Tag Archives: 1951

Majestic Cinema

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Cinema that was at Mitcham Fair Green, on the corner of Upper Green East and the original St Marks Road. It opened Friday 6th October, 1933.

Photo from mid-1970s by Eric Montague. Reproduced by kind permission of the Merton Historical Society.

1951 OS map, reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland, reuse CC-BY

Planning application no. 1768 for a cinema and cafe, was submitted by Majestic Theatre (Mitcham) Ltd., 151 Great Portland Street, W.1., as shown in the minutes of the Mitcham Urban District Council, page 731, volume XV, 1929-1930.

It became the 4th of 5 Majestic cinemas.

From the Kinematograph Weekly – Thursday 26 December 1929

Mitcham’s Super

Majestic Theatres Corporation Project

FOLLOWING the successful opening of the Majestic, Staines, preparations are being made by the Majestic Theatres Corporation, Ltd., of 151, Great Portland Street, W.1, to proceed with the erection of the new kinema at Mitcham, the architect of which is S. B. Pritlove, 6, Sherwood Street, W.l, who also planned the Staines hall.

The chairman of the proprietary company is W. E. Greenwood, the eminent decorative artist, who, as in the company’s other theatres, will be responsible for the decorative effects. The new hall will be on a corner site at the Fair Green, Mitcham, and will accommodate about 2,000 persons.

Newspaper articles from the Mitcham News and Mercury:

17th Feb 1933
MITCHAM’S NEW CINEMA

Plans for Majestic Complete

The Majestic Cinema, at the Fair Green. Mitcham, is proceeding apace. The architect, Mr. S. B. Pritlove, L.R.I.B.A., of Denham-street. Piccadilly, has already got the plans and specifications completed, and next week the whole of the tenders for the work will have been let. A condition is that the contractors must begin operations within a week of accepting the tender.

The steel work contract has been let to Messrs. Dorman Long, the well-known Middlesbrough firm, who built the Sydney Bridge in Australia, one of the biggest undertakings of its kind in the world. The cinema is certain to be one of the smartest in the Metropolis when it is finished.

2nd March 1933
ORDERS PLACED
Messrs Dorman Long and Co. Ltd., have been awarded contracts for the supply and erection of the steel framework for two kinemas – the Ritz, Nottingham, and the Majestic, Mitcham.

The steelwork for the Ritz amounts to 600 tons, and work is expected to start at the end of April.

The Majestic will contain 350 tons of steel.

17th March 1933
CINEMAS ON SUNDAY
APPLICATION FOR MAJESTIC, MITCHAM The Majestic (Theatre) Mitcham, Ltd., who are building the new super cinema, the Majestic, at the Fair Green, have applied to the Home Secretary for a draft order for Sunday opening.

The matter will come before the Mitcham Urban District Council at their next meeting.

This raises the question locally of Sunday opening of cinemas, which, is nowadays agitating other districts.

12th May 1933

12th May 1933

23rd June 1933
SUNDAY CINEMAS.
The application of Mitcham Council for an order under the Entertainments Act, based upon the decision of the recent public meeting, has been granted by the Home Secretary. This enables the Sunday opening of cinemas. The construction of the Majestic Cinema at the Fair Green is being pushed forward with all speed, and the roofing is nearing completion. It is confidently expected that the Cinema will the ready for opening by the end of September

7th July 1933
IT IS THE MAJESTIC.

The Majestic Cinema is rapidly rising on the site opposite Mitcham Fair Green. The name “Majestic” seems very appropriate, for the building looms high and lofty in an important and busy area, and as far as one can judge it will be as imposing and handsome as any of the new buildings recently opened in the vicinity. When completed, the cinema, baths and library will each be calling for support at a distance of less than 150 yards apart. So we shall have the library for the mind, the baths for the body, and the cinema for the relaxation of both.

8th October 1933

6th October 1933

13th October, 1933

13th October 1933

13th October 1933

There were remarkable scenes in Mitcham last Friday evening, when Mitcham’s own cinema, the Majestic, was opened, a huge crowd assembling. Inset are (left to right) Ald. J. Chuter Ede, Mrs. Ede, Mr. Silverton Miles (manager), Lady Meller and Sir R.J. Meller, M.P., at the opening ceremony.

