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Author Topic: 76 injured in London theatre ceiling collapse Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 12-23-2013 01:23 PM                        quote: Steve Matz I think most of your Old Buildings built before the Depression had real quality workmanship in them. Interesting. The cinema building boom in Britain really happened between the late '20s (the 1927 Films Act caused a sort of dotcom bubble in the movie business) and the outbreak of WWII, i.e. actually during the Great Depression. The movie business must have been one the very few that actually grew during this period. My first job was in a 1930-built picture palace of the sort that went up in almost every major town and city in Britain during the following decade. I remember the chief telling me that although these buildings look grand and impressive, appearances deceive and the truth is that most of them were thrown up as cheaply as possible, and the bare minimum was spent on maintenance thereafter. That, combined with bomb damage during the war, a lot of which was bodge-repaired at best, was part of the reason why the chains were keen to close, pull down and replace with hangar-like ring road buildings so many of them once the multiplex era began in the '80s: the amount they were costing in maintenance, just to keep them open, was staggering. I get the impression that a lot more theatre building went on during the '20s in the US than in Britain: Hollywood's aggressive international expansion (especially into other English-speaking markets, which caused the cinema-building boom there) really went into top gear with the arrival of sound, partly because of the need to recoup the huge investment that needed. As for the West End incident being triggered by a simple weather event, that doesn't surprise me: what does is that whatever inspection regime existed was unable to establish that the building would not be able to withstand that event. I've been visiting relatives in London for the last week (got home yesterday), and the weather in the few days leading up to the event was unusually rainy, but, writing as someone who was born and brought up in Wimbledon, not exceptionally so. The good news is no deaths and very few serious injuries, and hopefully the publicity resulting from this will result in preventative action taking place. Unlike the Knickerbocker Theatre disaster, this appears to be a failure of maintenance rather than of design, which in a way is also a positive.  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 12-23-2013 02:41 PM                     The Daily Mail has a photo compilation available here. As you can see, there doesn't seem to be any real damage to the roof from the outside. There was also some construction work going on, mainly on the facade, but also going up to the roof. It's just some wild speculation, but maybe that could be a factor too.  |  IP: Logged Mark Ogden Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 943 From: Little Falls, N.J. Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-23-2013 03:46 PM                     I remember when the ceiling of the Murray Hill Cinema on the east side of Manhattan colapsed in 1986 during a showing of Psycho 3 . Only a few people were hurt because there were very few people in the theatre at the time. The headline in the NY Post the next day was: "MOVIE CREDITED WITH SAVING LIVES".  |  IP: Logged Mark Hajducki Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 500 From: Edinburgh, UK Registered: May 2003 posted 12-23-2013 10:21 PM                     quote: Leo Enticknap although these buildings look grand and impressive, appearances deceive and the truth is that most of them were thrown up as cheaply as possible That applies to all the sites I have worked whether they are 100 or 10 years old. None of them were well built and most of them had leaking roofs. All of the sites show signs of being built/rebuilt on the cheap. I would expect the insurance companies to have more interest in the routine inspection of the building as they have liability.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 12-24-2013 06:45 AM                     quote: Steve Matz Construction must have been pretty top notch in the Day. I don't remember hearing stories of too many Balconies/Lodges or Ceilings falling down. Oh really? Look up the Knickerbocker Theatre (Washington, DC). Weather too played in the demise of the ceiling and balcony. Complete collapse. 98 people died in that one and over 100 were injured back in 1922.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 12-24-2013 05:03 PM                        I learned the hard way that plaster is not very stable over the long hall. One night while sound asleep, a roar as loud as a Mack trunk crashing into a brick wall woke me. The four tier bookshelf that was attached to the wall opposite our bed had let loose and piles of books and four heavy shelves crashed within inches of the bed. Mind you, this shelving had been up there attached firmly to the wall with three inch screws into the plaster and the lathing beneath. It had been up there for 30 years plus. Nothing at all had been placed on any of the shelves for probably over 6 months, so it was not like it had been overloaded and then one extra book placed on it brought it down -- no, it just let loose...pulled all four screws and their plastic anchors on each of three bracket strip holders right out. A maintenance fellow at the theatre said plaster just changes over time -- contracts/expands with heat and moisture and even natural vibration in a building, especially one on a street facing heavy traffic, it is not uncommon for it to give way, especially if it has been applied as an ornimental facia to other material as is often the case in the old movie palaces. Talk about things falling -- our house audio engineer tells a story of an old theatre near Hofstra U on Long Island which closed and was sold and the construction crew was dismantling it to make it fit for another commercial business. As part of the reconstruction they needed to remove the marquee. The crew worked to cut the steel beams right at the front wall. They cut it cleanly and swung it away from the building; about 15 minutes later while the crew was intently focused on maneuvering the marquee as it hung from a crane, a huge crashing sound shook the ground that felt like an earthquake. Then a cloud of dust bellowed out the front doors of the theatre. Seems the theatre was designed so that marquee was a counterbalance for the balcony which of course came crashing down into the orchestra once the other end of the fulcrum was removed. Luckily no one was in the theatre at the time.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 12-25-2013 07:37 AM                     Don't heat/cool an old theatre during the off season (or if it closes)...see how fast the plaster comes down! No plaster isn't that stable.  |  IP: Logged

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