Phoenix Restored

Moving blogs

2010-03-23T10:36:00.000-07:00

We've moved our blog to our Phoenix website, you can find it here www.phoenixcinema.co.uk/blog

This gives us a bit more flexability over the blog and also keeps it within our site.

There's a new blog waiting there for you now, so go and have a look oh loyal followers.

The calm. The storm

2010-03-12T04:32:00.000-08:00

Hello,

A slight delay then, but just slight. The builders move in on 22nd March, a week later than we had been planning. But in the grand scheme of the work it's manageable. It came down to a delay in getting the scaffold licence but that's now sorted. The work will involve closing the pavement on the Fairlawn Avenue side of the cinema for the duration of the works. This is for the site compound and materials storage. Apologies to people who use this footpath, but it is just for a few months, and the result will be great for all of East Finchley.

There's an odd lull at the moment. It's been such a busy few months and now it seems as though much of the essential work has been done to get the project started. So in the office we've started to catch up on work that we hadn't the time to do previously. This lull though will be over with a big bang once the works start.

We're also exploring the possibilty of having screenings at another local venue whilst we're closed in the summer. This is something we'd love to do but there's still lots of financial and technical issues to solve before we can announce anything, and it may not happen at all. Watch this space.

We've had a bit of a funding boost with our friends at Film London putting almost £10k towards the Centenary screening strand. Most of this is 'new' money and will enable us to digitise lots of archive film to be shown on screen, on our wonderful exciting touch screen timeline and online.

We're also going to be running a regular photo-blog along side this one when the works starts so you can see how it's all progressing.

Finally our lovely patron Michael Palin is coming to the cinema on 8th April, for an event to help our fundraising. You can get tickets here _ http://tiny.cc/MichaelPalin

The builders are coming

2010-02-27T04:16:00.000-08:00

We are go!

Monday March 15th will see Durkan, our builders, start work on restoring The Phoenix. In a little over two weeks the cinema will be awash with hard hats and hi-vis vests.

It's a strange time right now, we're flat out preparing for the work to start. In the office our main task in the next couple of weeks is to vacate the 1st floor entirely to allow Durkan to take over and pull walls down to create the cafe space. Next week sees our new phone system being installed, this will give us digital lines for the first time, greatly enhancing how we can deal with calls. We're moving servers into what will be our new office in storerooms on the projection floor and we're working out what to do with the equipment coming out of the soon-to-be-redundant staff kitchen. We're thinking about having a Phoenix jumble sale in a couple of weeks. As you might imagine after using the same office space since 1938 there's a lot of accumulated stuff that we not only don't need but also don't have space for in the new office. So if you fancy owning some stuff that used to be part of the Phoenix keep an eye on our website and weekly email.

For the first week or so Durkan will be setting up the site compound and scaffold being erected. This will then allow external works on the cinema to be carried out whilst we remain open for evening and weekend shows.

The existing canopy is going to be torn off in the first few weeks too, to allow it to be replaced with a strengened one later in the works. The new canopy will also act as a terrace for the new cafe and will have our a new 'readograph' on the front of it, so it can be seen from the pavement, and not only when you're riding the 263 bus.

In other news this week, Mark Kermode came back this week to film his 'Kermodes' award, his alternative oscars for the Culture show. This will be broadcast on Thursday on BBC2 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006t6c5

Mark Kermode

2010-02-15T10:30:00.001-08:00

Mark Kermode called in on Friday night, as part of his nationwide tour of cinemas which doubles as promotion for his new book.
Mark was great, really generous and lovely. As well as his talk which he gave to a full auditorium he also recorded an interview for the restoration film we're making. All being well the film should be finished the week the cinema re-opens.

We also asked Mark to become a patron of the cinema, which he readily agreed. Here's a picture of Mark with the flowers we gave him for becoming a patron.

After the event Mark hung around for over an hour, signing books and having his photograph taken. By co-incidence the pavement outside the cinema was being re-laid on Friday and the concrete was still wet, Mark signed his name and did a hand-print in the concrete, it's a bit Hollywood Boulevard!

The event rasied over £1,000 for the restoration project. We're getting closer to our target every day.

On your marks, get set ...

2010-02-11T03:51:00.001-08:00

Hi,

This is the first in what I hope will be a regular blog about the restoration of The Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley.

I'm Paul Homer, the Chief Executive of the Phoenix Cinema Trust, though my colleagues may also be blogging about the project.

Well, we're almost there. It's taken 3 years of detailed planning, 2 years of intense fundraising and countless stress for lots of people but as I write this we are very close to having the builders on site.

We have a few meetings coming up in the next week or so at which we'll iron out the remaining issues, but we have now appointed the builders - Durkan. So we're working through some final budgetary issues and some design elements.

We should know soon the exact date for the work to start, but it's looking like Mid-March.

We'll keep you informed.