Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Visit to the Finsbury Park Astoria
Well all I can say is that I was not in the least disappointed, and I think I speak for all of us who went.
It appeared at first that we weren't going to be let in and we were all set for a bit of a diappointment. But after the initial hitch they let us in and, I must say, did us proud. One of the staff members spent about 45 minutes letting us wander where we wanted and photograph what we would. They even turned on illuminations and started the fountain in the foyer on our account.
What a spectacular interior. I was delighted to see that it's in an excellent state of preservation.
It's an absolute feast of colours; a mad riot of Hollywoodesque interior design.
I've put a complete photset on my Flickr page (too many photos on here and we'll be over the storage limit and having to pay another tranche of fees).
Looking forward to seeing photos from the others who went.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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Wow, those photos over at flickr are cool. So that's what heaven looks like. :) Glad you guys got in.
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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Amazing pics.
This was of interest in the Wikipedia site:
A few months later (November 1995) the city and the government, declaring the cultural importance of the building, made an agreement with AXA to transfer the property to a group of citizens that manages the theater as a cultural hotspot since then
Imagine if our cultural buildings i.e. Ally Pally could be treated with similar respect by "city and government."
Less said about the nonsense that is conducted in The Astoria, the better. I would not wish to offend
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Permalink Reply by alistairj on
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A look at this photo (photoset) on flickr shows what it was like 22 years ago and reinforces how sensitively the renovation has been done. There don't appear to have been any structural modifications - with very little evidence of 'change of use' eg. meeting rooms have been created using easily removable partitions.
I was very impressed.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Sounds like we may have lucked out guys.
I just had an email via Flickr form the editor of the Cinema and Theatre Association who'd seen my pictures and wanted to link to them.
Apparently he and an Australian visitor got in some while back, took some pictures and were then asked to delete them because it's not allowed!
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If it's a problem, suggest pulling images onto this site. People have a right to see what it's like inside the Astoria. You own the images, not them.
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No I don't think it's a problem. We had permission to take pictures. I was only pointing out that maybe we were lucky. Another guy I'd been emailing from another cinema history org told me a coulpe of months ago that we'd never get in. So it seems like the church is quite protective. We lucked out.
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