Brixton news, rumours and general chat - February 2017

[discobastard]

I'm not either - but I noticed that your website quote about Buddhist impermanence said this at the bottom "from - www.hinduwebsite.com"

I recently watched Bettany Hughes' programme "Genius of the Ancient World" (episode 1 - the Buddha). Hinduism replaced Buddhism as the religion of India so do you think that website is dispassionate?

I merely linked to that site as an example of impermanence. I have texts at home on this but it was the easiest way to point to it.

So, I am not posting regards any other context. I have not seen the programme you refer to nor am I making a point or stating an opinion regards anything you may regard a dispassionate.

Happy to take that conversation off elsewhere if you wish.

 

[iantldn]

Having moved from East London I can safely say that the Ritzy is a much nicer cinema than Stratford Picturehouse which (at least in the years I went there) was always a bit ropey. I used to go to Mile End Genesis instead for their ridiculous £3 Wednesday offer.

I see Editor isn't a fan of Ritzy owners which is fair enough by the sounds of it. But if you were of the mind of trying to make it better value going there then it's well worth pursuing the meerkat movies option. I got given a ritzy membership as a present but it costs £55 and that gives you 6 tix + 2 more as a bonus on your birthday and 10% off food, drink and any other tickets. You can then use them with the meerkat thing so works out (as long as you always go with a mate/partner) like having 16 tix for £55 - or about £3.50 a ticket.

Don't think I'd bother going to Ritzy if it wasn't for that... As you say £12.50 is a bit ridiculous for a non central London cinema, even if all the others are charging that too. I've not been to the Peckham cinema, is it in decent repair and are the screens alright?

 

[Ms T]

All of the Picturehouses are similarly priced apart from the Stratford one. I wonder why it's so much cheaper?

 

[Lizzy Mac]

I couldn't afford to go to the Ritzy half as much without the discounted membership I bought, which apart from anything else gets me out of booking fees. Although I dislike the term rip off, I can't think of a better phrase, inspite of the fact that most other ticket outlets use them.

I reckon they must have had a H&S assessment early morning at the tube. The paper vendors are now in the middle of the pavement outside Iceland and the like. London Underground station staff were present guarding the entrance. It was much easier to get in.

 

[CH1]

Don't think I'd bother going to Ritzy if it wasn't for that... As you say £12.50 is a bit ridiculous for a non central London cinema, even if all the others are charging that too. I've not been to the Peckham cinema, is it in decent repair and are the screens alright?

It is a bit like 1st class vs 2nd class on British Rail.

I've only been to screen 4 at the Plex - but this is far preferable to screen 5 at the Ritzy, which is like a pocket cinema.
The Plex is clean whereas the Ritzy is sort of opulent. Except for the toilets, where the Plex scores hands down!

 

[CH1]

I couldn't afford to go to the Ritzy half as much without the discounted membership I bought, which apart from anything else gets me out of booking fees. Although I dislike the term rip off, I can't think of a better phrase, inspite of the fact that most other ticket outlets use them.

The Ritzy (and Tate Galleries etc etc) are taking a leaf out of British Rail's books then.

When I was working I used to always have a Network Rail card which gave a 30% discount off the current criminal rail fares for you and a travelling companion. I used to get out a lot then.

Now Rail cards are £30 which seems a bit outrageous if you are going to even then be spending 25% of your benefit money for a day return to see Aunt Maud in Bournemouth.

But of course if you buy the card it feels like you are wasting it not to use it - even though you are spending more money.

That is what you are describing with the Ritzy Card.

 

[Twattor]

All of the Picturehouses are similarly priced apart from the Stratford one. I wonder why it's so much cheaper?

They don't count it as part of London. London membership doesn't cover it - you need the cheaper regional membership (or the more expensive national if you want to go there as well as Brixton). Pricing is closer to the regional cinemas.

 

[editor]

They don't count it as part of London. London membership doesn't cover it - you need the cheaper regional membership (or the more expensive national if you want to go there as well as Brixton). Pricing is closer to the regional cinemas.

That would defy all geographical reasoning. It's almost the same distance from the City of London as Brixton.

 

[Tolpuddle]

Positive press for Brixton for once.

London's inner city riding school - BBC News

 

[editor]

Positive press for Brixton for once.

London's inner city riding school - BBC News

I wonder why are the pics all underexposed?

 

[Tolpuddle]

perhaps trying to portray the gritty grey inner city, or incompetence.

 

[Ms T]

The Ritzy (and Tate Galleries etc etc) are taking a leaf out of British Rail's books then.

When I was working I used to always have a Network Rail card which gave a 30% discount off the current criminal rail fares for you and a travelling companion. I used to get out a lot then.

Now Rail cards are £30 which seems a bit outrageous if you are going to even then be spending 25% of your benefit money for a day return to see Aunt Maud in Bournemouth.

But of course if you buy the card it feels like you are wasting it not to use it - even though you are spending more money.

That is what you are describing with the Ritzy Card.

You also get a certain number of tickets so it actually works out to be quite good value.

 

[editor]

You also get a certain number of tickets so it actually works out to be quite good value.

Only if you can afford to go a lot.

 

[bimble]

If the Ritzy were to stop hosting the excellent free monthly dub night upstairs, I'd consider joining in the general griping.
They do host a lot of free events up there - tonight for instance is a Bowie-inspired poetry night, free entry. There are better candidates for local fury I think (notwithstanding the staff pay situation and the fact that they severely understaff the free nights, making it a nightmare for whoever is supposed to run the bar and collect the glasses somehow at the same time).

 

[Ms T]

Only if you can afford to go a lot.

Well the cost of the membership for the two of us is £95 and you get eight tickets. So that's cheaper than 8 full price tickets. Plus you get all the discounts and waived booking fees. So if you go to the cinema more than 4 times a year it's worth it.

