The Coronet Newspaper Archive

We start off with two slightly macabre accounts, I will post some more light-hearted accounts of theatre productions in future, these just happen to be the ones that peaked my interest.  There are various accounts on the internet of The Coronet being haunted by the ghost of a cashier who threw herself off the theatre balcony after caught stealing money...however perhaps Alfred Knight Clarke, the scene shifter is our ghost?

Saturday 12 January 1901

Cheltenham Chronicle

“JACK THE RIPPER” SCARE.

Either a madman or practical “joker” has been at work in the Notting Hill district, Kensington. On Wednesday Miss Winifred Hare, who is playing the part of Dick Whittington in the pantomime at the coronet Theatre Notting Hill received a letter threatening to kill her on Thursday or Friday, and all the leading actresses of London afterwards. The epistle, which was written in schoolboyish hand, was signed “Jack the Ripper,” and was embellished with crude sketches of daggers, skulls, and crossbones. The letter was immediately handed to the police, Miss Hare being not a little upset at the alarming threat. During the performances on Thursday and Friday a large number of detectives and other police officers were on duty in all parts of the theatre, especially in the vicinity of the stge. Nothing occurred, and the police regard the outrage as the work of a practical joke. The Coronet theatre is still, however, being watched, and the police are doing all in their power to trace the writer. 

Saturday 24 January 1903
Derby Daily Telegraph

Fatal Death at a Theatre

                                                                

Mr Walker Schroder held an inquest on Friday at Paddington Coroner’s Court concerning the death of Alfred Knight Clarke, aged 33, a scene shifter, who was employed at the Coronet Theatre Notting-hill-gate and lately resided at 18, Uxbridge Street, Notting-hill-gate. On Saturday last night the deceased was engaged in setting a side wing, a portion of the last scene on the pantomime of “The Forty Thieves,” and was within two or three feet of an opening through which a fountain basin was being raised by lines from the “flies,” when he fell sideways through the hole on to the concrete floor of the cellar beneath – a distance of 12 feet. Walter Turner, electrician at the theatre, who observed the occurrence, said Clarke had performed he same duties for many nights. Witnesses attributed the accident to sudden giddiness on the deceased’s part. Other evidence showed that the deceased was removed to St. Mary’s hospital, Paddington, where he died on Sunday evening from, as an autopsy revealed, the effects of a fractured skull. The jury returned a verdict of “Accidental death.”

Harry Lloyd - Notes From Underground

The Hero of The Coronet

We’ve had the likes of Ellen Terry and Basil Rathbone treading our boards, and the likes of John Gielgud and Hugh Grant sitting in our comfy chairs, but little did we know we had another big name associated with the Coronet.

A couple of weeks ago we received fan mail from a six year old addressed to Matt Hatter. We did some research into this Mr Hatter. Matt Hatter is a young superhero who lives in the Coronet and travels to different dimensions by jumping through the film screens. We haven’t seen Matt ourselves, but his presence here would make a lot of things clear - the noises we’ve associated with our ghost, and the biscuits that keep disappearing in the kitchen. We’ve left the letter on Matt Hatter’s desk, and his fans should be getting a response any day now. If anyone wants to see Matt Hatter’s adventures, they are screened on CITV this autumn. We can confirm that our renovations of the cinema do not include inter-dimensional portals.

Winter (Season) is Coming

We have announced our new season! The box office phones have barely stopped ringing since we announced our autumn line-up on Tuesday. It’s lovely to hear that people are just as excited for the upcoming shows as we are. If you’ve missed the news, here’s what’s coming up at the brand new Print Room at the Coronet…

First up is an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Notes From Underground, starring the wonderful Harry Lloyd (who some readers may recognise from his TV roles such as Game of Thrones and, our favourite, Doctor Who). This show was first presented in Paris earlier this year.

Click to see the YouTube trailer.

Due to high demand, Harry will be performing two shows a night during the week. Since it’s coming direct from Paris, there’ll be certain nights with French surtitles. To start brushing up on your language skills now, here’s a review of the Parisian performance.

Then in November, we have legend of stage and screen, Dame Janet Suzman, co-starring in a beautiful redemptive tale about post-Apartheid South Africa. Solomon and Marion is a production from the Baxter Theatre and has been an international success, so we’re thrilled to give the show its London debut. We’ve just received note that the set has arrived in the UK – all the way from its American run at the Kennedy Center!

To finish off the year in December, we’re doing one of our popular Poetry @ the Print Room evenings – with David Harsent, the poet who launched our very first poetry evening. We also have a festive treat – Clive Francis performs his much-loved version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Because it’s Christmas, we’re doing some special prices for children, so be sure to check those out!

In other news, it’s a Bank Holiday weekend and of course the Notting Hill Carnival is readying itself to storm the streets. Some of you may remember that last year the Print Room screened a special documentary about the history of the procession. We love the spirit of this weekend and we wish everyone a happy Carnival!

Two Tickets To Broadway

Yesterday we discovered one of the old Box Offices where you bought tickets to the penny seats in the currently unused balcony of The Coronet.  A thick layer of dust had settled on both the glass window of the box office and the floor around it, and it was there, nestled into bed of jet black powder we found a cinema ticket.  A beautiful olive tickets with red printed ink, a ticket that puts any of the current cinema tickets of today to shame. 