13th October, 1933

13th October, 1933

Newspaper Headlines

Date Headline Newspaper Page
12/05/1933 Sunday opening agreed to Mitcham News and Mercury 1
13/05/1933 Sunday cinemas at Mitcham Mitcham and Morden Guardian 10
20/05/1933 Mitcham Sunday Cinemas Mitcham and Morden Guardian 4
16/06/1933 Mitcham Vicar and Sunday Cinemas Mitcham and Morden Guardian 9
09/09/1933 Mitcham’s new Cinema Mitcham and Morden Guardian 5
15/09/1933 Official opening set Mitcham News and Mercury 1
30/09/1933 Mitcham’s new Cinema Mitcham and Morden Guardian 2
13/10/1933 Opening Mitcham News and Mercury 1
14/10/1933 The Majestic Theatre Mitcham and Morden Guardian 3
30/12/1933 1,500 Council School children entertained Mitcham and Morden Guardian 5
04/10/1951 Origin (letter) Mitcham and Tooting Advertiser 4
11/10/1951 Origin (letter) Mitcham and Tooting Advertiser 6
07/02/1958 Farewell day for the Majestic’s Mr Kaye Mitcham News and Mercury 8
04/04/1958 Meet the new cinema manager (Mr Cave) Mitcham News and Mercury 8
11/04/1958 Duke competition Mitcham News and Mercury 8
24/04/1958 They are shy of their Teddy Boy Suits Mitcham and Tooting Advertiser 1
09/05/1958 Friendly manager Mitcham News and Mercury 8
06/06/1958 Gala show Mitcham News and Mercury 8
04/07/1958 Calling Marjorie Mitcham News and Mercury 8
10/10/1958 New manager Mitcham News and Mercury 8
30/10/1959 Rumour quashed Mitcham News and Mercury 1
30/06/1960 Majestic Cinema in £170,000 take over bid Mitcham and Tooting Advertiser 1
03/08/1961 Future of Majestic Cinema in the balance Mitcham and Tooting Advertiser 1
04/08/1961 No bingo at the Majestic Mitcham News and Mercury 1
17/11/1961 Majestic cinema – no more films Mitcham News and Mercury 1
23/11/1961 Cinema turned over to big-time bingo Mitcham and Tooting Advertiser 1
01/12/1961 Bingo comes to the Majestic Mitcham News and Mercury 11
01/12/1961 Why Mrs Wood was last to leave Majestic Cinema Mitcham News and Mercury 11
15/12/1961 Majestic to be flats, shops? Mitcham News and Mercury 10
21/12/1961 Reopen Majestic, say Young Socialists Mitcham and Tooting Advertiser 1
22/12/1961 Let town take over Majestic Mitcham News and Mercury 1
29/12/1961 Majestic – talks are planned Mitcham News and Mercury 1
05/01/1962 Shops on Mitcham Majestic site Mitcham and Morden Guardian 1
15/03/1962 Majestic is going over to quizzes and wrestling Mitcham and Tooting Advertiser 1
16/03/1962 Variety for Majestic Mitcham News and Mercury 1
23/03/1962 Granada Theatres – a denial Mitcham News and Mercury 1
23/03/1962 Dancing school not affected and last game of bingo Mitcham News and Mercury 11
05/04/1962 Clickety click the V.S.A. Way Mitcham and Tooting Advertiser 1
06/04/1962 It’s American bingo now at the Majestic Mitcham News and Mercury 1
18/05/1962 Pop singer Jerry pulls in crowds Mitcham News and Mercury 1
30/07/1971 Development plan rejected Mitcham News and Mercury 1
03/01/1975 It’s bye bye Bingo Mitcham News and Mercury 1
15/02/1975 Family cinema planned Mitcham News and Mercury 1
28/02/1975 Bingo’s days are numbered Mitcham News and Mercury 5
04/04/1975 Last minute Let Off for Majestic Mitcham News and Mercury 1
17/10/1975 Majestic’s bingo fans hear last call Mitcham News and Mercury 11
30/01/1976 Old cinema wrecked by vandals Mitcham News and Mercury 1
02/09/1977 Superstore plan for cinema Mitcham News and Mercury 15
04/11/1977 Firm plan for cinema site Mitcham News and Mercury 68
03/03/1978 Supermarket plan for Majestic site Mitcham News and Mercury 68

See also Cinema Treasures

Minutes of meetings held by the Mitcham Urban District Council are available on request from the Merton Heritage and Local Studies Centre at Morden Library.

W.J. Bush & Co. Ltd.

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In 1886, W J Bush and Co, already well established in London, purchased the herbal distillery at Figges Marsh, Mitcham, which had belonged to Messrs Potter and Moore. The copper stills and other equipment were moved to Bush’s newly built works in Batsworth Road where they wished to develop top quality essential oil distillation of peppermint, lavender and camomile.

The distilling of harvested herbs at the Mitcham works was discontinued after 1957, partly because it was no longer economic for the large stills to remain idle for all but the six weeks of each year when the crops were ripe for distilling, and partly as the space was required for the installation of more up-to-date equipment for other processes. The stills were dismantled and sold to H B Carter who re-erected them at his herb farm at Brasted, Kent.

Between 1960 and 1963 W J Bush amalgamated with two other oil distillers, Boake Roberts and Stafford Allen to form Bush, Boake and Allen. The new firm was later absorbed by the Albright and Wilson group which became part of Tenneco International. On rationalisation of the Albright and Wilson group, the Batsworth Road works were closed and demolished in 1977.

Source: Surrey History Centre.

The prospectus is published of W. J. Bush & Co., Limited, with share capital of £250,000, divided into 25,000 five per cent cumulative preference shares of £5 each, and 125,000 ordinary shares of £1 each, and £123,000 four per cent, first mortgage debenture stock.

