Has there ever been a cinema on Goose Green?

[maxtedc]

I was chatting to a lady who had spent most of her life living in South London. She says she used to go to the cinema on Goose Green but I can't find any record of it. I regret not having asked her more. Has anyone heard of it? It's simply to satisfy curiosity but I'd love to know one way or the other.

[jctg]

http://dulwichonview.org.uk/2010/03/09/the-lost-cinemas-of-east-dulwich/

[maxtedc]

There it is! Thank you. :)

[Huguenot]

I bet computedshorty knows where the Dulwich Cino was...

[redjam]

How much would I love it if there was still one there...

[computedshorty]

The Cino Cinema was at 121 Lordship Lane as I remember that building was later a BATA shoe shop, with the loss of that Cinema, the Salvantion Army Hall in Shawbury Road backed onto the Old Cino, so they showed Films in their Hall, many an hour I spent there for just a Penny. The the building that replaced the Old Cino Building was in the Second World War badly damaged but it was not a Cinema then.

This is the Offical Record of the incident my father was one of the Air Raid Wardens that attended this where 23 people got killed.

This was a very serious V1 incident, one of the worst in South London. The V1 hit the co-op store at the corner of Northross Road in Lordship Lane. The Co-op and 6 other shops were demolished and 20 houses damaged in Lordship land and 40 in Shawbury Road. A Salvation army hall was also damaged. It is stated in ARP reports held in the public records office that damage extended across a 700 yard radius, greater than the normal blast area. This is probably due to the fact that later V1's were packed with a heavier, more deadly warhead. It was also reported that Anderson shelters in the area stood up well to the blast. Bulldozers were called in to clear the debris and one tram track was cleared by 20.30 of the same day. The whole block where the Coop stood has been re-developed with post war shops. The opposite side of Lordship Lane also shows significant signs of re-building as do houses up Shawbury Road.

This is an extract from Steve a member of this website's recording the Vi & Vii Bombs.

The Bata shoe company had a factory at Tilbury and as many large copmpanies they bought thier own Fire Engine and trained members of staff to man it during the war, I show the picture Below.

The three siblings who ran the company one joined the army and one got married the remaining one carried on but died in a plane crash later.

[Pugwash]

I spent my Saturday mornings at the cinema The Odeon in Grove Vale - premises remained there until the 70s when it became a temple for a guru.

[Narnia]

The guy who was trying to save the cinema in Camberwell posted lots of pictures of old cinemas in the area though for the life of me I can't remember what the thread was called. It included some really good one's of The Odeon.

The guru was an Indian boy and his followers renamed the building 'The Palace of Peace'. He is still around and can be found on tele about twice a week I believe.

[computedshorty]

Cinema at Goose Green East Dulwich.

The site of the first Cinema the Pavilion, was built close to the School keepers Lodge of the adjacent school in Grove Vale SE 22, this had only a small front with two floors above possibly the managers accommodation with four Crittal galvanised window frames with very small panes of glass, it was one of the few that boasted a car park, that was next to the cinema and occupied the space up to the corner shop of Tintergel Crescent. It was sited behind high Advertising Placard Boards, these were supported by a heavy wooden structure of timbers that inclined back and took up a large part of the parking space, this did not matter as there were very few cars then. The back of the simple red bricked cinema backed onto the pavement in Tintergel Crescent, the only clue of what the building was the emergency pairs of exit doors.

In the thirties it was renamed as Odeon taken from Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation, Odeon Cinemas was created in 1928 by Oscar Deutsch, the colour scheme was light green and cream, of the Art Deco architecture style. Inside the entrance was the central Cash desk to purchase your tickets a long vestibule led to the auditorium in front and the stairs to the upper circle to the right.

The auditorium floor slopped down towards the screen, the cream safety curtains that were always drawn at the end of a show had a display of coloured butterflies on the lower part, to each side of the screen there was a tower on a plinth of three sections high with four green glass panels that reduced in size as they got higher and illuminated light green, and an electric clock to the right.

The cinema was very popular and had two shows a week day, a main film that lasted about an hour and a half, a News Reel, and the 15 minute interval the lights came on and when the sales girl stood under the clock selling ices and sweets, still advertisement slides were shown, the seats were self folding up and when the patrons rose to go to the toilets there was a constant banging. The second half was a B movie and lasted for about an hour, then there was the showing of future films that would be coming soon.

Although there were two separate shows you could come in at any time the film was showing and stay for the rerun and left when you got to the bit when you came in.

Saturdays there was the Children?s Club Matinee in the morning Cowboy films, Mickey Mouse, Buck Jones Roy Rogers and his horse Trigger, Laurel & Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, Marx Brothers, all the kids loved it and shouted like mad.

When the very peak of films were available it meant that you had to stand in a queue that was inside to the left of the entrance hall, where you waited until the Commissionair dressed in his green uniform overcoat with gold braid all over it, and a peaked Military style cap with ODEON on it, he would come over and count about dozen then put his arm behind that number and let those go and purchase their ticket, Some times there were so many waiting in the queue that it led in from out side and down the side passageway, I remember waiting there several who had to wait a long time used the Public Phone Box to tell their family they would be home late.

Those who walked home after, some bought chips from the fish shop in Lordship Lane and ate them direct from the broadsheet newspaper as they walked along, getting home to find that their hands were covered in black ink from the print.

During this time there were some horse drawn vehicles, outside the East Dulwich Hotel was a Granite Horse Trough where the horses could get a drink, there were two lower long troughs underneath for the dogs and at one end a drinking push button to get a jet of drinking water direct to your mouth or use the Puter cup on the chain.

The trams passed the Odeon, to Goose Green some went on to Dulwich Library or Forest Hill or terminated at Blackwell Tunnel, there were two branch lines, one that entered Sterling Road to allow the trams to terminate there and stay until their time of return, the other branch was used by a man changing the points for the trams to proceed to Peckham Rye then terminate at Stuart Road.

Goose Green has as far as I can remember been enclosed possibly to prevent the livestock of the early days from roaming onto the roads. The Pointsmans wooden hut also acted as a passengers waiting shelter, the style reminded me of the sea side shelters on the Promenades.

[jimbo1964]

I remember seeing Planet of the Apes and Tora, Tora, Tora there. Then I have some fondness for the strange 'Guru' temple period.

[Rozza]

I'd love to see a cinema back in East Dulwich..

[jenifabell]

I definitely remember being allowed to go to the "picture House", near Grove Vale school, which i attended. It was one of the few places we were allowed to go to without parents. Once my parents realized that other Black children were going it was a real treat. I am sure that were my love of black and white movies came from. Without a doubt Dulwich could definitely benefit from one, but "old style".

[3 little piggies]

I remember the building being there when I first moved to the area 15 years ago, it sat between the Mirash and Goose Green School and was knocked down to provide building land for the flats which are there now.

[ann bailey]

yes there was right next to grove vale school i was born 64 and i remember going on a sat afternoon to the matinee i must have about 7 or 8 at the time cant remember when exactly it was pulled down but i know it was gone before i finished grove vale at 11 Ann Bailey was Rodriguez