Lambeth Bridge
Lambeth Bridge is a road traffic and footbridge crossing the River Thames in an east-west direction in central London. The river flows north at the crossing point, the next bridge is Westminster Bridge, the next bridge is Vauxhall Bridge. This is in contrast to Westminster Bridge, which is predominantly green, on the east side, in Lambeth, are Lambeth Palace, the Albert Embankment, St. Thomas Hospital, and the International Maritime Organization. On the west side, in Westminster, are Thames House, behind which is Horseferry House, and Clelland House and Abell House, the Palace of Westminster is a short walk downstream to the north through the Victoria Tower Garden. Lambeth Bridge is on the site of a ferry between the Palace of Westminster and Lambeth Palace on the south bank. Its name lives on in Horseferry Road, which forms the approach to the bridge on the north bank, the first modern bridge was a suspension bridge,828 feet long, designed by Peter W. Barlow. It ceased to be a bridge in 1879 when the Metropolitan Board of Works assumed responsibility for its upkeep — it was by severely corroded.
The London County Council prepared a masterplan for the area, including a replacement road bridge linking to a widened Horseferry Road, before work had started on the project, the 1928 Thames flood caused extensive destruction of property in the Millbank area. During the period of delay, the bridge was redesigned to be able to cope with a higher weight of motorised traffic. It formerly carried four lanes of traffic from a roundabout junction by the Lambeth Palace northwards to another roundabout. The bridge is notable at road level for the pairs of obelisks at either end of the bridge, which are surmounted by stone pinecones. However, there is an urban legend that they are pineapples, as a tribute to Lambeth resident John Tradescant the younger. The bridge was declared a Grade II listed structure in 2008, the listing designation includes the parapets, lamps and the approach walls
Glasgow Science Centre
Glasgow Science Centre is a visitor attraction located in the Clyde Waterfront Regeneration area on the south bank of the River Clyde in Glasgow, Scotland. Queen Elizabeth II opened Glasgow Science Centre on 5 June 2001 and it is one of Scotlands most popular paid-for visitor attractions. It is a science centre composed of three principal buildings which are the Science Mall, Glasgow Tower and an IMAX cinema. The Scottish tourist board, VisitScotland, awarded Glasgow Science Centre a five star rating in the visitor attraction category, as well as its main location, Glasgow Science Centre manages the visitor centre at Whitelee Wind Farm, which opened to the public in 2009. The largest of the three main, titanium-clad buildings takes a crescent shape structure and houses a Science Mall. In architectural terms it represents the hull of a ship, a reference to the adjacent canting basin. Internally, there are three floors of over 250 science-learning exhibits, as is usual for science centres, the exhibits aim to encourage interaction, and can be used or played with as part of the informal learning experience the centre aims to deliver.
The building was designed by BDP, on Floor 1, amongst the many interactive exhibits that demonstrate scientific principles, visitors can access a Science Show Theatre and the Glasgow Science Centre Planetarium. The planetarium contains a Zeiss optical-mechanical projector that projects images of the sky onto a 15m diameter dome. There is an area aimed at young children called, The Big Explorer. On Floor 2, visitors can explore opportunities in STEM careers in the My World of Work Live interactive exhibition space, there is The Lab, primarily used as an educational workshop space. Floor 3 was refurbished in 2012 and reopened to the public on 28 March 2013 and it now houses an interactive exhibition about human health and wellbeing in the 21st century called, BodyWorks. Visitors are invited to consider their bodies and lifestyle from a new perspective through 115 interactive exhibits, research capsules, the Ground Floor of the Science Mall contains the Ticket desk, Gift Shop, and a cloakroom.
