor opens into a reception hall, surmounted at a height of 50ft. by a handsome glass dome. Round this apartment, on the first-floor level, runs a marble balcony, from which ascends the marble staircase leading to the principal rooms on the first and second floors. This ball-room suite, named the Montague Rooms, is entered from the ground floor. The ball-room itself has a dancing; space of 70ft. by 40ft., and when used for concerts, &c., will have a seating accommodation for 550 persons. At one end is a permanent orchestral platform, and at the other, the south, is a balcony. A smaller suite is arranged at the end of the buildings to be called the Perceval Rooms.

The entire Broadway frontage on the first floor is occupied by a suite of rooms called the Leopold Rooms. The largest of these is 40ft. by 30ft., adjoining which is a reception-room, 29ft. by 16ft., and the ante-rooms. Running the whole length of the Broadway frontage is an open balcony on to the street.

The Masonic Temple forms the second floor of the Broadway frontage. The walls are lined with high wainscot oak, and the room is thoroughly equipped in every way. The domed ceiling is as fine as that of the Holborn. The "Glory" is illuminated by electricity, the source of the light being invisible; the same remark applying to the "Starry Firmament."

There is a grill-room 30ft. by 20ft., a cafe, a billiard-room, which will be located in the half basement, a buffet, and a reading-room. The kitchens, and everything connected with them, are in the central top portion of the building, and connect by means of lifts, with service and wine stockrooms on each floor. The depth of the excavations - nowhere less than 20ft. below the Broadway level - gives ample room for extensive cellarage. The lighting (gas and electrical) and the heating arrangements are being carried out by Mr. G. E. Cockburn, of 33, Great Pulteney-street, Regent-street, W. (late partner with Strode and Co.), and are in all respects complete and up to date.'

The above text in quotes was first published in the Building News and Engineering Journal, 22nd of December 1899.

The Ealing Theatre first opened on Saturday the 23rd of December 1899 with a production of the pantomime 'Dick Whittington'. However, in 1906 the Theatre was reconstructed when it became part of the Water Gibbons Circuit, some say to the designs of the well known Theatre Architect Bertie Crewe, and reopened under the name of the Ealing Hippodrome with a slightly lower seating capacity of 1,800.

Only 2 years later, in 1908, it was converted for Cinema use and reopened as the Broadway Cinema in November the same year. In 1913 a new entrance was constructed by Edward A. Stone and the Theatre reopened on the 16th of March the following year, 1914, as the Broadway Palladium Cinema with a reduced capacity of 1,260.

Right - A Google StreetView Image of the site of the Ealing Theatre today - Click to Interact.

The Theatre was closed on the 1st of February 1958, whilst under the ownership of the Rank Organisation, after the last showings of the films 'Paths of Glory' and 'Baby Face Nelson', and was subsequently demolished so that shops could be built on the site.

If you have any more information or images for this Theatre that you are willing to share please Contact me.

Some of the archive newspaper reports on this page were collated and kindly sent in for inclusion by B.F.