 

[editor]

If the Ritzy were to stop hosting the excellent free monthly dub night upstairs, I'd consider joining in the general griping.
They do host a lot of free events up there - tonight for instance is a Bowie-inspired poetry night, free entry. There are better candidates for local fury I think (notwithstanding the staff pay situation and the fact that they severely understaff the free nights, making it a nightmare for whoever is supposed to run the bar and collect the glasses somehow at the same time).

Love the staff, love some of the nights upstairs (although some are pretty pricey too) but I ain't giving them £13.50 to watch a film, FFS.

 

[editor]

Well the cost of the membership for the two of us is £95 and you get eight tickets. So that's cheaper than 8 full price tickets. Plus you get all the discounts and waived booking fees. So if you go to the cinema more than 4 times a year it's worth it.

I'd rather pay £20 to see four films in the PeckhamPlex

I can see it makes the pricing more appealing but £95 is quite a big sum to give out in one lump.

 

[Ms T]

I'd rather pay £20 to see four films in the PeckhamPlex

I can see it makes the pricing more appealing but £95 is quite a big sum to give out in one lump.

Horses for courses, innit. I am a bit shocked by how much it's gone up in price but I like having a cinema on my doorstep. And as others have said the Peckham Plex is very much the exception when it comes to cinema pricing. I went with my mate and her three kids to see a film in Epsom a while back and it was ridiculously dear for the five of us.

 

[bimble]

Yeah, I don't go to the cinema much. I just add to the price of everyone else's tickets by getting my friend to find them online instead .

 

[CH1]

You also get a certain number of tickets so it actually works out to be quite good value.

Not perhaps as good value as the Tate or the V & A where I believe you get to go to ALL their £19.50 David Hockney exhibitions etc for nothing!

I'd forgotten about that. I must be missing out a lot from my miserliness - I think I only paid once for a London art show (El Greco at the National - which blew me away as they say)

 

[Lizzy Mac]

Love the staff, love some of the nights upstairs (although some are pretty pricey too) but I ain't giving them £13.50 to watch a film, FFS.

Don't ever go to Everyman to watch a film. If you check the prices sit down first.

 

[Lizzy Mac]

I'd rather pay £20 to see four films in the PeckhamPlex

I can see it makes the pricing more appealing but £95 is quite a big sum to give out in one lump.

I waited for the offer. It was much cheaper. What with my market £1 popcorn I'm laughing.

 

[lefteri]

Don't ever go to Everyman to watch a film. If you check the prices sit down first.

Yeah I was going to mention that, prices there and at all their other cinemas (screen on the green, hill etc.) are over fifteen quid a ticket

 

[T & P]

I haven't been to one, but isn't the point of Everyman's Cinemas that they have lots and lots of space with big seats (or even sofas with side tables)?

 

[lefteri]

I haven't been to one, but isn't the point of Everyman's Cinemas that they have lots and lots of space with big seats (or even sofas with side tables)?

Those special seats are even more expensive, around twenty quid

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Going to the pictures isn't cheap in general. For families with limited income it's a big cost....even peckham I would imagine.

When you add in drinks and bus journies and popcorn and all that crap then families get especially mugged off.

I was stood behind a woman in Streatham Odean the other week...she had 3 kids with her....with her tix and drinks snacks etc she'd racked up nearly £100 at the till.

 

[Winot]

Not perhaps as good value as the Tate or the V & A where I believe you get to go to ALL their £19.50 David Hockney exhibitions etc for nothing!

You're right - the Ritzy should be ashamed not to offer a world class art and design collection alongside its films.

 

[gaijingirl]

Going to the pictures isn't cheap in general. For families with limited income it's a big cost....even peckham I would imagine.

When you add in drinks and bus journies and popcorn and all that crap then families get especially mugged off.

I was stood behind a woman in Streatham Odean the other week...she had 3 kids with her....with her tix and drinks snacks etc she'd racked up nearly £100 at the till.

It's way too much. I almost always wait a few months and take them to the 10:30am kids' performance instead - £2.50 a ticket and either bring snacks from home or go to the sweet shop first. I can never understand why people buy snacks at the actual cinema. I even generally take a flask! (but then I take a flask everywhere!!)

 

[T & P]

It's way too much. I almost always wait a few months and take them to the 10:30am kids' performance instead - £2.50 a ticket and either bring snacks from home or go to the sweet shop first. I can never understand why people buy snacks at the actual cinema. I even generally take a flask! (but then I take a flask everywhere!!)

They're absurdly expensive and make motorway service prices look like Aldi's.

Weirdly, alcoholic drinks (at those cinemas that offer them) do not seem to have such inflated prices. But soft drinks, pop corn, hot dogs and sweets are a pisstake. I guess they've figured it's not so easy for parents to deny children food and drink when on such an outing, and take full advantage. If you have to add the rental of 3D glasses on top, you end up spending more than if you'd taken the kids to bloody Legoland.

 

[gaijingirl]

They're absurdly expensive and make motorway service prices look like Aldi's.

Weirdly, alcoholic drinks (at those cinemas that offer them) do not seem to have such inflated prices. But soft drinks, pop corn, hot dogs and sweets are a pisstake. I guess they've figured it's not so easy for parents to deny children food and drink when on such an outing, and take full advantage. If you have to add the rental of 3D glasses on top, you end up spending more than if you'd taken the kids to bloody Legoland.

Yes - it's madness. But it's easy enough to explain the economics to the kids. I just told my oldest (the little one is too little to get it) the difference in price between a "current movie" + in-house popcorn versus the price of a kids' screening plus sweets/popcorn from the sweet shop and explained to her all the other things we could do with that money and she was completely fine with that. The lure of the pick in mix is indeed strong though!