Access to Glasgow Tower for the public is via the Ground Floor, the Glasgow Tower was designed to be the tallest freely-rotating tower in the world. It missed its opening date in 2001 and has plagued by problems ever since. It has been closed for over 80% of its life, and was closed from August 2010 until July 2014, the IMAX cinema was the first IMAX cinema to be built in Scotland. The single auditorium seats 370 in front of a screen measuring 25 m by 18.9 m and has the capability to show 3D films as well as standard 2D films in IMAX format. It opened to the public in October 2000 Premiered The First Film Entitled Dolphins, on 6 September 2013, Cineworld agreed a 10-year lease to operate the IMAX cinema and opened a Starbucks on site
Waterloo tube station
Waterloo is a London Underground station located within the Waterloo station complex that incorporates both the tube station and the main line railway station. It is the busiest station in Great Britain, with in excess of 99 million passenger entries and it is served by four lines, the Bakerloo, Jubilee and Waterloo & City lines. The station is situated in fare zone 1 and is located near the South Bank of the River Thames and its within walking distance to the London Eye. The first Underground Line at Waterloo was opened on 8 August 1898 by the Waterloo & City Railway, a subsidiary of the owners of the line station. The W&CR, nicknamed The Drain, achieved in a way the L&SWRs original plan of taking its tracks the short distance north-east into the City of London. On 10 March 1906, the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway was opened, on 13 September 1926, the extension of the Hampstead & Highgate line was opened from Embankment to the existing City & South London Railway station Kennington with a new station at Waterloo.
As a subsidiary of the L&SWR and its successor, the Southern Railway, following nationalisation of the main line railway companies in 1948, it became part of British Railways. London Transport had already sought parliamentary approval to construct tunnels from Aldwych to Waterloo in November 1964, detailed planning took place, although public spending cuts led to postponement of the scheme in 1967 before tenders were invited. Due to an Easter shut-down, the first Underground service on the line was on 5 April 1994, on 24 September 1999, the Jubilee line station was opened as part of the Jubilee Line Extension. The Jubilee line platforms are at the end of the site from those of the Bakerloo and Northern lines. The station is served by London Buses routes 1,4,26,59,68,76,77,139,168,171,172,176,188,211,243,341,381,507,521, RV1 and X68 and night routes N1, N68, N76, N171, N20, N343 and N381
South Kensington
South Kensington is an affluent district of West London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster. It is a built-up area 2.4 miles west- south-west of Charing Cross and it is hard to define boundaries for South Kensington, but a common definition is the commercial area around the South Kensington tube station and the adjacent garden squares and streets. Although the postcode SW7 mainly covers South Kensington, some parts of Knightsbridge are covered, neighbouring the equally affluent centres of Knightsbridge and Kensington, South Kensington covers some of the most exclusive real estate in the world. It is home to numbers of French expatriates, but Spanish, American. There are several French bookshops and cafes in the area and is sometimes referred to as Paris’s 21st arrondissement. Two London Underground stations are located in South Kensington, South Kensington, the area was largely undeveloped until the mid-19th century, being an agricultural area supplying London with fruit and vegetables.
The area is the subject of Donovans song Sunny South Kensington, California was given that name in 1911 by Robert Brousefield, an American surveyor who at an ealier time lived in the British South Kensington. Notable residents have included, Sir Henry Cole, campaigner and first director of the South Kensington Museum, charles Booth, pioneer of social research, lived at 6 Grenville Place. George Wallis, FSA, museum curator and art educator and his children, including Whitworth Wallis and Rosa Wallis. Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, actor-manager, lived at 31 Rosary Gardens. Sir J M Barrie and novelist, author of Peter Pan, virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa Bell and interior designer, lived at 22 Hyde Park Gate until 1904. Francis Bacon, Irish-born British artist, lived at 17 Queensberry Mews and 7 Reese Mews, benny Hill, lived at 1 &2 Queens Gate. Nicholas Freeman, OBE, controversial Leader of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, lived in Harrington Gardens, dennis Gabor, electrical engineer and physicist, most notable for inventing holography,1971 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Peter Finch, English-born distinguished Australian actor, won 5 BAFTA acting awards and he was the first person to win a posthumous Academy Award in an acting category
London Bridge
London Bridge refers to several historical bridges that have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and this replaced a 19th-century stone-arched bridge, which in turn superseded a 600-year-old medieval structure. This was preceded by a succession of bridges, the first built by the Roman founders of London. The current bridge stands at the end of the Pool of London but is positioned 30 metres upstream from previous alignments. The traditional ends of the bridge were marked by St Magnus-the-Martyr on the northern bank. Until Putney Bridge opened in 1729, London Bridge was the only road-crossing of the Thames downstream of Kingston-upon-Thames and its importance has been the subject of popular culture throughout the ages such as in the nursery rhyme London Bridge Is Falling Down and its inclusion within art and literature. The modern bridge is owned and maintained by Bridge House Estates and it carries the A3 road, which is maintained by the Greater London Authority.
