NATIONAL CIVILIAN WWll MEMORIAL TRUST
Welcome to the website of the National Civillian WWII Memorial Trust (NCWW2MT)
The aim of the trust is to establish a Home Front Tribute on the site of the former National Picture Theatre in Kingston Upon Hull.
We beleive that the site, with its existing ruins, should be developed for use as a memorial and for educational and community use, and the next door Swan Inn restored and brought back into sympathetic use. The Beverley Road area and the city as a whole will then benefit. It would make a major contribution to the local community, education for children and adults and tourism. The National Picture Theatre, with its national and international significance, is a unique and distinctive survival, and has the potential to draw visitors from the region, the UK and abroad.
In our view the current owner's plans for the site fails to take account of the significance of the National Picture Theatre either as a historic building, or as a powerful symbol for local people and those further afield. It fails to see the value of the cinema ruins to the local community, local pride or power of place, or to education and tourism.
The National Picture Theatre is a focus for the city's wartime memories and for the remembrance of those who served on the Home Front. People and communities matter, and the Council must take the strong feeling of people living in the city in to consideration. The proposal to build a restaurant and flats behind the frontage of the National Picture Theatre, and the disregard for the site's significance for local people especially is an insult and affront to those who served on the Home Front, and to the memories of the many that died during that struggle. It denigrates Hull and the great sacrifices that the city and its people made in wartime.
We should never forget that it was the courage and bravery of the previous generation of our city and nation that stood together against tyranny, death and destruction to allow us the freedom to speak out. We are using this freedom now to urge the council to acknowledge the value of this building which, more than any other stands as a unique and powerful reminder and symbol of Hull's extraordinary fortitude during the war.
LEAFLET
A leaflet was launched on the 17th March 2010 to raise awareness of the Trust's aims and to raise much needed funds. A copy can be viewed and/or downloaded from this site. Click on 'Downloadable PDF Files' in the menu on the lefthand side of this page.
TESTIMONY FILMS
If you are over 75 and lived in Kingston upon Hull duing the Blitz, Testimony Films would like to hear from you. Please click on 'Testimony Films' in the menu on the lefthand side of this page.
THE SITE OWNER'S PLANNING APPLICATION
The owner's planning applications (for Development and Listed Building Consent) were approved at the September meeting of the Hull City Council's Planning Committee.
As a result of objections to the previous application, the owner made a revised application for planning and Listed Building Consent for the National Picture Theatre and neighbouring Swan Inn.
Full details of the new scheme can be found on the council’s website, under application number 09/00550/FULL (for the planning application) and 09/00551/LBC (for the Listed Building Consent).
The new proposals involve redevelopment of the Grade II listed blitzed cinema site in conjunction with the conversion and partial rebuilding of the neighbouring Swan Inn, to create a 3-storey complex containing a restaurant and apartments, with extensive car parking to the rear.
The new scheme retains rather more of the cinema remains than in the original scheme, but it would still involve the demolition of the important rear section of the historic blitzed ruins, including the remains of the cinema gallery, which are essential for an appreciation and understanding of the historic site. Equally serious is the impact of the new 3-storey restaurant and apartment block building which would replace the former auditorium and part of the blitzed ruins and would rise up from the cinema foyer, with a projecting canopy and large doors and windows opening onto the ruined foyer. The foyer, railed off from the street, would basically be turned into an entrance yard for the restaurant. The new building would dominate and overwhelm the blitzed ruins, destroying its historic character and the qualities that give the National Picture Theatre it heritage interest.The overall effect of the proposed demolition and new building would be major, irreversible damage to the nationally important listed remains of the National Picture Theatre and to the setting of these remains. The development would also bring the loss of a key historic feature of the Beverley Road Conservation Area.
THIS WEBSITE
This website was established on Saturday 22nd August 2009.
It was last updated on Thursday 23rd February 2012.
Cheers.
Alan Canvess