\n The Intimate Theatre also hosted the professional stage debut of budding movie star – and brother of David – Richard Attenborough in 1941.\n<\/p>\n
\n Long before he was driving an Aston Martin and wearing a tux as Bond, Roger Moore appeared at the theatre in the 1940s after being demobbed, and was paid \u00a310 a week.\n<\/p>\n
\n David Bowie – pictured in 1970 the year after his music breakthrough with Space Oddity but in 1968 he was playing a cloud in a mime show at The Intimate Theatre in Palmers Green. (Image: PA)\n<\/p>\n
\n And in 1968 – the year before his breakthrough hit Space Oddity – Bowie played a cloud in Lindsay Kemp’s mime production Pierrot in Turquoise.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Green Lanes theatre also saw a 28-year-old Harold Pinter starring in Look Back in Anger in 1958 – just as he was turning from acting to playwrighting.\n<\/p>\n
\n Today the historic theatre is under threat of demolition and – along with the Tottenham Palace Theatre – is on the Theatres Trust’s register of Theatres at Risk.\n<\/p>\n
\n Actor Roger Moore in 1966 but 20 years earlier after being demobbed from the army he took a \u00a310 a week acting job at The Intimate Theatre. (Image: PA)\n<\/p>\n
\n Published annually, the list spotlights venues recognised for their cultural value but under threat of closure, redevelopment or severe decay.\n<\/p>\n
\n The charity hopes to raise awareness and galvanise support or funding to secure their future and says since it started the register in 2006 it has played a vital role in the revival of more than 80 theatres.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Intimate Theatre began life as a church hall in 1931 for the Roman Catholic parish of St Monica\u2019s in Green Lanes.\n<\/p>\n
\n In 1935 actor John Clements leased the hall from the church and began adapting it for professional performance, giving it the new name Intimate Theatre.\n<\/p>\n
\n By 1937 it was operating as a full\u2011time professional repertory house, one of a handful of inter\u2011war suburban theatres that offered affordable productions to local audiences.\n<\/p>\n
\n Actors were engaged on weekly wages and by the 1960s the venue was staging a new play every week.\n<\/p>\n
\n In the 1940s the BBC televised 14 plays from the venue including the first complete stage play broadcast live on British television.\n<\/p>\n
\n But in 1969 it reverted to being a church hall and in 1988 Enfield Council granted permission to convert it from a full theatre use into a parish community centre with a smaller 435 seat performance space.\n<\/p>\n
\n It was mainly used by amateur and community groups for pantomime, drama and community events until its closure in 2019 when it was placed on the national Heritage at Risk Register.\n<\/p>\n
\n The parish, under the Diocese of Westminster, deemed it unfit for purpose and announced plans to demolish it and build a new parish hall and accommodation on the site.\n<\/p>\n
\n The building was registered as an asset of community value amid a strong community campaign to retain it as a theatre.\n<\/p>\n
\n But Enfield Council\u2019s planning committee voted to grant planning permission for the redevelopment – effectively approving its demolition.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Tottenham Palace Theatre of Varieties was built as a grand Edwardian music hall but later became a cinema, bingo hall and now a church. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)\n<\/p>\n
\n The Theatres Trust says it is a rare surviving example of an inter\u2011war repertory theatre in suburban London which should be saved.\n<\/p>\n
\n Meanwhile The Tottenham Palace Theatre which opened in 1908 as the ‘Palace Theatre of Varieties’ was an altogether grander north London music hall.\n<\/p>\n
\n Designed by Wylson & Long, the Edwardian theatre boasted a three-level auditorium with stalls, circle and balcony, and saw acts such as Harry Champion – known for Any Old Iron, and Boiled Beef and Carrots, and Gertie Gitana, whose famous number was Nellie Dean, perform on stage.\n<\/p>\n
\n It became a full-time cinema in the mid-1920s – complete with a Wurlitzer organ for silent film shows – then in the 1960s a bingo hall, and in the 1990s a church.\n<\/p>\n
\n Now known as the Palace Cathedral, the Grade II listed building is one of London’s few surviving large suburban variety theatres and in the early noughties had suffered significant damage to the plasterwork and structure.\n<\/p>\n
\n Although the owners have carried out repairs, the trust says it is monitoring the situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Intimate Theatre also hosted the professional stage debut of budding movie star – and brother of David…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-700026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}