Walthamstow venue that hosted the likes of the Beatles and the Who is to be renovated

It was a cinema where Alfred Hitchcock once watched movies and was later a venue for the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and, on his only British tour in 1958, Buddy Holly.

After years of dereliction and decay, ambitious plans have been announced to reinvent the building as what its backers say will be the UK’s finest comedy venue – a 1,000-seat space at the end of the Victoria line in north-east London.

The building is an art deco-inspired former cinema in the centre of Walthamstow, which this week opened up for a day of public tours.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The interior of the Granada cinema foyer in 1930. Photograph: London borough of Waltham Forest

Martin Esom, the chief executive of Waltham Forest council, said: “We’ve managed to clear out all the pigeons so it is pigeon-free today. I can’t say about tomorrow.”

Anyone looking at the white, tatty front of the building from the street would have little idea of just how big it is and how far it goes back. Inside, there is a lot of peeling paint and clear signs of neglect, but a wealth of original features remain in what once was billed as “Walthamstow’s wonder theatre” with 2,700 seats when it opened in 1930.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Granada cinema screen and stalls in Walthamstow. Photograph: London borough of Waltham Forest

The council has bought it for £2.8m and estimates it will cost £17m to restore, renovate and reopen.

It is in partnership with Soho theatre, which will operate the building. The plan is for music, theatre, circus, an annual panto and the odd red carpet independent cinema opening, but “the key and most important element to our vision is comedy”, said Soho theatre’s creative director, David Luff.

“We have an opportunity to create the very best venue in the country for comedy, a beautifully restored, bespoke, fitted-out, 1,000-seat venue. A theatre in which every seat is a good seat at affordable prices, a venue that will create amazing intimacy between performer and audience and one big enough to bring in the very best of world comedy,” Luff said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The building in 1979. Photograph: London borough of Waltham Forest

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The building in 2019. Photograph: London borough of Waltham Forest

There are many examples of local authorities and creative organisations collaborating and falling out, but Esom stressed how strong and resilient the partnership was after five years of working together. “It is an enormous undertaking of trust,” he said.

The new venue – which is yet to be named – will be a “local theatre with a national profile”, say its backers, and a tangible legacy from Waltham Forest’s stint as the first London borough of culture.

The site has been used for public entertainment since 1887, when the Victoria music hall opened there, becoming the area’s first dedicated cinema in 1907. It was pulled down and in 1930 replaced with the Grade II* Granada cinema building, which remains today, designed by Cecil Masey with ornate interior decoration by Theodore Komisarjevsky. The first film was Splinters, a musical comedy telling the story of a first world war concert party.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The main auditorium, which will be revamped. Photograph: London borough of Waltham Forest

In later decades, it was a music venue, hosting acts including Dusty Springfield, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, the Who, Chuck Berry and Cilla Black.

The building survived a council-approved plan in 1961 to pull it down and construct a skyscraper but, like most big cinemas of its size, its heyday was soon starting to look a distant memory.

In 2000, it became the EMD cinema, bought from the Odeon group with a covenant that prevented English-language films from being shown there. In 2003, the venue was bought by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, but plans to turn it into a church were fiercely resisted by campaigners.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Backers hope the venue will rake in several million pounds in the coming years. Photograph: EMD

A planning inquiry in 2013 decided it could be a viable entertainment venue and, in 2016, the building’s grand foyer opened as a bar and small arts venue, the first step towards the bigger plans.

The council hopes the new venue will add between £34m and £52m to the local economy over 10 years.

It has been backed by comedians including Eddie Izzard and Shappi Khorsandi, who said she welcomed a venue that would sit between small intimate spaces and bigger arenas, “which is brilliant news for performers and audiences”.