THE Walpole Picture Theatre entertained the residents of Ealing for 60 years before the lights went out for good on October 28, 1972. But now, the stunning Art Deco building, which began life as a skating rink in 1908 and was converted into a theatre four years later, is playing a key role in a new voyage of discovery — at the heart of an ambitious residential and commercial development by St George to further regenerate the leafy borough of Ealing.
The building itself was demolished in 1981, but its gleaming tiled façade and enormous black, gold-topped pillars have been preserved to front a new eight-screen Picturehouse cinema on the site.
Source: Hard Hat Area: An old cinema at the heart of a stunning development in leafy Ealing