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| From Kidbrook Lane to the Well Hall roundabout |
This is part two of the guided walk in Well Hall taken from Discover Eltham by Mr Spurgeon.
We left the walk at the Tudor Barn and today have wandered up to the Well Hall roundabout.
In the thirteen years the Guide book was republished the changes at this end of Well Hall have continued a pace, and so the description of the cinema is as much a piece of history as the story of Well Hall House.
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| The Well Hall Odeon |
The Former Coronet Cinema, 70,
The former Odeon cinema of 1936 designed by Andrew Mather has some interesting art deco features – note- the projecting glass staircase tower and the central canopy over the entrance.
The interior of the foyer is also circular, with a wooden ticket booth and the word Odeon in green and red mosaic set in the floor.
Unfortunately, the cinema has closed and it may be difficult to find a future use for the building.
Church of St Barnabus, 71, Rochester Way. A Victorian Gothic church in red brick, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott. It was originally built in 1859 as the chapel of the Royal Naval Dockyard at Woolwich; it was dismantled and re-erected, brick by brick, on this site in 1933.
The exterior is rather stark, with a bold apse, quirky turret and many lancet windows, along the side are four gables, each covering twin lancets.
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| The Well Hall Odeon |
It is light and spacious with a wagon roof and large flowering mural by Hans Feibusch on the apse ceiling; but is very strange (‘sickly wedding cake’ Pevsner) with 16 angels perched on the beams above the column in the square arcades.
Note the anthemium motifs in the arcades. The Stations of the Cross are of some interest, by Stan Boundy circa 1994.
The vicarage next door is a striking red brick house with a graceful ground floor bow. Adjacent ids the church hall, of 1938, renamed the Frankie Howerd Community Centre in 1988.
Next, the Progress Estate.
Pictures; courtesy of Eltham, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Eltham/210661675617589?fref=ts
* Discover Eltham and its Environ, Darrell Spurgeon, Greenwich Guide Books, 2nd edition 2000
As a teenager I saw many a film there in the 60's. Strange how it's only now, looking at this photo, noticed the architecture!
ReplyDeleteWonderful memories of special afternoons and evenings watching films here from childhood Disney films through teenage and young adulthood during the 60s and 70s. Remembering also the refurbishment to provide 2 screens.
ReplyDeleteI did not live in the area but I had been to services and meetings at St Barnabus in the late 50's. I did not know that it had been the church from the Dockyard. Interesting!
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