Bob M.

Another old cinema bites the dust [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mellow.gif[/img] . The Zonita in Ampthill, Bedfordshire is making way for a supermarket. The past few years it has been a snooker hall with an Unwins offy fronting it, but there is no mistaking it's original use. If I were a zillionair, I would buy it up and return it to its former use. And screen only classic Brit movies.
Dream on...

"How about dat, a? How about dat?

theuofc

And if you did, Bob M, we'd pin a medal on you That's one of the reasons I love Basil Dearden's "The Smallest Show on Earth" (1957), with Peter Sellers. Chances are you wouldn't be showing the Bijou's "Killer Riders of Wyoming!" Instead how about Arthur B. Woods' crime/horror gem "They Drive By Night" (1938) with Emlyn Williams and Ernest Thesiger. You'll have patrons sitting on the edges of their seats and coming back for more each Friday.

A very nice dream.

Barbara

Bob M.

None of that over the pond rubbish for my cinema. I could show a Britmovie every week and never get bored with it.
The original cinema doors are still in situ on the front of Unwins offy. Heavy black quarters. Round circles in the glass. I might go and see if I can salvage them, if they haven't smashed them up already. Above the offy is the projection room, not for much longer though. I look at the steps leading up to the front doors and imagine the queues waiting. I see teddy boys in the fifties, uniforms in the forties, don't know whai i'd see before that.
If only...

"How about dat, a? How about dat?

Bob M.

The front foyer has gone leaving a scar around the inner entrance door . Most of the windows are now smashed, and the builders have put a big hoarding right around the building. But she stands defiant yet.
Ampthills loss.
The nearest cinema is ten miles away. Shows mainly rubbish on its six screens anyway.
An old Ampthillian told me that on a Friday/Saturday night the pub across the road never did any trade 'till the main feature had finished at about ten p.m.
Then it was madness 'till chucking out time.
She also saw my all time top of the tree favourite Britmovie when it was released, The Ladykillers.
I 'spect I'll never see it on the big screen. Unless I buy one of those bloody big teles, like you see in clubs and such.
Still dreaming.

"How about dat, a? How about dat?

theuofc

Hello, Bob,

I'm sorry to read that the wreckers are at the theatre now. I went looking for a photo of the old Zonita and came upon a website you may know. It has a photo of the theatre in 1941 and a modern day photo before the wreckers. There's also an old Zonita programme for February 1941 listing Claude Rains in "Four Wives" and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Joan Bennett, and George Sanders in "Green Hell". Just wonderful!

http://clutch.open.ac.uk/schools/ridgmont0...le_leisure.html

Best,

Barbara

Bob M.

Barbara, thats the old Zonita. Scaffolding has gone up all around the building and the roof has gone revealing steel roof girders. I expect the tiles have been salvaged. It's a sorry site to see. Ampthill needs a supermarket though, but I wonder how many will use a Waitrose when a mile up the road is a much cheaper and bigger Tescos.
Thanks,
Bob.

"How about dat, a? How about dat?

Ascoyne D'Ascoyne

I spent a pleasant day in Norfolk last weekend and was interested to see, passing briefly through Dereham Town centre,quite an old a building being used as a cinema which looked as though it hadn't originally been built for that purpose. Made a nice change from all the modern multiscreens which we see today everywhere.

Bob M.

Just a few miles away from Ampthill is a village called Cranfield. It is now famouse for it's large university situated next to the airfield. The airfield (now called Cranfield Airport) was an O.T.C. of the R.A.F. during the war. The most famous airman to be posted there was the great Guy Gibson of dambuster fame. It is mentioned in his biography.
In Cranfield village is a convenience store (Co-Op I think). This shop is in the shell of The Ritz Cinema.

I wonder if, one Saturday night in 1942. Guy Gibson and some of his chums......

"How about dat, a? How about dat?

theuofc

Glad you liked the old photos, Bob. You are right about developers. Their wishful thinking isn't always carried out by reality, but by then the old building is gone. The website has a photo of the modern-day Zonita, pre-wreckers, in a separate click screen, which allows one to see the old Zonita plus the later one.

Best,

Barbara

theuofc

Hello, Jeff,

Thanks for the heartening news that Dereham has allowed an older building to be used as a cinema. Once a town approves zoning for it, the argued 'need' for a multiscreen at a mall isn't so compelling. And maybe even a proprietor who loves films will run the cinema.

Best,

Barbara

Bob M.

The old Zonita is no more!
Waitrose have built a car park with two or three levels right on the spot.
The centre of Ampthill no longer looks pleasent and inviting, bloody big supermarket and car park greets all who come down "Hill Difficult" (this was the hill in Pilgrims Progress John Bunyan wrote about) into the village.
What price progress?
Some would say it's only a building, bricks and cement, but it was more than that to plenty of old Amptillians.
Every time I passed by I had to have a good gaze, and wish I could have seen at least one film there.
Daft, I hear murmered, well perhaps. But I liked the old Zonita. Now she's gone forever.

"How about dat, a? How about dat?

Steve Crook

It's always sad when an old cinema is lost

Steve