Report - State Cinema, Grays August 2023

[Speed]

The guy who has the organ console is quite active on the Facebook group about the place. Not sure what will become of it but there's a fairly active scene restoring them and rehoming them so its probably in the best place 'for now'. The rest of the organ is still rotting away in the half flooded organ chambers under the stage. No one seems keen to photograph it properly tho! Il have to take my waders next time.. Also the piano is pretty cool if you actually look at it. It was all played remotely from the organ console and it operated by a pneumatic pump underneath. Probably not as rare as you might think but you would think someone would want it?

I have mixed opinions, on the one hand it looks worse then it is structurally. Its still salvable in some guise. Spoons removed a few bits but apart from the bar ceiling (which would have been the toilets) its all cosmetic stuff that would have been removed anyway under any renovation so all the bleating about spoons 'destroying' it is completely unfounded. Spoons are the only company that have done anything positive for it since it closed, its a shame the pandemic came along and put an end to it. The real issue is its location, Grays is an absolute hole nowadays. The epitome of cheap London overspill immigration ghetto. Its the kind of place you would struggle to see a spoons surviving let alone a traditional theatre.. Pick the building up and put it in even an average town and it would have been saved years ago, just look at the Stockton Globe.

Ironically the council refused it becoming a happy clappy church when it first closed. Makes you wonder what would have happened if they had just let them have it.

 

[OutlawExplorer]

Best looking one I’ve seen on the site anyway, especially the projection room. Very very nice.

 

[HughieD]

Good stuff @mookster
Loving the projector room and stage curtain.

 

[Calamity Jane]

Gone past this so many times. Always wrong time for me. It is rather special and I love the projectors in there. Great explore that screams explore me, photograph me.

 

[Mikeymutt🐶]

The organ is with an organ society, who took it upon themselves to remove it when it was clear the Wetherspoon plan was lagging due to covid etc.

It's a pity the spoons plan didn't come to fruition as it was a commercially viable way of saving it... they tried to keep it open as a cinema since the mid 80s and it failed so I thought it was a good outcome. Sadly its another "Could have been". Grays has turned into a bit of a craphole and the council are so skint I think the bailiffs will he round to repossess the tele soon so I don't think there is going to be a happy outcome for the State.

Giving Wetherspoons due credit, they have done some cracking conversions. The one in Bury St Edmunds is a great example, I am sure you can name many more. Shame this one was at the wrong time and was aborted, and will prob succumb to flames.

 

[Exploring With Pride 🌈]

I am going to put my neck on the line here and say, even in it's current condition, the State Cinema is the best example of a derelict cinema in the country, a position it seems to have always held ever since the early 2010 reports surfaced of an unbelievable space.

Be under no illusions, it's no longer looking like it did in @Speed and the other early pioneer's photos from well over a decade ago. Time hasn't been kind to it, the failed conversion into a Wetherspoons which was canned when the pandemic hit has resulted in the auditorium and restaurant no longer having a ceiling, all the seats being unceremoniously piled up haphazardly, and a worker's welfare suite constructed from OSB plonked on the stage. However, despite all that, it is still an incredible space and with probably the best projection room in the country, and a wonderful amount of late Art Deco/Modernist details left behind.



The property is now owned by development company London Developments Global after being bought in early 2023, although it appears to be back up for sale again going by the signs on the hoarding.

The famous Compton organ has been removed, and the whereabouts is currently unknown, it doesn't appear to have been broken apart as there is no trace of it in the entire building, so I reckon it's in some warehouse somewhere after Wetherspoons removed it during their ownership. Will it surface again one day? Who knows.

The explore

I suggested we swing by here after having a disappointment nearby, as I could remember seeing some recent photos on social media. It turned out to be a great decision and we were soon standing in the auditorium taking it in. We spent way longer than I thought we might inside, the building is vast with photo opportunities everywhere even in it's current perilous condition and I was determined to see every nook and cranny of the place. The single massive auditorium is an amazing space, it's so refreshing to see a cinema of this vintage that managed to avoid either being 'tripled' or bingoed, or both, over the years, and this is one of the reasons why this place is so special. Even the exterior aspects of it are stunning, the Art Deco style facade and tower looming ominously over the centre of Grays like a behemoth. We began upstairs, before working down to the lower levels, covering everything as I knew I probably wouldn't get a chance to return.

We spent longer in the pigeon pit projection room than was probably advisable, however to see one this complete is such a privilege nowadays. It was also cool to me to see film canisters marked Denham Laboratories, as that's another place I explored a number of years ago.

Moving down to the part which became Charlestons Piano Bar

And down into the lobby and rest of the ground floor.

Overall, in terms of cinemas I've explored, I would say this one rightfully takes top favourite spot away from Port Talbot's Plaza Cinema, even though it's in a bit of a state now (pun unintended).

Thanks for looking ​

One of my top ones to beautiful art deco

 

[Mudbreath]

Wow, can only imagine the glamour..

 

[Hollysky23]

hi has anyone managed to get in there 😊

 

[mockney reject]

hi has anyone managed to get in there 😊

Just about everyone lately

 

[Hollysky23]

Just about everyone lately

Thank you 😊

 

[crazyjonhere]

I heard recently the building was doing the rounds again Nice to see that other than Spoons doing its work the building has kind of survived vandals getting in and tagging the place even when the pipes for the organ were stolen back in the early 00s nobody really damaged the building The projector room is a piece of history apparently up to 2000 it looked like the last day it was used as a cinema and it was said that occasionally the guy who once worked there who was caretaker used to fire up the projectors and show films through them so probably if cleaned up would work again Sadly he passed away few years back which is probably why it went downhill up there so fast after I hear the organ is in storage but just the main console as a lot of it was stolen by metal thief's i recall Peter Hammond took it out with the possibility of putting it back one day but that probably won't happen now Great pics and post

 

[Eggwizzy]

Mookster still pumping out decent explores...

Love the projector room.

 

[Shades]

There is something large missing from the Projection room, the Master Brenograph effects projector which was at the far end of the box with a tall projection port and a vent cowl above. It had two lamphouses on a frame and can just about be made out on early reports but not on later ones. It was reported as still being there in 2019 when surveyed for Wetherspoon but a picture on Flickr makes it clear it has been removed.Photo Harry Seager

Someone has also pushed over one of the followspots, the one to the right next to the cake stand.

 

[albino-jay]

There is something large missing from the Projection room, the Master Brenograph effects projector which was at the far end of the box with a tall projection port and a vent cowl above. It had two lamphouses on a frame and can just about be made out on early reports but not on later ones. It was reported as still being there in 2019 when surveyed for Wetherspoon but a picture on Flickr makes it clear it has been removed.Photo Harry Seager

Someone has also pushed over one of the followspots, the one to the right next to the cake stand.

Its still there just slightly to the left of the vent port just out of frame in harrys shot.

 

[Shades]

Its still there just slightly to the left of the vent port just out of frame in harrys shot.

Alas, that is the Stelmar follow-spot, the Brenograph had an upper and lower lamphouse and sat in that gap where the chair is. Someone's had it away.