Another bit of our history gone.....
"Labour London Assembly Member Tom Copley said on Twitter: "Very disappointed but not at all surprised that the Mayor has approved demolition of Earls Court Exhibition Centre.
"An appalling decision."
And Green Party London Assembly Member Darren Johnson said: "Boris Johnson claims to be a champion of the London economy and making it more attractive to foreign investment.
"Yet he has backed the demolition of the exhibition centres that are estimated to be worth over a billion pounds to London's real economy, that attract one a half million visitors.
"By backing this proposal, Boris Johnson is condemning this part of London into [being] a playground for the super rich with mostly extortionately priced homes that will not help the vast majority of ordinary people."
Good enough to hold Olympic events last year and many other events through the years, now deemed only suitable for a new residential area. The British remind me so much of us Irish, we love a good steam rolling by the powers that be, and do feck all about it. Kensington loses an iconic venue thanks to supposed progress. I love Boris Johnson as much as anybody who enjoys some good slapstick, god knows politics needs more like him, but he's making a greedy short sighted error. Time to burn London again methinks, It is Summer time after all.....
i think we need to see beyond the rose-tinted nostalgia here. EC is nothing - fuck all, nada. and esp nothign to the bands that performed there. it has no special meaning...
it's well down the list of "great queen gigs" - the only significance is that the video is in great condition and they had to remove the roof to get the crown in, but c'mon - EC is no big deal.and queen's performance was good but not great.
it's NOT the Royal Albert Hall, and it's not hammy odeon.
and it's not as if queen even had a residency there in 77.
let's be realistic if the landmark that is Battersea can lie empty and redundant for 30 yrs until a new plan comes along then why the fuck not knock down EC?
if anyone is arguing the political point of why knock it down when it's a viable exhibition centre, then i have four words for you
O2 and New Wembley
Boris has got this decision right.
Not worth keeping a hideously expensive building open just because 'we should'.
When was the last time a great band was happy about playing Earls Court? A million years ago....?
Queen never took the roof, or part of the roof, out of Earls Court. Floor to ceiling at Earls Court is something close to 80ft, the place is huge. It was built in the early 30's has a multi use exhibition hall with an Olympic size pool, still in place. The venue was built to rival Madison Square Garden. Origanally seating 20 thousand in it's main hall. Health and safety through the years has cut the capacity down to 14 thousand. The building stands in an area of London, not far from the west end which would be worth a huge amount of money as high end housing and shopping out let's .
The o2 arena although situated in the east end is a modern 18 thousand seater and in recent years has taken bussiness away from Earls Court.
I think the thing that Earls Court has over many venues is that like Hammersmith it has hosted gigs by every major artist through the 60's till the last few years.
It was the Crazy Tour of London when they had trouble with the roof, not Earl's Court. I think it was the Lyceum or the Purley venue that needed some holes drilling to accommodate the pizza oven. You could have fitted 3 crowns on top of each other in Earl's Court.
They are also tearing down a number of estates of social housing.
The reason? To build another fuckin shopping centre ( we have Westfield around the corner) and 'luxury' apartments..
Creating another playground for the rich and bulldozing a cultural icon and the homes of families for generations.
To say 'well done Boris' is offensive and ignorant.
The big issue here is not the loss of a concert venue, it's the fact that no there will be no-where for businesses to hold trade fairs to that scale in the west of London, this will be a major headache for the likes of toy manufacturers and FMCG businesses that do vast business in those halls over the years
Yes it was The Lyceum that required holes to be drilled in order to access the roof girders to hang the Pizza oven rig from. Although Queen were responsible for the cost of both cutting the holes and repairing, they managed to sell the holes to either Wings or Genisis who also required hanging points when they played the same venue a couple of weeks later.
As far as exhibition space in central London goes, there is Olympia which is possibly used more than Earls Court.
splicksplack wrote:
To say 'well done Boris' is offensive and ignorant.
i did not say "well done Boris" - i said "Boris has got this decision right" - there's a huge difference between the congratulatory nature of the first and the acknowledgment in the second - in that sometimes difficult decision have to be made.
Togg wrote:
The big issue here is not the loss of a concert venue, it's the fact that no there will be no-where for businesses to hold trade fairs to that scale in the west of London, this will be a major headache for the likes of toy manufacturers and FMCG businesses that do vast business in those halls over the years
no it won't.
O2, Wembley, Olympia, ExCel, - that covers just about every size and shape of venue required....and if it doesn't then the lazy f**kers can come to the LG-NEC because that's by far the best exhibition centre in the UK
also, this was brought up in "Queen General Discussion" so i can't help thinking this topic is really about the "loss of a "queen venue" rather than the perceived lack of facilities damage to London.....ffs - if the loss of EC is that cataclysmic then London must be in a really bad way. The EC is old and tired.
Whatever venue was on the grounds where the Kinsmen Rec Centre currently is here in Edmonton, LONG gone ago :-)
(I should do some research into whether it was actually demolished, or repurposed & renovated into the swimming pool recreational centre that's there)