The crossing delineates an area along the bank of the River Thames. The abutments of modern London Bridge rest several metres above natural embankments of gravel, between the embankments, the River Thames could have been crossed by ford when the tide was low, or ferry when it was high. There is archaeological evidence for scattered Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age settlement nearby, two ancient fords were in use a few miles upstream, beyond the rivers upper tidal reach. They were aligned with the course of Watling Street and led into the heartlands of the Catuvellauni, some time before Claudius conquest of AD43, power shifted to the Trinovantes, who held the region northeast of the Thames estuary from a capital at Camulodunum. Claudius imposed a major colonia on Camulodunum, and made it the city of the new Roman province of Britannia. The first London Bridge was built by the Roman military as part of their road-building programme, around AD55, the temporary bridge over the Thames was replaced by a permanent timber piled bridge and guarded by a small garrison.
On the relatively high, dry ground at the end of the bridge, a small, opportunistic trading and shipping settlement took root. A smaller settlement developed at the end of the bridge. The bridge was destroyed along with the town in the Boudican revolt. Just downstream of the bridge were substantial quays and depots, convenient to seagoing trade between Britain and the rest of the Roman Empire, with the end of Roman rule in Britain in the early 5th century, Londinium was gradually abandoned and the bridge fell into disrepair. In the Saxon period, the became a boundary between the emergent, mutually hostile kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex
South Bank
The South Bank is an entertainment and commercial district of Central London, next to the River Thames opposite the City of Westminster. It forms a narrow, unequal strip of land within the London Borough of Lambeth. As with most central London districts its edges evolve and are informally defined however its central area is bounded by Westminster Bridge, both the County Hall and the Shell Centre contain major residential parts. South Bank is 800 metres southeast of Charing Cross, the pedestrianised embankment is The Queens Walk which is part of the Albert Embankment built not only for public drainage but to raise the whole tract of land and prevent flooding. In 1951 the Festival of Britain redefined the area as a place for arts and it now forms a significant tourist district in central London, stretching from the Blackfriars Bridge in the east to Westminster Bridge in the west. A series of central London bridges connect the area to the bank of the Thames Golden Jubilee. During the Middle Ages this area developed as a place of entertainment outside the regulation of the City of London on the north bank.
By the 18th century the more genteel entertainment of the gardens had developed. The shallow bank and mud flats were ideal locations for industry and docks, there was a shift in use when the London County Council required a new County Hall, which was built between 1917 and 1922 on the south bank near North Lambeths Lower Marsh. The construction of County Hall returned the first section of frontage to public use. This was extended eastwards in 1951 when the Festival of Britain caused a considerable area to be redeveloped and it was renamed South Bank as part of promoting the Festival. The South Bank stretches two miles along the southern bank of the River Thames. The western section is in the Bishops ward of the London Borough of Lambeth, there are significant amounts of public open space along the riverside. Between the London Studios and the Oxo Tower lies Bernie Spain Gardens, named after Bernadette Spain, the South Bank is a significant arts and entertainment district. The Southbank Centre comprises the Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Royal National Theatre, the London IMAX super cinema and BFI Southbank adjoin to the east, but are not strictly part of the centre.
