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Barkers Pool's big glass-and-red-framed building is to be replaced with a new look 'inspired by' previous Gaumont and Regents Theates


deejayone

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Interestingly now named the 'Gaumont Building' (that is new, isn't it?) as part of Heart of the City II and will have the glass-and-red-frame façade replaced in a new look 'inspired by' the Regents Theatre/Gaumont...

More details: https://www.sheffieldguide.blog/2020/09/18/plans-reveal-bold-new-look-for-barkers-pool-gaumont-building/

 

 

 

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The building was/is horrendous...but self evidently satisfied our City Planners who argued that they had no powers over architectural merit!

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2 hours ago, deejayone said:

Interestingly now named the 'Gaumont Building' (that is new, isn't it?) as part of Heart of the City II and will have the glass-and-red-frame façade replaced in a new look 'inspired by' the Regents Theatre/Gaumont...

More details: https://www.sheffieldguide.blog/2020/09/18/plans-reveal-bold-new-look-for-barkers-pool-gaumont-building/

 

 

 

Why didn’t they leave the Gaumont alone in the first place?

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On 18/09/2020 at 18:14, tozzin said:

Why didn’t they leave the Gaumont alone in the first place?

It comes down to economics. the Regent was built at a time before television. For many people entertainment was a night out at the cinema. It was a time of big audiences.

Fast forward to the 1980s and cinema audiences were dwindling as there was so many more other attractions; not just television, but also the home video boom.

In these times, it would only be during the school holidays when the blockbuster films came out that the cinema would be full. (There was also a writers' strike in the early 1980s which held back the new blockbusters and instead some  films that would normally have gone straight to video, were granted cinema release. Some of these were not of the highest quality.

Looking at the rival cinema to the Gaumont, the ABC on Angel Street shows a building with retail units underneath e.g. the amusement arcade, the paint shop, the kitchen centre and a bank. All of these were paying rent which subsidised the cinema above. Look at the Gaumont and there were no similar shops. The old stalls area was at street level.

The new Odeon (the red and glass one) had the advantage of retail units below. The rent from these would have helped subsidise the cinema.

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I didn’t think any retail units were under the ABC cinema, nearby just down the ramp yes leading to the “O’yl int Rooad “.

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Just looked at picture Sheffield and Hopman and is entirely correct about retail units being under the ABC, I was wrong in thinking they were no units under the cinema.

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