This Company has been formed to acquire the old-established business of Messrs W. J. Bush & Co., manufacturing chemists, distillers of essential oils, &c.

The Company acquire the freehold warehouses and offices situate in Artillery Lane, London ; the freehold works at Ashgrove, Hackney ; the freehold distillery at Mitcham, Surrey ; and the freehold works at Messina, in Sicily.

The purchase price has been fixed by the vendors at £350,000, payable to £125,000 in ordinary shares and the balance in cash.

Subscriptions are invited for the preference shares and the debenture stock, and the list of applications will close before Tuesday, 23d March, at p.m., for London, and the following morning for the country.

Source: Dundee Advertiser – Saturday 20 March 1897 from the British Newspaper Archive (subscription required)

In 1915 directory listed as lavender and peppermint distillery
Map, published in 1914:

1914

1914

This 1918 booklet from the company published in New York has prices for its essences and a summary of the amount needed to make a batch, e.g. 1 lb of concentrated pineapple with flavour 2,000 lbs of ‘boiled goods’.

From 1951 booklet of centenary of company:
1951 Mitcham Factory Management1951 FH Priest

1951 Managers1951 Bush Long Service Group with names
Names are shown with the number of years in service in brackets.

Top Row: left to right: J.C. Gibbs (33 yrs.), J. Orfeur (31 yrs.), W.J. Hone (35 yrs.), J. Wade (30 yrs.)

Middle Row: G. Smith (29 yrs.), A. A. Windeatt (30 yrs.), G.W. Knowles (30 yrs.),J.A. Martin (31 yrs.), J.A. Rogers (31 yrs.)

Bottom Row: F.C. Caplin (32 yrs.), R.G. Rance, B.Sc. (32 yrs.), Frederick William Priest (28 yrs.), Frederick Horace Priest (55 yrs.),K.H. Grunbaum (33 yrs.), C. Whiting (32 yrs.), E.F. Rogers (31 yrs.)

1946 Institution of Engineers Obituaries (from Grace’s Guide)

GEORGE NEILSON KLEE was born in 1903 and received his technical education in mechanical engineering at the Northampton Polytechnic. After the completion of a nine years’ apprenticeship with Messrs. Farrow and Jackson, Ltd., brewers’ engineers, London, in 1928, he was appointed chief draughtsman at the Letchworth works of Messrs. L. Lumley and Company, Ltd., brewery engineers, but two years later he accepted a similar position with Messrs. Multifillers, Ltd. In 1933 he became works engineer at the Mitcham branch of Messrs. W. J. Bush and Company, manufacturing chemists, with responsibility to the works manager for the design and reconstruction of plant and buildings. After holding this position for seven years his services were lent by that firm to the Ministry of Supply and during the next two years he acted as senior mechanical engineer of the propellant planning department at Wrexham, being solely responsible to the chief engineer for the mechanical design of cordite factories. He then returned to Messrs. Bush as chief engineer and was holding this appointment at the time of his death, which occurred on 30th November 1944. Mr. Klee was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1936.

From the 1939 Who’s who in Engineering (from Grace’s Guide):

Klee, George Nielson Klee. A.M. I. Mech.E. Engineer, W. J. Bush & Co., Ltd., Mfg. Chemists, Batsworth Road, Mitcham. Private Address: 19 Cockwood Close, N.2. Career: Northampton Polytechnic (Awarded Skinner’s Prize); 1920-24, Apprent., Farrow & Jackson, Brewery Engs.; Farrow & Jackson, Draughtsman; L. Lumley & Co., Chief in D.O.; Is Eng. Consultant to “Bottler and Packer.”

From Ancestry, George Neilson Klee of 19 Cornwood Close, Finchley died 30 Nov 1944 and left £1554 4s. 6d. to his widow Elsie Maud Klee.

Sources:

Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010.
Original data: Principal Probate Registry. Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England. London, England © Crown copyright.

from “The American Perfumer” October 1907 via archive.org

Newspaper Articles

From the Daily Express, 4th March, 1915

CAPTURING TRADE

ENTERPRISE OF A LONDON FIRM OF CHEMISTS.

Lord Knutsford announced yesterday at the quarterly meeting of governors of the London Hospital that home manufacturers had overcome the difficulty which had been experienced in obtaining sufficient salicylate of soda, a drug chiefly used in the cure of rheumatism, and made from one of the by-products of coal tar.

“The whole manufacture of this drug. has been in German hands.” he said. ”and some time ago the staff had to restrict the use of it to urgent cases. Last week they received the first consignment of 56lbs. of the drug from Messrs. Bush and Co., of Bethnal Green, who have put down plant to fight the German monopoly.”

Up to date, Lord Knutsford added, the hospital had treated 2,200 soldiers without in any way reducing the help given to the civilian population. Mr John Lavery, A.R.A., is at work at the hospital on a picture of the wounded.

Note that salicylate of soda is used in making aspirin.