Hackney Ocean waves goodbye to grim past with Ritzy revamp

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12 April 2012

A notorious music venue is to become an arthouse cinema as part of plans to regenerate Hackney.

Picturehouse Cinemas has acquired the council-owned Hackney Ocean, which collapsed with money troubles.

The Mare Street venue had a poor reputation after several violent incidents, including up to 150 youths pelting police with bricks and bottles after an under-18s party in 2004.

Its transformation is seen as the latest step towards gentrifying the area, along with a farmers' market and planned regeneration for the Olympics.

Developers hope the cinema will follow the success of The Ritzy in Brixton — part of the same group — which became central to the regeneration of its surrounding area.

The Ritzy has been called a "landmark of gentrification" with its café and recently transformed Windrush Square piazza outside, complemented by the artisan stalls of the nearby market.

However, the push for gentrifying Hackney is a subject of local disagreement, with campaigners claiming compulsory purchase orders are pricing out the traditional community.

The new four-screen cinema will attract globally renowned filmmakers to lecture at the 550-seat venue, after the Ocean became a costly white elephant opposite the town hall. Having handed over the site to Picturehouse without charge, Hackney council will save £3 million in running costs over the next five years.

As well as independent and foreign language films, the cinema will show Hollywood blockbusters and aim to promote locally-made productions.There are also plans for opera beamed live from Covent Garden and the New York Met. One of the screens will be the group's largest in London, at 18 metres.

Lyn Goleby, managing director of Picturehouse, said: "Cinemas have a huge regenerative ability and we've seen area after area change and improve, including Brixton and Stratford. Cinemas can give a heart to a place."

Award-winning London filmmaker Tariq Chowdhury, 22, added: "Providing more outlets for independent films to be screened, particularly in deprived areas in London, ought to be encouraged at every level. Unlike the mainstream films typically offered in multiplexes, independent film tends to be a thought-provoking medium."

Work is planned to begin next month and could be finished by October.

Hackney council acquired the former Methodist hall and library on a 25-year lease in 2006 after the trust set up to run it in 1999 failed. Councillor Jonathan McShane said that after consulting more than 400 residents and 50 local businesses "the verdict was overwhelming support for a cinema at the Ocean".

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