County Hall is non-administrative and has converted into The London Marriott Hotel County Hall, Sea Life London Aquarium. It contains the Jubilee Gardens, home to the Udderbelly Festival for 15 weeks in the summer, the OXO Tower Wharf is towards the eastern end of South Bank, and houses Gallery@Oxo and boutiques, and the OXO Tower Restaurant run by Harvey Nichols. The London Studios, the home of ITV faces the Thames
Odeon Cinemas
Odeon is a cinema company operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland, which along with UCI Cinemas is part of the Odeon Cinemas Group. It uses the name of the Odeon cinema circuit first introduced in Britain in 1930. The first Odeon cinema was opened by Oscar Deutsch in 1928, in Brierley, the first cinema to use the Odeon brand name was Deutschs cinema at Perry Barr, Birmingham in 1930. Ten years Odeon was part of the Rank Organisation who continued their ownership of the circuit for a further sixty years. Through a number of sales and acquisitions in the early 2000s the company was purchased by Terra Firma, most UCI cinemas took the Odeon brand name in 2006. Terra Firma sold the company to AMC Theatres in November 2016, in 2016, Odeon was the largest cinema chain in the United Kingdom by market share. Odeon Cinemas was created in 1928 by Oscar Deutsch, the name Nickelodeon was coined in 1905 and was widely used to describe small cinemas in the United States during that era. However the company is most associated with J.
Arthur Rank, the first cinema opened by Oscar Deutsch was located in Brierley Hill, England in 1928. The building has long since demolished, but as of 2006. However, its style is more functional than that of original Odeon cinemas, the first cinema that opened under the Odeon brand was located in Perry Barr, Birmingham. It was designed by Harry Weedon, the frontage was remodelled following damage sustained during the Second World War and, having been a bingo hall, has since been converted into a conference venue. By 1930, Odeon was a name and the cinemas known for their maritime-inspired Art Deco architecture. This style was first used in 1930 on the cinema at Perry Barr in Birmingham and he liked the style so much that he commissioned the architect, Harry Weedon, to design his future buildings. It is currently a club in the Mecca chain. It featured central linear lighting, a feature that became characteristic of his work, in 1935, Oscar Deutsch commissioned John Maltby, a professional photographer, to photograph every cinema in the Odeon chain at that time.
The resulting collection, of internal and external photographs, is held in the archive of English Heritage. Deutsch sold the chain to the interests of J. Arthur Rank. By the time of Oscar Deutschs death in 1941,258 Odeons had opened throughout Britain, after the sale to J. Arthur Rank Corporation, Odeon operated a wholly owned Canadian subsidiary, Odeon Theatres Ltd. with more than a hundred cinemas in Canada, coast-to-coast
London Underground
The London Underground is a public rapid transit system serving London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. The network has expanded to 11 lines, and in 2015–16 carried 1.34 billion passengers, the 11 lines collectively handle approximately 4.8 million passengers a day. The system has 270 stations and 250 miles of track, despite its name, only 45% of the system is actually underground in tunnels, with much of the network in the outer environs of London being on the surface. In addition, the Underground does not cover most southern parts of Greater London, the current operator, London Underground Limited, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London, the statutory corporation responsible for the transport network in Greater London. As of 2015, 92% of operational expenditure is covered by passenger fares, the Travelcard ticket was introduced in 1983 and Oyster, a contactless ticketing system, in 2003. Contactless card payments were introduced in 2014, the LPTB was a prominent patron of art and design, commissioning many new station buildings and public artworks in a modernist style.
