Walthamstow EMD Cinema

Pilbrow & Partners are working with Soho Theatre, Waltham Forest Council and Downing to restore this Grade II* listed super cinema to form the centrepiece of the borough’s cultural regeneration strategy. The cinema is recognised to be of national significance as a rare surviving example of the extravagant and flamboyant work of the Granada Group and their famed designers Cecil Aubrey Masey, and Theodore Komisarjevsky, working at the height of the cinema boom of the 1930s. The building has been derelict for a decade. Our plans restore it as a new live performing arts venue. The auditorium will be restored to be a leading venue for live entertainment, capable of hosting pantomime, music and cinema events, with other parts of the building converted to host a diverse range of education and arts-related activities. The cultural and educational uses will be supported by restaurants and bars. In totality, the site will thus become a vibrant hub of culturally-led activity by day and night, and a major contributor to the local economy.