![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Westgarth Cinema...
Aug. 16th, 2006 02:50 pmI'm a persistent bugger. Many, many years ago, I used to go to the Valhalla cinema when both of us lived in Northcote. In about 1996, the Valhalla had to shut it's doors because the owners of the Westgarth Cinema building where they lived, buggered them about. Soon afterwards, they started operating it as the "Valhalla Lite" as it were.
I used to love the Val, I still do, I found myself editing the Wiki page about it the other day. Simply by being there, it revitalized that part of Northcote into its current interesting state. I felt that the owners had benefited from the Val, but had then killed it and took over a successful cinema. The Val never managed to find another venue, thus reducing again the number of good cinemas in this town. So, despite living just up the road for most of the last six years, I have never seen a film at the "Westgarth". It's a now 10 or more year boycott! Heck I'm bone-headed.
Earlier this year the Westgarth was bought by the Palace Cinemas mob, who as of tomorrow are re-opening it in renovated form. So, since its effectively a new cinema again, I hereby lift my boycott - which of course no one noticed - and will probably go to see a film there over the weekend. If only to support small/single screen cinemas in this town while they still exist.
I used to love the Val, I still do, I found myself editing the Wiki page about it the other day. Simply by being there, it revitalized that part of Northcote into its current interesting state. I felt that the owners had benefited from the Val, but had then killed it and took over a successful cinema. The Val never managed to find another venue, thus reducing again the number of good cinemas in this town. So, despite living just up the road for most of the last six years, I have never seen a film at the "Westgarth". It's a now 10 or more year boycott! Heck I'm bone-headed.
Earlier this year the Westgarth was bought by the Palace Cinemas mob, who as of tomorrow are re-opening it in renovated form. So, since its effectively a new cinema again, I hereby lift my boycott - which of course no one noticed - and will probably go to see a film there over the weekend. If only to support small/single screen cinemas in this town while they still exist.
