Piccadilly Circus: 1964

This is a John Hinde Ltd postcard showing the view across Piccadilly Circus looking north towards Shaftesbury Avenue from the junction with Lower Regent Street. It is 1964 and the film, “Tom Jones” is still playing at the London Pavilion with the added addition of “Academy Award Winner” at the top of the billboard. The film had won four Oscars at the 1964 award ceremony and continued to be shown at the London Pavilion until 5th July. On the extreme left is an advertisement for the “Circlorama” cinema showing the British made film “Circlorama Cavalcade”. The cinema opened on 9th May 1963 showing the Russian made film, “Russian Roundabout”, the cinema had been developed in Russia by Professor E. Goldovsky of the Moscow Cinema Research Institute and consisted of a circular building 18 meters in diameter and a height of 15 meters. There were a number of screens totalling 45 meters in length around the structure as well as eleven 35mm projectors and 51 stereo speakers. The whole kit and caboodle was imported from Russia by Leonard Urry and a Russian entrepreneur living in London, Leon Heppner. The building was erected on a vacant site in Denman Street which runs off Shaftesbury Avenue and behind the north façade of Piccadilly Circus with entrances in Piccadilly Circus and Denman Street. The building could house 500 people per show which lasted for 20 minutes with the audience standing and with 1000 people waiting in the downstairs foyer. The content of the film was more Russian propaganda than entertainment and the audiences slackened off, the owners commissioned a British filmmaker to produce a black and white 16mm film for the cinema which proved more successful and it is this film which is being advertised. A similar project was set up on Blackpool pier and later in Glasgow but the idea was not a success and the Piccadilly Circus cinema closed in late 1964 or early 1965.

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