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The architects of grand arts projects rarely think of calling on cartoon superheroes for help, but in the case of the expensive restoration of one of the country’s historic playhouses, it’s a crazy plan that just might work.
The Coronet in west London’s Notting Hill Gate – the former cinema and theatre that featured in Richard Curtis’s romantic comedy Notting Hill, and was once graced by great actors such as Ellen Terry and Sarah Bernhardt – has found an animated ally in a British children’s television character called Matt Hatter.
The boy superhero, who fights an array of nasty villains when they magically step out of the cinema screen, stars in ITV’s highest-rated children’s show – and his fictional home is the Coronet. Matt Hatter Chronicles, whichis broadcast across the world, from India, to Australia and Canada, is threatening to make the old cinema as internationally popular with young visitors as Harry Potter’s platform 9¾ at King’s Cross station.
“We hadn’t heard of Matt Hatter until the summer when a little girl wrote a letter to him that arrived at our door,” said Anda Winters, the artistic director behind the new effort to reclaim the Coronet as a leading arts venue. “We were amazed when we saw the animation of the building. We are going to put a postbox in our foyer so children can come and leave him messages.”
Winters realises that in her continuous effort to raise funds for the restoration, the growing interest in the old cinema could prove invaluable.
The producer and creator of the children’s show, Nigel Stone, is equally pleased to find his animation putting the Coronet back on the map. “We are so happy to help. The character of Matt has been such a hit in other countries, in Turkey, Spain, Portugal the Middle East, Canada and South Africa, where it is the top children’s show. Yesterday a Spanish colleague stopped the car when we were driving by the cinema so that he could have his photograph taken outside for his son.”
The series is made at Pinewood by Platinum Films and the Coronet was chosen as its location when Stone and his research team came across an impressive design blueprint of the building in the archives held at the vast studio complex. “We were looking through hundreds of blueprints and then one book fell open on the Coronet. It was perfect, especially as it is in Notting Hill Gate, which is just right for a gateway between worlds,” he said.
The listed building, which opened in 1898, has been used as a church in recent years, but is slowly being turned back into a venue in a painstaking process of room-by-room renovation in consultation with heritage specialists, including The Theatres Trust and the Victorian Society. The new arts centre will be run by the acclaimed creative team behind The Print Room, the fringe company based nearby since 2010. When their new home is completed it will host live music, dance, poetry, film and theatre.
This month the inaugural season began with a stage adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground, starring Harry Lloyd, in the new studio theatre. This production will be followed by Lara Foot’s new play about post-apartheid South Africa, Solomon and Marion, starring Janet Suzman.
The original 1,143-seat auditorium was designed by the West End architect WGR Sprague, the man behind Wyndham’s Theatre, Aldwych Theatre and the Noel Coward Theatre. Although Winters concedes she is unlikely to be able to reopen the entire auditorium, she is hoping to allow the public to use the former wardrobe room, the dressing rooms and a room on the top floor that was used during the second world war to spot approaching air raids. The chalk drawings on the walls bear testament to the lengthy lookout shifts.
Alongside her plans for rehearsal spaces, a restaurant and a bar, there is also a scheme to open up the distinctive turret room on top of the building for private events. Matt Hatter may object, however, since the round room is his bedroom in the TV show.
