Kensington The old picture house, Thorne

Chapter 4: Taking it apart · 8 December 2011

Phase 1 - demolition - DONE!

Demolition

So, DSR finished their demo work this week, knocking back the building ready for us to start building up and out.

The last job they did was to remove the footings of the gallery seating. MY GOD! They knew how to build things back then! Two 6ft by 6ft cubes pulled out of the ground! It looked like a meteor impact crater…

So, the demolition phase is complete. We’ve removed:

  • the south wall / toilets / stage
  • the apex roof of the auditorium
  • the auditorium walls down to 3 metres to form the garden walls
  • the gallery seating
  • the projector room
  • both sets of stairs
  • a couple of internal walls
  • the slab in the auditorium
What's left? Well, at least half of our house will be made up of the old cinema; the entrance hall, office, boot room, pantry, playroom, boys bedrooms, family bathroom, landing, and we'll be rebuilding the projector room and using the terraces up top.