The Granada Cinema
Tooting might seem an unlikely place for a “destination” Art Deco cinema, but back in the 1930s it was the location of a transport hub (tube, trams and buses), which meant a high number of potential filmgoers. Additionally, at the time, Tooting was still in the county of Surrey, meaning it was not subject to London’s restrictions of not allowing cinemas to operate on Sundays.
The cinema was commissioned by Sidney Bernstein, as part of his chain of Granada Cinemas (Bernstein would later found Granada Television, the studio responsible for Coronation Street), with the reasonably understated exterior designed by Cecil A. Massey. It is the interior, the work of one Fyodor Fyodorovitch Kommisarzhevsky, which is the star attraction. Marble staircases, halls of mirrors, and plasterwork creating decorative columns are all encountered en route to the auditorium.
The auditorium is astonishingly grand, with great arches and murals surrounding the former stalls, lit with just a low glow of yellow or red. A Wurlitzer stands at the front, once a star of BBC radio, but now sadly inoperative after repeated flooding of it workings. The cinema screen though, is long gone.
In the 1970s, attendance at the cinema was in decline, and it closed in 1973. The building had been granted Grade II* listed status the previous year, so was saved from demolition, but lay empty for three years before reopening as the Granada Bingo Club, the stalls removed and replaced with bingo tables. The club was taken over by Gala Bingo in 1991, and the building upgraded to Grade I listed status in 2002 – making it one of only three such former cinemas in the UK. It is closed to visitors (except on special tours), only usually allowing bingo club members in.
