In this dark and trouble-filled world there are a lot of great things to fight to save and the latest cause is for the iconic London cinema, Curzon Soho, which is under threat from Transport for London development. However, there have been a number of big wins to take comfort in over the last few years as we’ve all managed to save everything from BBC 6 Music to that other bastion of Central London independent excellence, The 100 Club. While saving the bees is still a work in progress – the wild flower patch will be doing its good work once again this year – you can help the Curzon by simply signing the petition to start with.
Essentially, the trouble all began when the cinema was declared to be a ‘surface of interest’ by Transport for London, which is technical mumbo jumbo for, shall we take that land, it looks pretty good for building stuff on. Afraid that it could signal the train track death knell for it’s much loved location in the heart of Soho, Curzon is taking the fight to the man in a bid to safeguard its future, committed to delivering its very independent cinema experience.
If Transport for London’s interest in the location go beyond its initial glancing blow then it could see the cinema facing the bulldozers in a similar situation to Arthur Dent at the beginning of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. Either this is the signal that we should prepare for dolphins to up-sticks and leave the planet and for the Vogon construction fleet to move in, or we all need to band together and sign the petition to keep the Soho Curzon cinema up and running.
However, there aren’t going to be any clever little alien robots flying down to save it, so it’s pretty much up to you to stop the development. If it isn’t stopped then the cinema could be destroyed to make way for part of the Crossrail 2 project, which has set its sights on building new connections to London from Surrey and Hertfordshire.
If all of that isn’t enough to get you on the case and signing the petition with the link above, the guys at Gosh! Comics and Self-Made Hero have collaborated to make a cool mural featuring some of the characters from cinema history in and around the streets of Soho. You can see the mural, which was designed and drawn by artists Krent Able and JAKe, in the time-lapse video below and while it’s not quite as big name as The 100 Club’s celebrity rallying force or the national groundswell for BBC 6 Music, hopefully it will do enough to spark a similar surge for Curzon.
It features everyone from Robocop, Batman and Iron Man to the babe from Barbarella, the gang from Pulp Fiction and Slimer from Ghostbusters. There’s also Princess Leia and R2-D2 from Star Wars, a circling TARDIS, Bruce Lee and Tinkerbell, making it a pretty wide ranging roster.
For anyone that has seen a much-loved cinema disappear off the face of the planet, you’ll know how much your favourite, character-filled big screen can mean to you, especially when it gets canned. While it’s too late for the Hanley ABC and the old Cardiff city centre Odeon doesn’t really stand much of a chance of making a comeback with a new bargain basement concept behind it, there’s still a lot of hope for the jewel of Soho.
