York cinema pledge (From York Press)

I wouldn't be surprised if there is a 'convenient' fire before it is ever re-opened.
By the way, how can you spoil the appearance of a boarded up derelict building?

Kailash Suri, managing director of Reel Cinema (UK) Ltd, said he was still committed to re-opening the Odeon Cinema, in Blossom Street, York

Yeah right !!!

Absolute leisure said they were commited to re-opening the Barbican Centre as well.

As mi Dad used to call them

10 bob millionares !!!

All talk and no money to back it up with

The most novel suggestion I heard to end this long-running sore was to hand over the (peppercorn) lease to St. John's college so it could become part of the campus. Film Studies students could exhibit their projects on the big screen but more importantly, the place would chiefly be run as proper cinema & a viable alternative to the charming but cramped City Screen.

St. John's college ??? no not that lot . they just about own everything in york,along with that other bunch of loser.s york uni.

In-house conservationists at City of York Council have voiced concern though, saying the car park signs are spoiling the appearance of the cinema.

It's already an eyesore with the big blue boards on it - how can this make it worse?

Oh, and York St John's couldn't organise a ...

Why not hand it over to St Johns.

Not only could they use it for exhibiting their work, the students on the Business Management and other courses such as design etc could then use it as part of their practical studies running it too.

They could put it on their CV to obtain better positions in companies when they finish.

At least give them the chance to do it.

Surely they cant make such a mess of it all as York council.

There is more money in education and the public sector going begging than in private sector finances or other industries at the moment.

The most novel suggestion I heard to end this long-running sore was to hand over the (peppercorn) lease to St. John's college so it could become part of the campus.

Writing as a former cinema manager, I'm afraid it's time for a bit of a reality check.

Britain went through a cinema building boom between 1927, when legislation was passed providing massive tax breaks for cinema building, and the outbreak of WWII, when the construction of large public buildings stopped for somewhat obvious reasons.

Most of the cinemas built during this period LOOK architecturally impressive, but are of very poor quality: porous bricks and low quality timber in the superstructure (prone to damp), huge interior spaces that cost a fortune to heat, poor quality fittings and services, etc. etc. During the cinema bust of the '60s and '70s, most of these places, the York cinema included, were crudely 'twinned' or 'tripled' into smaller auditoria, usually by building cheap partition walls that divided the former dress circle into one screen and the stalls below into the other(s). In the process, they destroyed the sightlines and acoustics, and in some cases ended up with screens that are little larger than a big plasma TV.

These places simply can't compete with the atmosphere, comfort and technical presentation quality of the multiplexes of the 1980s. Most are in city centres and so can't provide much (if any) car parking. That's why the last major operator of this sort of building, Odeon, has been busily closing them down starting in the late '80s.

When Mr. Suri meets his architect next week, he'll probably be told that to make the building compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act alone will incur a seven-figure bill. Add to that gutting the interior of the building and configuring auditoria within it that even approach the experience quality of the Clifton Moor multiplex or City Screen and I hope he has a big cheque book. Oh yes, and I forgot ... the industry is on the verge of phasing out 35mm film projection in favour of digital technology, with the projectors and servers costing around five times what a film-based system would cost.

Another obstacle Mr. Suri will face is that the film distributors which handle the cash cow blockbusters tend to do long-term deals with chains that exclude their rivals. They work something like this: Twentieth Century-Fox signs a contract with Odeon to show 'Star Wars 84: The **** Menace'. Odeon agree to run it for at least X weeks in their biggest screen in each town. In return, TCF agree not to let any other cinema in the same town have it until at least a month after release. Mr. Suri will not only be the new kid on York's block, but as his chain only consists of about four or five sites (most of them in towns which have no other cinema), he'll have virtually no bargaining power for films. He'll even have problems getting arthouse titles, apart from the ones City Screen don't want.

Sorry to sound so overly negative, but I really don't think it's viable to try and reopen that place as a cinema in the current economic climate: and possibly, not at all.

Sorry to sound so overly negative, but I really don't think it's viable to try and reopen that place as a cinema in the current economic climate: and possibly, not at all

Anyone for Bingo!

Mr Suri said: “The next stage is on which option we will take. We have to study the character, interior etc.”


What have they been doing for the last year then?

What York really needs is a dedicated pornographic cinema. With the rise of the internet these venerable establishments have largely disappeared - more's the pity. I grew up in the West Midlands and the Sunset Cinema and Strip Club behind Birmingham New Street station was a much-loved landmark. This could be just the kind of development that Blossom Street has been crying out for.