Wetherspoons Whitstable

This Wetherspoon Pub is in Oxford Street Whitstable.  The building was built in 1912, over 16-18 Oxford Street as a cinema.  It was called the Oxford Picture House.  It was rebuilt in 1936 in art deco style until it closed it's door in 1962.  It then became a bingo hall until 2010.  Wetherspoons decided to take it over, and the search began for a new name.  Despite some objections of it not being named the New Oxford, Wetherspoon's decided to name it The Peter Cushing, they kept the 1930's feel to it and it's deco reflects back to the golden age of cinema.   

Peter Cushing is very much a house hold name, as an actor and he and his wife moved to Whitstable in 1959, only 50 years you might say, and he wasn't born there.  I think it is very apt, and you can always trust Wetherspoons to be respectful of a building and it's history. more here

The Peter Cushing Wetherspoons Whitstable

The Oxford Picture Hall

The Oxford Picture Hall

                                                                           

                                                                             

The interior of the Oxford Picture House 1912

An interior shot.

                                                                                                                                                                           

The old Projector and reels from the Picture Hall

                                                                               

                                                                                     

                                                                                 

                                                                                 

Updates

The Norman King has officially been de-listed.  It  was confirmed on friday the 21st, by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, that the building has lost it's grade II status. The fire had been so intensive, and the collapse inside after the fire, meant that not enough of the original building was left.  The building can now be re-developed or even knocked down.   Sooooooo  Sad.

Disappearing Betty

I now know why my picture disappeared, apparently when you have a blog on google you are also on picassa their photo sharing site.  you   are allowed so many pictures  on there,  before you  start paying similar to Flickr.  The only problem I have is  my photo's are not tagged, so their is just a random punch of pictures, just sitting there.  I will have to pay of course as I want to keep blogging, why don't they just charge for the domain site or the number of pics you put up.  I suppose I could tag some of the pictures, so that if anyone does find them they will know what they are.  It is so time consuming, and most of the pictures are up on Flickr anyway, oh well never mind eh.

And Finally last, but not least.

The wonderful Andy Williams past away on Tuesday, how sad such a fantastic performer, with a great personality, and an even greater voice.  He will be sadly missed and fondly remembered.

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R.I.P Andy

Lost Header

Well those of you who are observant, may have noticed I have lost Betty from the top of my page. When I tried to put her back I was told that I did not have enough memory left on my front page.  Not sure what this meant so went into design and onto page, apparently when you log on the front page comes up and it has  7 posts on it so it suggested I reduced the number of posts to a page, it will load quicker and, I thought oh I should be able to reload my picture, so I reduced it to three, it did load quicker, but I still got the same message when I tried to reload Betty.  So I am afraid I will have to stay Betty-less, until I can think of away round it.  If anyone has already had this problem and knows a way round it then let me know please.  If not I will have to make sure I add pictures to my posts, which I tend to do anyway as it makes it look colourful, and I don't have to ramble on for hours.

Olympics

Well it is all over for another 4 years, I will admit to never watching them before, mostly it is down to the fact of time difference, and I am rarely in when they show the highlights.  However, it was a fantastic show cost us millions, but what the heck, we do know how to throw a party.  It was so exciting to watch Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis and all the team strive to win their medals, especially the paralympics, they get second billing to the able athlete's we are told about their hard work, and I am not denying what they go through is tough, and the sacrifices they and their families have to make, but you have to admire and respect the parlympians, they have to go through the same sacrifices, and more they are often battling against extreme disabilities, the prejudices, of those living in their communities, and for the vast majority, they are coming to terms with being fit able-bodied one day, and then due to horrific accidents, waking up the next day with a terrifying disability.  I am hoping that the 'Weirwolfe' Ellie Simmons et al, coming into our homes each day and showing the strength of human endurance, will finally break down some of the narrow minded thinking that exists, and people will see beyond the disability, and to except people for who they are and not what they look like, for they are all champions.