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KOSOVO REFUGEE BENEFIT A HUGE SUCCESS
APRIL 1999 SCALA, A FAT REDESIGN
MARCH 1999 THE HISTORY OF THE SCALA
MARCH 1999 SEAN MCLUSKY, THE LEGEND
MARCH 1999 |  |  |
THE HISTORY OF THE SCALA
MARCH 1999
With the re-opening of the Scala, in March 1999, the people of Kings Cross will be witnessing the latest incarnation of a well-loved icon that has sat at the transient heart of their community for over eighty years.
The Scala, known for most of its life as the Kings Cross Cinema, was nearing completion just in time for the First World War to spoil its grand opening. In light of the government ban on building places of entertainment, the partially completed cinema was first used for the manufacture of aeroplane parts, and then after 1918 as a local labour exchange for demobilised soldiers returning from the war.
Finally completed, the Kings Cross Cinema opened on 26th April 1920. Seating 1390 people the auditorium boasted a screen 24 ft by 18 ft and the diverse three hour programme, featuring Nature, Sport, Variety and two Features, was accompanied by a 20 piece orchestra. This precedent for the cinema was followed faithfully throughout the 1920's, and the popularity of the venue resulted in three separate take-overs by increasingly powerful cinema groups, finally ending the decade under the control of Gaumont British Pictures. As with other cinemas in the Gaumont group, the cinema staged lavish free Christmas shows for local children. In 1933 the cinema played host to 1400 Kings Cross children who, in addition to the special film and variety presentation, all received a free toy, chocolates, cake and fruit - endearing a whole generation of local people to the already well-loved cinema.
Like so many of London's theatres the King's Cross Cinema was damaged in air-raids during the Blitz, its proximity to Kings Cross and St Pancras stations, no doubt, sealing its fate. New owners Rank took the opportunity to commission architects TP Bennett & Sons to totally refurbish the cinema, now called the Gaumont, and it reopened to a grateful public on 17th March 1952. Following the now familiar pattern of change, in 1962, the Gaumont became the Odeon and continued to screen mainstream pictures until withdrawing from the main circuit of cinemas in August 1970.
The cinema took its first tentative steps into the world of adult entertainment in February 1971, when as the Cineclub it embarked on a short lived experiment showing uncensored adult films. This proved unsuccessful and only four months later the Cineclub reverted to the King's Cross Cinema and mainstream features returned. In addition to the weekdays programmes of films, the venue now became a live, all-night, rock venue ( Iggy Pop, Hawkwind and Gary Glitter have all played at the Scala) at the weekends. This bold move by the cinemas owners was eventually extinguished with a petition by local residents in 1974, when the cinemas late-night license was revoked. This phase of the cinema's long history came to a end on 12th April 1975. Following a spaghetti western double-bill of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and A Fistful of Dollars, the cinema closed.
Five years later, in 1980, the King's Cross Cinema, came under the control of the International Primate Protection League, and the cinema became a Primatarium - an audio-visual ecology exhibition highlighting problems facing the world environment. The stalls area was reconstructed to look like a forest clearing whilst jungle noises were played through the sound system. Using a multi-image projection system linked by computers, the Primatarium was an early, if somewhat eccentric, attempt to popularise the ecological movement.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the project failed to attract sufficient interest and on 9th July 1981 the cinema returned as the Scala. The Scala Cinema Club move to King's Cross followed the loss of their original premises off Tottenham Court Road. The Club had occupied the Scala Theatre since the early 1970s and had been reviving old films and screening politically engaged, independent and avant-garde pictures outside the commercial mainstream. The first feature at the Scala Cinema following the Primatarium episode was the classic, and highly appropriate, 1933 version of King Kong.
As the Scala, the cinema became one of London's most famous repertory/art house cinemas showing up to twenty or more different films each week, attracting a bohemian late-night crowd, and developing a substantial reputation on London's art, film and club scene.
After twelve rollercoaster years, in 1993 the Scala Cinema Club went into receivership. The end followed a number of high-profile events affecting the cinema. Just before closing the Scala's management lost an expensive court case over a illegal showing of Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. This severely depleted the Scala's fund's and when the proposed rent on the building was tripled, the Scala closed. Of course the general damage to the film business caused by the video revolution and the blight affecting the King's Cross area also played significant parts in the closure.
Despite a number of one-off events being held on the premises since its official closure the Scala failed to develop a new identity until the involvement of iconographic club promoter Sean McLusky and the Bissett family who have now been dedicated to the re-opening of the Scala as an avant-garde night club and art space for four years. The award of a £37.5 million grant from the EU to aid in the re-birth of King's Cross will help in the revitialisation of the area.
Despite the bureaucracy and difficulties that have severely hindered the progress for the Scala, Sean's determination and maturing diplomatic skills have now overcome all the obstacles preventing the re-birth of one of London's most cherished and unconventional venues. With the re-opening of the Scala in March 1999 King's Cross will once again play host to a vibrant and important cultural meeting place, embodied in which is the long and colourful history of both the Scala Cinema Club and The King's Cross Cinema.
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