Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Astoria / Rainbow Theatre and Sir George Robey pub, Finsbury Park, 5 July 1981
The Finsbury Park Astoria was launched with an opening night on September 29, 1930. It remained principally a cinema with occasional shows until 1956. Then with the UK stage debut for Tommy Steele and The Cavemen in December of that year, it began the transition to a music venue. From 1971 for the next decade it became one of London's leading live music venues. From November of 1971 it operated as The Rainbow Theatre.
1981 was the Rainbow's last years of operation and the end if the building's half century as an entertainment venue.
The last show to be stage there was on December 23-24, when Elvis Costello and The Attractions took to the stage.
In January 1982 during the rehearsals for UFO, the theatre closed for the last time as a music venue. The lease was put up for sale by the owners who blamed the GLC. for insisting on unreasonable works on the building and the increase in annual music licence from £500 to £6,000. The G.L.C. stated that they only ordered the replacement of missing light bulbs, the installation of self-closers on the fire doors and the securing of loose seating and extra handrails at a total cost of approximately £2,000.
Having been Grade II listed in 1974, the building became something of a white elephant for the owners and spent more than decade of use as an occasional rehearsal space and backdrop for adverts and music videos.
In 1995, it ws taken over by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.
In 2002 Harringay Online I managed to arrange a rare visit for a group or Harringay residents to see the amazing interior.
Thanks to Fandom.com's Concert's Wikifor most of the above info.
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Comment by Richard Woods on August 23, 2024 at 7:52
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Wow! I had forgotten the Robey. It was not un uncommon statement back in my day - "See you in the Robey before we see the show?"
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Comment by Roy aka Smiffy on August 30, 2024 at 8:53
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The opticians on the left had an instrument in the window that fascinated me. It was, I now know is a Cookes Radiometer.
“The Crookes radiometer consists of an airtight glass bulb containing a partial vacuum with a set of vanes which are mounted on a spindle inside. The vanes rotate when exposed to light, with faster rotation for more intense light,....”
(Ref Wikipedia)Funny how one remembers little details from the past.
I now have one of those instruments in my conservatory......
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Comment by Joe H on August 30, 2024 at 12:00
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Clearly, The Astoria is going by its later name of The Rainbow at the time of this photo. The optician’s was tiny inside. Mr Ashwin K Popat was my optician there for quite a few years from 1981.
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Comment by Rosamund Tomlins on August 30, 2024 at 23:51
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I can't make out the bill of bands/acts/events & dates for The Rainbow here - does it show clearly at all on the original?
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Comment by Hugh on August 31, 2024 at 1:11
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No, sorry. That's the best I have.
The generosity of the web does however yield a programme for July 1981.
July 4, 1981 Aswad
July 5, 1981 Ras Michael & The Sons of Negus
July 8-9, 1981 Rainbow, Rose Tattoo
July 11, 1981 Iggy Pop, Telephone
July 12, 1981 Sounds Atomic Roadshow
July 13-14, 1981 Black Uhuru, Sly & Robbie
July 24, 1981 Bad Manners
July 29, 1981 Humble Pie
July 30, 1981 Mike Oldfield, The Battlefield Band
On July 5th when the photo was apparently taken the band was Ras Michael & The Sons of Negus.
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Ah, thanks - I can see it was Aswad now, + see that it was Richie Blackmore's Rainbow at The Rainbow on the 8th & 9th!
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You're right. I can now make out the full July listing except Humble Pie.
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I've now added a potted history of the venue above including a link to postings on HoL with a link to my Flickr set of the AMAZING interior of the building on a visit I arranged for a group of HoLers back in the summer of 2008.
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Comment by tigha on September 6, 2024 at 18:59
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Omg I so loved rainbow and Richie Blackmore. Before my time here though
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I just noticed, taking a closer look, that from the escutcheon on the corner of the Robey closest to the viewer, that it was—or had been built as—a Meux (pronounced “mews”) pub, which was a London brewery with a fascinating history (the Beer Flood of 1814 in the West End, where people were drowned in beer, and Valerie Meux, the banjo-playing barmaid (portrait painted by Whistler) who married into the family, was shinned by much of posh society, and became the sole heir to the brewing fortune, leaving it all to a distinguished admiral (to whom she had sent cannons in support of the Boer War) on condition he took the name Meux — which he did.) —it’s all (and more) in Wikpedia! I remember, as a schoolboy, noticing the name Meux on the pub that used to be on the corner of Hornsey Rise and Beaumont Rise; Does anyone remember that pub’s name?
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
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