Vanessa Redgrave clan open fire on developers to save art deco cinema

Vanessa Redgrave and her family have vowed to continue fighting a development which involves the demolition of their local cinema.

Developers say they have amended the regeneration project for the town hall site in Hammersmith and listened to residents’ concerns after Boris Johnson blocked the plans two years ago.

But the new proposals, due to be submitted this summer, still include bulldozing King Street’s art deco cinema which opened in 1936. It would be replaced by a smaller 200-seat picture house on a different site.

Celebrities including actors Alan Rickman, Ralph Fiennes and Colin Firth objected to the original plans, which included a supermarket on the site of the old cinema. Hammersmith and Fulham council withdrew the scheme after the Mayor said he would not approve it.

Redgrave saw her first film, Henry V, at the cinema in 1946 when it was the 2,000-seater Regal and had an organist. The Oscar-winning actress, who has a home in Chiswick, still visits the cinema with her grandchildren. She said: “It has lost a bit of paint over the years but there are practically no community places left. Nothing can replace going out with a girlfriend, grandmother, brother or sister to see a film.”

Her son Carlo Nero, chairman of the Save our Cinema campaign, said: “We really want the cinema to be at the heart of this regeneration so it becomes a focal point, a cultural point of reference and a place where people can come together as part of the community.”

His father Franco Nero, who starred in 1966 Italian Western Django, said: “We have to fight to save this place. I used to come here in the Sixties when this was our cinema so I would be very upset if they destroyed it.”

King Street Developments Ltd said there had been positive feedback to the new plans at public meetings. They will provide 200 homes, new council offices and shops and restaurants around a public square.