Coliseum circa 1920

Comment by MattB on September 7, 2013 at 13:05

What a beautiful building the Coliseum was. It was still there when I moved to Harringay in 1999 before being levelled and replaced with the eyesore that is there now. Sad.

Comment by brian granville on June 12, 2016 at 19:38

My brother saw his first X film there in about 1954.  he was 16 then but was allowed in.  I believe it was King Kong but he tells me it was Mighty Joe Young.  The reason I thought it was King Kong is because when he came home he beat his chest as Kong used to do, and what gave our mother fits.

Comment by joan johnson on June 30, 2017 at 10:21

I spent a lot of my childhood at the Colly! From about 1950, when I was 3, my Mum used to take me twice a week- an A film, a B film (one usually a western - Audie Murphy, Alan Ladd or Randolph Scott seemed to be in every one), and a serial, Flash Gordon being the favourite. There was a sweet stall just round the corner and I got 2d to spend - in the days when blackjacks and fruit salads were 6 for a halfpenny, that bought a lot! A chocolate ice was 3d and admission was 1/6 for Mum and 9d for me, with 6d for a bag of chips from the chippie by the sweet stall (with a pickled wally if we had enough left). All in all 2 films, a serial, sweets, ice cream and chips for 3s 6d - 17.5p for the two of us!! We were such regulars that when my Mum died in 1958 the Guv'nor (the manager) closed the matinee performance as a mark of respect and I remember all the staff standing outside the Colly as the cortège passed, as did the staff of all the Harringay shops, where my lovely Mum was well known. We lived in Chesterfield Gardens.

Comment by Hugh on June 30, 2017 at 10:26

Thanks for sharing these memories, Joan. 

Comment by John Shulver on October 10, 2020 at 19:08

joan johnson, perfectly recalled though we only had the films and possibly an ice cream off the usherette from the heavy tray lung from her shoulder.  Also the newsreel from Pathe News (cock a doodle dooo).

I lived down Harringay Road at the rear of the dear old Colly.

What a lovely mark of respect for your mum.   Imagine that today.

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