Other famous London Underground branding includes the roundel and Johnston typeface, to prepare construction, a short test tunnel was built in 1855 in Kibblesworth, a small town with geological properties similar to London. This test tunnel was used for two years in the development of the first underground train, and was later, in 1861, the worlds first underground railway, it opened in January 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives. It was hailed as a success, carrying 38,000 passengers on the opening day, the Metropolitan District Railway opened in December 1868 from South Kensington to Westminster as part of a plan for an underground inner circle connecting Londons main-line termini. The Metropolitan and District railways completed the Circle line in 1884, built using the cut and this opened in 1890 with electric locomotives that hauled carriages with small opaque windows, nicknamed padded cells. The Waterloo and City Railway opened in 1898, followed by the Central London Railway in 1900, the Metropolitan Railway protested about the change of plan, but after arbitration by the Board of Trade, the DC system was adopted.
When the Bakerloo was so named in July 1906, The Railway Magazine called it an undignified gutter title, by 1907 the District and Metropolitan Railways had electrified the underground sections of their lines. In January 1913, the UERL acquired the Central London Railway, the Bakerloo line was extended north to Queens Park to join a new electric line from Euston to Watford, but World War I delayed construction and trains reached Watford Junction in 1917. During air raids in 1915 people used the stations as shelters. An extension of the Central line west to Ealing was delayed by the war, the Metropolitan promoted housing estates near the railway with the Metro-land brand and nine housing estates were built near stations on the line. Electrification was extended north from Harrow to Rickmansworth, and branches opened from Rickmansworth to Watford in 1925, the Piccadilly line was extended north to Cockfosters and took over District line branches to Harrow and Hounslow. In 1933, most of Londons underground railways and bus services were merged to form the London Passenger Transport Board, the Waterloo & City Railway, which was by in the ownership of the main line Southern Railway, remained with its existing owners.
In the same year that the London Passenger Transport Board was formed, in the following years, the outlying lines of the former Metropolitan Railway closed, the Brill Tramway in 1935, and the line from Quainton Road to Verney Junction in 1936
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a film and charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI maintains the worlds largest film archive, the BFI National Archive, previously called National Film Library, National Film Archive and National Film, the archive contains more than 50,000 fiction films, over 100,000 non-fiction titles and around 625,000 television programmes. The majority of the collection is British material but it features internationally significant holdings from around the world, the Archive collects films which feature key British actors and the work of British directors. The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and London IMAX cinema, both located on the bank of the River Thames in London. The IMAX has the largest cinema screen in the UK, and shows popular recent releases and short films showcasing its technology, BFI Southbank shows films from all over the world particularly critically acclaimed historical & specialised films that may not otherwise get a cinema showing.
The BFI distributes archival and cultural cinema to other venues – each year to more than 800 venues all across the UK, the BFI offers a range of education initiatives, in particular to support the teaching of film and media studies in schools. In late 2012, the BFI received money from the Department For Education to create the BFI Film Academy Network, the BFI runs the annual London Film Festival along with BFI Flare, London LGBT Film Festival and the youth-orientated Future Film Festival. The BFI publishes the monthly Sight & Sound magazine as well as films on Blu-ray, DVD, SIFT has a collection of about 7 million still frames from film and television. The institute was founded in 1933, the institute was restructured following the Radcliffe Report of 1948 which recommended that it should concentrate on developing the appreciation of filmic art, rather than creating film itself. Thus control of film production passed to the National Committee for Visual Aids in Education. From 1952-2000, the BFI provided funding for new and experimental filmmakers via the BFI Production Board, the institute received a Royal Charter in 1983.