“Two Tickets To Broadway colour by Technicolor” on one side and, “In the same programme The Racket via Robert Mitchum, Lizabeth Scott, Robert Ryan” on the other.

It seems like these two films would have been among the last to be viewed from The Coronet Balcony as it was closed off shortly afterwards.  There are so many beautiful features of this building that have been hidden away from public view, and under sixty years’ worth of dust, that are so exciting to discover and we hope desperately to be able to show to the public once more.

Each day we all fall more in love with this building and we can assure you that it is being treated the upmost compassion.

Two Tickets to Broadway

Director:

 James V. Kern

Writers:

 Sid Silvers, Hal Kanter Sammy Cahn

Stars:

 Tony Martin, Janet Leigh, Gloria DeHaven

The Racket

Director:

 John Cromwell

Writers:

 William Wister Haines (screenplay), W.R. Burnett (screenplay) Bartlett Cormack (play)

Stars:

 Robert Mitchum, Lizabeth Scott, Robert Ryan 

We have officially moved in!

It’s a very exciting time for the Print Room team.  While it was a very sad goodbye to the beautiful warehouse of no. 34 Hereford Rd that has been our home for the last 5 years we can’t wait to continue our work in the historic Coronet building and to add a cinema to program.

The move started bright and early on a Tuesday morning. Coffee was brewed and muscles were flexed.  In all honesty we would have been lost without our movers, Clockwork Removals, they were fantastic (at one point one of them suggested I sit down and drink a glass of wine – it was 11am).  Perhaps our biggest challenge in moving was the grand piano. We’ve got it safe and sound – and it’s still perfectly in tune, now we just have to get it on the roof.

The amount of stuff we have accumulated over the past five years is astonishing. Some of the best items we found in the old building were…

-          An Underwood typewriter

-          A complete works of Charles Dickens

-          A Native American headdress

We have brought all these and much more to our new home. Question is now, where will it all go?

The offices are nearly finished with their renovations, and we have begun to nest in the top of the building. We have a beautiful view of Notting Hill, and all the local shops have been very friendly. We’ve eaten in nearly every establishment on Notting Hill Gate – research, of course, for our future audience.

We are also all now experts in Ikea. We’ve all had a go at assembling something, from lamps to shelves to tables.  I am now fluent in diagram instructions.

We’re nearly ready to announce our new season and it’s a very exciting package of shows we have lined up for you. Make sure you’re signed up to our mailing list to get the news as it is released.

A Brief History of The Coronet

The Coronet Cinema is a twin screen cinema that has been at the heart of the Notting Hill area for over 100 years. Originally designed as a theatre by W.G.R. Sprague, a designer of many London’s West End theatres, it was built for the then grand sum of £25,000. The building first opened it's doors in 1898 and was regularly frequented by King Edward VII. Many of the biggest stars of the day including Ellen Terry and Sara Bernhardt trod its boards. Films first made an appearance as part of the variety bills at the theatre in 1916. The building became a full time cinema in 1923 and has been in operation as such continuously ever since.

The ghost of a female cashier reputedly haunts the cinema. Legend has it that when she was caught fiddling the box office receipts and confronted by the manager, she dashed out of his office, ran upstairs, then threw herself from the balcony.

In 1923, when the building went over to full time films, it was renamed The Coronet Cinema. A new projection box was installed in the former dress circle bar and the capacity was reduced from 1,143 to 1,010. Sound arrived in 1930 when a ticket would cost you 6d. (about 2p) The cinema was taken over by Gaumont/Provincial Cinematography Theatres in 1931 when the theatre boxes were removed, although the rest of the elaborate auditorium was retained.

The new owners upgraded the sound and doubled the price of a ticket to 1/-. (5p) In 1950 the cinema was renamed The Gaumont and the gallery was closed. By the 1960s the cinema was running second run, off-release, moving over films from other local first run cinemas.

Late in 1972, The Rank Organisation who operated the cinema put in plans to demolish the building. The plan was to build shops and offices on the site, but a huge outcry and a petition, which included the support of film star Deborah Kerr, thwarted this. The local Council stepped in and declared the immediate area a conservation area and the supporters won the fight. Rank relented and refurbished the cinema, but in 1977 sold it to an independent operator Panton Films, who changed the name back to The Coronet.

In recent years the cinema has featured in many films, TV programmes and adverts. Famously, the cinema featured in Notting Hill, starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. The cinema was also the last cinema in London to allow smoking in its auditorium, a practise now discontinued.

When the cinema was put up for sale in 2004, the sale attracted a lot of controversy and media attention. Various schemes were put forward including one from Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of EasyJet, to turn the cinema into London’s first EasyCinema. Hollywood stars Joseph Fiennes, and Gillian Anderson got involved in a petition along with filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci. Once all the dust died down the cinema was bought by a local church, The Kensington Temple.

The new owners closed the cinema for a week on 12th May 2004, and there were fears that it would be converted into a church. However, a week later The Coronet re-opened. The new owners gave assurances that The Coronet would continue as a cinema, and they were plans for a detailed restoration of this historic building. True to their word, the church has invested, mainly behind the scenes, a large amount of money into the cinema. Screen two has had its sound upgraded and both cinemas have had new screens and projection lenses. The toilets have been completely remodelled, and the foyer has received attention with the addition of a new kiosk and box office.

In 2014 a local theatre called The Print Room took over the building – the staff are all very, very excited...