Shades of Grey

The Granada Tooting was opened in 1931 to much fanfare and is regarded by many as the most opulent Cinema in Britain. It has a striking exterior tower enlivening an otherwise non-descript south London suburb but it is the gothic interior that takes the breath away. The icing on the cake was the provision of a 4 Manual 12 Rank Wurlitzer Theatre Organ, imported from America.

Ken Roe has written a potted history of the building which can be found over at Cinema Treasures. There is also a Wikipedia entry devoted to the interior designer, Theodore Komisarjevsky

(The following photos from the original pre-opening period are from the trade periodical- Cinema, Theatre & General Construction October 1931.)

(This street view dates from 1970 when the Cinema was in terminal decline. From the Winfield section of Gould Theatre Collection)

Monochrome prints can never do the interior justice. A cracking set of photographs from the September 2007 Open House weekend (by “Woody”) can be viewed as a Flickr slideshow here. Bear in mind, however, that the high lux levels required for Bingo and the types of light fittings used are very unsympathetic for this style of theatrical interior which must have looked sensationally stunning when properly lit at the appropriate levels.

There are two online videos showing how the building is today, as probably the only Grade 1 listed Bingo Hall anywhere. The first is on the BBC from a series known as How we built Britain and features an enthusiastic critique by David Dimbleby. (Realplayer needed).The footage is carefully chosen to avoid the invasive trappings of the last thirty years.

By complete contrast, an ITV production called Disappearing London features Madness frontman Suggs playing Bingo (badly) with the Grannies. The large number of one armed bandits in what is effectively a working class casino is not glossed over in this footage!

When the Cinema was converted to Bingo in 1976, a flat false floor was fitted in the stalls to level it off in line with the stage. This entombed the Wurlitzer Organ which was located in the centre of the Orchestra Pit, along with the two pipe chambers underneath the stage “speaking” into the auditorium via adjustable openings known as swell shutters. It is not always appreciated that when theatre organs were in ascendancy in Britain they were somewhat in decline in America. Indeed the Tooting Wurlitzer (like many of its peers) was second hand- it had been a 3 Manual 10 Rank instrument installed in the Majestic Theatre Sacramento in 1926 and was refurbished by the Wurlitzer Company for Tooting. It was expanded by a further two Ranks in 1933, a tight fit into the already crowded chambers.

The Organ had been restored to something approaching working order by the American Theatre Organ Society several times over the last thirty years and could be heard by taking a visit into the enclosed orchestra pit but the work was hampered several times by flood damage (indeed the first recorded flooding was within a couple of weeks of installation). However, the ATOS London & South of England Chapter had a dream that one day the console would rise into the auditorium again and that it would be possible to hear it play. The upgrading of the building listed status from grade 2* to grade 1 provided the opportunity to obtain funding for restoration and after much discussion, negotiation and work, that dream finally became a reality. Now a retractable cover over the organ lift pushes back under the bingo caller lectern, four large hydraulic flaps lift up to allow the music to fill the auditorium via sound chutes below and 1,000 people can fill the balcony to enjoy a nostalgic Organ Concert. This they did in style on April 22nd 2007 for the first public concert since the Cinema closure and it went down a storm. The ATOS ensured the day was captured for posterity by getting the event professionally filmed and recorded, now available on a DVD with a behind the scenes feature.

Sadly, three months after the concert took place, disaster struck again. This was the ATOS announcement at the time:

The National Flooding Disaster on Friday 20th. July also struck South London in a big way and in particular the Tooting & Mitcham area. The Chambers of the Wurlitzer in the GALA Bingo establishment (Ex GRANADA) were flooded to a depth of 20″. This obviously inundated the bass chests, trunking, regulators, ground frame and wiring. The console being slightly higher in the orchestra pit was just above water level. Len Rawle reached the premises mid to late afternoon and was horrified to see the state of the chambers. He and GALA staff hired pumps, and using buckets as well, reduced the water level to a depth of approx. 3″ by 10:00 pm that evening. The remaining water was got rid of on the following Monday. The soaked elements of the instrument must now be left to dry out before being inspected and wind put through. To do otherwise would possibly cause further damage.
It is hoped that the Organ can be put back into operation for four concerts next year starting near the end of January.

The above was subsequently updated as follows:

Important Announcement.
No more Tooting Concerts till at least 2009

After further inspection it was obvious that the flooding had caused more damage this time than floods in the past. As I write this, the sump pumps, one in each chamber, have just been installed so hopefully flooding to this depth will not happen again, although it must be remembered that flooding in Tooting and Mitcham is a well known phenomenon and can happen during any decent storm. Work has already started in removing damaged bass chests so they can be worked on off site. Some in fact needed to be removed anyway to make way for pump installation. The digging of the sumps for the pump intakes, has created a massive dust problems in both chambers so this will mean a big cleanup job now before further work in the chambers can be carried out. Work carried out on site can only be done between the cleaners coming in at 6:30am and start of Bingo at 10:45am so progress can only be made in small pieces of time. Because of this and the enormous amount of work now needed to be done in the chambers, it will be at least early 2009 before more concerts can be arranged. Rest assured that Len and his team will not rest until the Tooting Wurlitzer can rise again.

If you would like to help get this Organ playing again, then please support the ATOS by buying the DVD, online or via post. If you are interested in finding out more about the technical & musical aspects of theatre organs, then the UK CINEMA ORGANS Yahoo Group is authoritative and lively.