The George Street Cinema complex is set to be demolished to make way for a 270-metre skyscraper, which just feels so chaotically depressing. The cinema, which is currently owned by Event Cinemas, is the last major cinema in the city.
George Street Cinema is so deeply ingrained in the DNA of Sydney that I truly can’t envision the CBD without it. I just don’t want to fathom a city where the ritual of getting a cheap feed at Mappen Noodle Bar as a screening pre-game, and sneaking a bubble tea into the cinema via your pocket is a thing of the past. It feels like the undoing of a sacred ritual.
Yeah it’s kind of a shithouse cinema. They don’t have reclining chairs and I’ve definitely had a few screening experiences that have been soundtracked by someone copping a gobbie in the back row. But it’s got spunk.
The George Street Cinema started as a Hoyts complex, opening in December 1976. The opening of the cinema was a spectacle in itself, and featured a performance from a literal elephant, which is totally bezerk but I love it so much. It was the biggest cinema complex in the world at the time, with seven screens and a capacity to sit 4,333 seats.
A boutique cinema is planned for the new development, which will also contain a public restaurant and bar on the 80th floor, a new childcare facility, a retail premise with a new, boutique cinema, and 507 residential apartments. It just seems too big, too gaudy and too soulless.
I have grave fears that that heartwarmingly smelly intersection of Sydney between punch-on Maccas, The Metro Theatre, Star Bar and Event Cinemas will be tarted up by evil developers. I don’t care if these improve the quality of the city, I think there are things that should be left un-zhuzhed. There is an element of unrefined chatness that we should all strive to carry through our lives.
