Restored EMD cinema could "put Walthamstow on the map"

A report commissioned by Waltham Forest Council supports the idea of re-opening the EMD cinema, with the building owned by a non-profit charitable trust.

This option, the report claims, could provide a venue where various
communities in Walthamstow freely mix, as well as attract people from
outside of the borough. This would revitalise the local economy.

Created by Locum Consulting, the report considers using the cinema as a multi-use venue: "from concerts to weddings, conferences to banquets" noting that cultural provision in the borough is currently poor.

Case studies, such as the Troxy in Limehouse, are given to support this idea.

The other option given is providing a cinema next to where the Universal Kingdom of God (UCKG) plan to have their church. UCKG would pay for the development and would get a return from the rent paid by the cinema operator.

The report also lists a number of potential sources of grant funding, which would not require council funding if the first option was taken up, and confirms that a Compulsory Purchase Order would allow the council to acquire the venue at its current market value,likely to be around £1.4 million.

McGuffin Film Society spokesman Bill Hodgson told the Waltham Forest Guardian: "We are delighted that many of our arguments for saving the cinema have been so comprehensively endorsed by this report.

"Our conversations with cinema operators and other interested parties suggest that a revived cinema is not only financially viable but could be the catalyst for Walthamstow's wider regeneration.

“That is clearly what local people want and the consultants seem convinced this would be the best way forward for the area."

Read the report here.

Find out more about the EMD cinema at the McGuffin website and here.