Mary Portas take on dying High St's

vivatifosi

carolt wrote: »

Wow, it looks better now, doesn't it!

I've been past the one in Berkhamsted but didn't realise it was a mere cinema - thought it was a v posh restuarant or club or something from the outside. Beautiful.

Apparently the one in St Albans will not be renwed as a cinema, because of parking issues, sadly.

Great shame - it's a lovely building.

The front of Rex Berkhamsted is a lovely restaurant for a pre-film dinner, Gatsbys. The one sad thing about the restoration is that you can no longer use the grand staircase, they just couldn't tie the bits together in order to do that.

As for St Albans, the whole of St Albans is about parking issues for goodness sake! You'd never get anything through planning the way parking is currently. Plus there's a car park just along from there that the office people use in the daytime. What's the matter with using that of an evening, or keeping the Maltings one open for a bit longer? Why don't the people who say these things have a vision? St Albans would be a better place for having is own cinema.

carolt

Totally agree.

vivatifosi

Just wanted to resurrect this thread for those who are interested... The Rex has put up the money to fund the exchange to buy the Odeon St Albans and reinstate it as a cinema. Here's the article:

http://www.stalbansreview.co.uk/news/4741840._We_still_need_a_multiplex_cinema_scheme_in_St_Albans_/

Let's hope they find the money. The Rex is wonderful and its great having such unique buildings thriving again away from the same old multiplexes.

carolt

vivatifosi wrote: »

Just wanted to resurrect this thread for those who are interested... The Rex has put up the money to fund the exchange to buy the Odeon St Albans and reinstate it as a cinema. Here's the article:

http://www.stalbansreview.co.uk/news/4741840._We_still_need_a_multiplex_cinema_scheme_in_St_Albans_/

Let's hope they find the money. The Rex is wonderful and its great having such unique buildings thriving again away from the same old multiplexes.

:T :T :T

Fabulous news! My MIL lives just round the corner, and every time I pass the building, it's just so sad to see it sitting there, in ruins, when the people of St Albans have no cinema.

What a victory for common sense.

Nikkster

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8368758.stm
John Simons decides to shut down
"
The downturn has finally caught up with a business that thought it might be recession-proof.
John Simons is closing his eponymous clothes shop, J. Simons, in London's Covent Garden next February.
After nearly 29 years of running the niche store, selling classic American men's clothes, everything will now go, even the fittings, when a closing down sale starts in December.
John had hoped 18 months ago that someone else might be interested in buying his business, one that had traded steadily through two recessions, as well as the economic good times, since it opened in 1981.
But that is not how it turned out on this occasion....
...The market for the sort of clothes sold by John Simons is clearly not dead.
He was a pioneer of the Harrington windcheater made by the textile firm Baracuta.
That firm has just opened a "pop-up" shop on the north side of Covent Garden, which will be open for only three months"

Not a massively exciting article on the BBC News website, but touches on some of the themes which have cropped up on this thread. Its not like 100s of people will lose their jobs as a result, nor like I think I would ever have been likely to have bought anything from that particular shop, but I think its a real shame when shops like this (different from the usual identikit high st stores) are lost (though interesting that one of the suppliers is going to open up their own 'pop up' shop round the corner...

fc123

And this bloke really winds me up....

Baugur founder seeks investment

24 November 2009 | By Amy Shields
Jon Asgeir Johannesson, the founder of collapsed Icelandic investment vehicle Baugur, has approached former colleagues seeking investment for his Icelandic retail business Hagar.



Johannesson, who via Baugur owned swathes of the UK high street including House of Fraser, All Saints and Jane Norman before Baugur’s collapse last year, is understood to have approached USC-owner Sir Tom Hunter and House of Fraser chairman Don McCarthy for financing.
Johannesson wants to raise up to £35m to secure the future of Hagar, which runs the Icelandic grocers Bonus and Hagkaup, as well as Debenhams stores in Iceland.

Johannesson and his father bought Hagar from Baugur in 2008, prior to its collapse.
A spokesman for Hunter said that he had not been approached. McCarthy could not be reached for comment