This was updated in 2000, and in the year the newly established UK Film Council took responsibility for providing the BFIs annual grant-in-aid. As an independent registered charity, the BFI is regulated by the Charity Commission, in 1988, the BFI opened the London Museum of the Moving Image on the South Bank. The Museum was temporarily closed in 1999 when the BFI stated that it would be re-sited and this did not happen, and MOMIs closure became permanent in 2002 when it was decided to redevelop the South Bank site. This redevelopment was itself further delayed, the BFI is currently managed on a day-to-day basis by its chief executive, Amanda Nevill. Supreme decision-making authority rests with a chair and a board of up to 14 governors, the current chair is Josh Berger, who took up the post in February 2016. He succeeded Greg Dyke, who took office on 1 March 2008, Dyke succeeded the late Anthony Minghella, who was chair from 2003 until 31 December 2007. The chair of the board is appointed by the BFIs own Board of Governors but requires the consent of the Secretary of State for Culture, other Governors are co-opted by existing board members when required
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, its derives from the River Sheaf. With some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its industrial roots to encompass a wider economic base. The population of the City of Sheffield is 569,700, Sheffield is the third largest English district by population. The metropolitan population of Sheffield is 1,569,000, in the 19th century, Sheffield gained an international reputation for steel production. Known as the Steel City, many innovations were developed locally, including crucible and stainless steel, Sheffield received its municipal charter in 1843, becoming the City of Sheffield in 1893. International competition in iron and steel caused a decline in these industries in the 1970s and 1980s, the 21st century has seen extensive redevelopment in Sheffield along with other British cities. Sheffields gross value added has increased by 60% since 1997, standing at £9.2 billion in 2007, the economy has experienced steady growth averaging around 5% annually, greater than that of the broader region of Yorkshire and the Humber.
The city is in the foothills of the Pennines, and the valleys of the River Don and its four tributaries, the Loxley, the Porter Brook, the Rivelin. 61% of Sheffields entire area is space, and a third of the city lies within the Peak District national park. The area now occupied by the City of Sheffield is believed to have inhabited since at least the late Upper Palaeolithic period. The earliest evidence of occupation in the Sheffield area was found at Creswell Crags to the east of the city. In the Iron Age the area became the southernmost territory of the Pennine tribe called the Brigantes and it is this tribe who are thought to have constructed several hill forts in and around Sheffield. Gradually, Anglian settlers pushed west from the kingdom of Deira, a Celtic presence within the Sheffield area is evidenced by two settlements called Wales and Waleswood close to Sheffield. The settlements that grew and merged to form Sheffield, date from the half of the first millennium. In Anglo-Saxon times, the Sheffield area straddled the border between the kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria, after the Norman conquest, Sheffield Castle was built to protect the local settlements, and a small town developed that is the nucleus of the modern city.
By 1296, a market had been established at what is now known as Castle Square, from 1570 to 1584, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned in Sheffield Castle and Sheffield Manor. During the 1740s, a form of the steel process was discovered that allowed the manufacture of a better quality of steel than had previously been possible
Albert Bridge, London
The Albert Bridge is a road bridge over the River Thames in West London, connecting Chelsea on the north bank to Battersea on the south bank. In 1973 the Greater London Council added two concrete piers, which transformed the central span into a beam bridge. As a result, today the bridge is a hybrid of three different design styles. It is an English Heritage Grade II* listed building, built as a toll bridge, it was commercially unsuccessful. Six years after its opening it was taken into public ownership, the tollbooths remained in place and are the only surviving examples of bridge tollbooths in London. Incorporating a roadway only 27 feet wide, and with serious structural weaknesses, the strengthening work carried out by Bazalgette and the Greater London Council did not prevent further deterioration of the bridges structure. In 1992, the Albert Bridge was rewired and painted in a colour scheme designed to make it more conspicuous in poor visibility. At night it is illuminated by 4,000 bulbs, making it one of west Londons most striking landmarks, in 2010–2011, these were replaced with LEDs.
