A LINK MADE WITH THE PAST

Both the Trocadero and the Troxy theatres were built by the Hyams brothers Phil, Sid and Mick in 1930 and 1933 respectively. The brother’s company, H&G Kinemas, then operated the theatres for a number of years until they became part of Gaumont British Theatres in the 1940s.

Consequently, The Trocadero Wurlitzer Trust is please to have recently received a generous and welcome donation from the PYN & B Hyams Trust. This donation has been initiated by the Hyams family, who are keen to support the Trocadero to Troxy project and are taking an interest in the future of both the Wurlitzer and the Troxy.

Above from left to right: Phil Hyams, Major Gale, Miss Bridget Hughes and Sid Hyams
at the opening of the Troxy on the 11th September 1933.

27th March 2012

FUNDRAISING SUCCESS FOR THE TRUST

If you have been keeping an eye on the gauge on the front page of this website over the last six weeks or so, you will have seen the total of our “Tank Up the Troc” appeal fund constantly rising. This is principally thanks to the generous response by members of The Cinema Organ Society, and also non-members, to our newsletter and appeal update mailed in February. The Trocadero Wurlitzer Trust would like to sincerely thank everyone who has contributed.

In addition to personal donations, the Trust has just received a grant of £5,000 from the Garfield Weston Foundation. Over the past fifty years The Garfield Weston Foundation has supported a wide range of registered charities with grants of varying sizes. Recent funding has supported projects in the categories including: Arts, Community, and Education. Our grant has been made towards the cost of restoring the Trocadero Wurlitzer and installing it in the Troxy. This is a valued and timely contribution to the fund for which the Trust is very grateful.

As a result of recent donations and the latest grant received the Trust has added £42,430 to the fund since early February. This significant sum will ensure progress on the Trocadero to Troxy project can be maintained. However, to complete restoration and installation a substantial amount still has to be raised.

18th March 2012

GRANT AWARDED BY THE THEATRE ORGAN CLUB

Throughout the summer, the Trust fundraising team have been approaching a range of grant giving organisations both large and small. As a result, on the 28th November 2011 we were very pleased to receive a £500 grant from The Theatre Organ Club Goodwin Fund.

This grant has arrived at just the right time, and will be very helpful in funding the work programme for early 2012, which is in the final stages of detailed planning.

Our grateful thanks go to our colleagues in The Theatre Organ Club.

1st December 2011

GRANT AWARDED BY THE IDLEWILD TRUST

In addition to encouraging personal donations, the Trocadero Wurlitzer Trust fundraising team have been approaching a range of grant giving organisations both large and small. The approach of the team has been to request financial assistance with a particular aspect of the project, principally restoration of the organ.

As a result of this work, on 12th May 2011 the Trust received a grant of £2,000 from the Idlewild Trust. The Idlewild Trust supports registered charities concerned with the encouragement of the performing arts and the preservation, for the benefit of the public, of buildings and other objects of historic interest in the United Kingdom. Our grant has been made towards the cost of the professional restoration of the pedal organ wood Diaphone pipes, the largest in the organ.

By coincidence on the 11th May 2011 the project team moved these pipes to their professional colleague’s workshops for assessment and subsequent restoration. This is a valued and timely contribution to the fund for which the Trust is very grateful

12th May 2011

PIPE DREAMS: TROXY WURLITZER OPEN DAY DRAWS CROWDS

Around 300 people flocked to an open day at the Troxy on Saturday 9th April to find out about the project to rehouse the largest Wurlitzer pipe organ ever installed in a European cinema at the Stepney venue.

The Cinema Organ Society which owns the Wurlitzer and the Troxy management have agreed to install the organ - built for the Trocadero Elephant and Castle in 1930 - in the art deco Commercial Road building.

The instrument's four-manual (keyboard) console which will control 1500 pipes when the project is complete took pride of place in the auditorium as visitors heard how it will become the first cinema organ to be installed in a major British cinema building since the 1930s.

Recordings of the Wurlitzer during its days in a previous home at the South Bank University, Southwark were played and a film telling the story of its rescue when the Trocadero was scheduled for demolition in the 1960s was screened accompanied by vintage records made by the Troc's star organist Quentin Maclean.

Some of the organ's mechanical components were also on display giving people the opportunity to see the kind of restoration work that will be carried out before the huge instrument is reinstalled in special chambers on either side of the Troxy stage.

Funds are still needed to complete the project - which will cost a total of more than £240,000 - and the Cinema Organ Society chairman Simon Gledhill said: "The overwhelmingly positive reactions of everyone who came along confirmed what we already knew. This instrument belongs in the Troxy and people want the project to happen.

"We have 60% of the money needed to turn the dream into reality - all we need now is the remaining £100,000."

The Troxy built in 1933 was opened as a 'super cinema' by show business entrepreneurs the Hyams brothers who also built the Trocadero.

7th April 2011

TRUST RECEIVES ITS FIRST GRANT

In addition to encouraging personal donations, the Trocadero Wurlitzer Trust fundraising team have been busy approaching a range of grant giving organisations both large and small. Generally, the approach of the team has been to request financial assistance with a particular aspect of the project, with the focus at this point in time principally on restoration of the organ.

As a result of this work, on 7th December 2010 the Trust received a grant of £1,000 from the Worshipful Company of Leathersellers, one of the 108 City of London livery companies. Not surprisingly, this grant has been made towards the cost of the many skins of high quality leather that are required to restore the pneumatic motors in the Main organ mechanism, of which there are over 1,350.

As the project team are poised to begin restoration of the organ, this is a valued and timely contribution to the fund for which the Trust is very grateful.
 

7th December 2010 

PROJECT AGREEMENT SIGNED

The all-important legal agreement to install the Trocadero Wurlitzer in the Troxy Stepney was signed in mid-June by the Cinema Organ Society (owners of the Trocadero Wurlitzer) and the Troxy. 

Deepak Sharma, owner of the Troxy, said 'this will bring something quite unique to the Troxy and indeed to London. Nowhere else will have anything like it'. The project team heartily agree! 

The legal agreement clears the way for initial fund-raising approaches (which has already been in preparation over the last few months) and, with positive indications from the Charity Commissioners, the project is clearly gathering momentum.

1st July 2010