On September 7, 1931, the Granada Cinema was inaugurated in the heart of Wandsworth. Performing that night were the trumpeters of The Life Guards and Alex Taylor on his Wurlitzer organ. The feature film was Monte Carlo and the short was Two Crowded Hours directed by Michael Powell. Until 1934, the film calendar of this Art Deco jewel in the heart of London was supplemented with theatre and musical performances and even a small circus with live elephants. There was also a cafe at the entrance which overlooked the foyer and the Granada even boasted of an “electric” kitchen, a 250-spot parking lot and a carriage space for mothers and their children. The building which houses what is, today, still considered the most spectacular cinema in all of Great Britain, is the result of a design by the great cinema and theatre architect Cecil A. Massey for Sidney Bernstein. The interior, meanwhile, was a result of the creativity of the Russian theatre designer Theodore Komisarjevsky. From Jerry Lee Lewis to Frank Sinatra, from the Rolling Stones to the Beatles, numerous illustrious performers were hosted on the stage of the Granada. The last performance, on April 28, 1968, were the Bee Gees. Then, in the ‘60s, its decline began. It was closed definitively on November 10, 1973. It went unused for almost three years until October 14, 1976, when it reopened as Granada Bingo Club, Tooting.
Shonibare's new works focus on the themes of migration and the conflicts that cause it, and opens a conversation on the role of public sculptures and their meaning in our cities.
Another Hollywood blockbuster becomes a musical. It's Back to the Future adapted for the stage by film creators Bob Gale (Back to the Future trilogy) and Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump). Directed by Tony Award winner John Rando.
The colors of Craig-Martin, master of conceptual art
An exhibition dedicated to Michael Craig-Martin, one of the most influential artists and teachers of his generation and whose works blend pop, minimalism and conceptual art in a riot of colour.
Everything is ready in London for the UEFA Champions League final which this year will see Carlo Ancelotti's Real Madrid challenge Borussia Dortmund led by Edin Terzic.