Work on the Victoria Bridge, a distance downstream of Battersea Bridge, began in 1851 and was completed in 1858. Meanwhile, the proposal to demolish Battersea Bridge was abandoned, the wooden Battersea Bridge had become dilapidated by the mid-19th century. It had grown unpopular and was considered unsafe, the newer Victoria Bridge, suffered severe congestion. A compromise was reached, and in 1864 a new Act of Parliament was passed, the Act compelled the Albert Bridge Company to purchase Battersea Bridge once the new bridge opened, and to compensate its owners by paying them £3,000 per annum in the interim. Rowland Mason Ordish was appointed to design the new bridge, Ordish was a leading architectural engineer who had worked on the Royal Albert Hall, St Pancras railway station, the Crystal Palace and Holborn Viaduct. The bridge was built using the Ordish–Lefeuvre system, a form of cable-stayed bridge design which Ordish had patented in 1858. While plans for the Chelsea Embankment were debated, Ordish built the Franz Joseph Bridge over the Vltava in Prague to the design as that intended for the Albert Bridge.
In 1869, the time allowed by the 1864 Act to build the bridge expired, delays caused by the Chelsea Embankment project meant that work on the bridge had not even begun, and a new Act of Parliament was required to extend the time limit. Construction finally got underway in 1870, and it was anticipated that the bridge would be completed in about a year, in the event, the project ran for over three years, and the final bill came to £200,000. As the law demanded, the Albert Bridge Company bought Battersea Bridge, ordishs bridge was 41 feet wide and 710 feet long, with a 384-foot-9-inch central span
Cineworld
Cineworld Group plc is the second largest cinema operator in Europe with 2,049 screens across 221 sites in 9 countries. The UK operations consist of arthouse chain Picturehouse Cinemas and multiplex chain Cineworld Cinemas with 24 and 82 cinemas respectively, all but two Cineworld sites are located in the UK, with one each in Ireland and Jersey. Cineworld is the second-largest cinema operator in the UK with over 800 screens, Cineworld Glasgow Renfrew Street is the tallest cinema in the world and the busiest, by customer base, in the UK. The Cineworld site with the greatest number of screens is that located at Valley Centertainment in Sheffield and it is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE250 Index. Additional sites were opened at a steady rate throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, in 2005, Cineworld took over the UK and Ireland operations of French cinema company UGC. Post-merger, Cineworld have continued to new locations, as of 2015, Cineworld have 82 locations in the UK, Ireland.
In August 2013, The Guardian revealed that Cineworld employs 80% of its 4,300 staff on zero hour contracts, in October 2013, The Chester location was closed due to the landowner wanting to develop the land into a supermarket. This has been the first Cineworld to close without being sold and was the first cinema to leave the chain in 8 years, in 2014 Cineworlds Picturehouse chain was subject to industrial action owing to its refusal to pay the London Living Wage to its staff. The workforce attracted the support of Eric Cantona, on 27 February 2014 Cineworld completed the takeover of Cinema City International N. V. In what can be seen to be a reverse takeover. Each Cineworld cinema has between 1 and 20 screens, which typically show mainstream general-release films, some Cineworlds show broadcasts of opera, live music and sports. All Cineworlds have an area, where food and drink such as popcorn, nachos or hotdogs can be purchased, Candyking pick. Various cinemas sell Ben and Jerrys ice cream but many were switched to Baskin Robbins in late 2013-early 2014 as part of that brands UK expansion, CafeBars and small amusement arcades can be found at some cinemas.
In October 2012, Cineworld began to some of its CafeBars with Starbucks Coffee outlets after agreeing a deal with the coffee chain. As of September 2013, nine Cineworld cinemas have IMAX screens, as new sites open contracts have been signed for installs of both along with further installs of IMAX screens at older sites. Following a recent refit, the Milton Keynes cinema has acquired both a Superscreen and a 4DX screen, the first in the UK, Cineworld intends to roll out further Superscreen and 4DX screens to other sites in the future. In June 2011, Cineworld began a trial of a premium cinema brand, located next to the Cheltenham cinema, The Screening Rooms offers considerably larger, leather seating, premium food, and table service. In early 2014 Cineworld introduced a seating system, starting as a trial in selected sites including Wembley
Waterloo
Waterloo; Waterloo East
