Watermans Art Centre is a combined arts centre. It is located in Brentford, England alongside the banks of the River Thames overlooking Kew Gardens in West London, England.
It includes a 239-seat theatre, a 125-seat cinema two galleries and two studio spaces.[ citation needed ]
On 20 March 2024 it was announced that the current centre would close on 11 April 2024, with no immediate replacement. [2]
Built on the site of gas works, Watermans Arts Centre was in planning for 15 years.[ citation needed ] A trust was put in place in 1975 and there was a fundraising drive. The Hounslow Arts Trust managed to raise around £150,000 but it was not enough to build the centre. A planning deal was made with the developer of offices adjoining the current site which, along with the Trust's money, paid for the construction. It took about three years to build and cost about £2m. [3] The building was designed by the architectural firm Oscar Garry & Partners. The original building contained a theatre, cinema, and gallery. The two studios are a later addition. [4] John Baraldi was the first director of the arts centre. [5]
The first event in the theatre was a concert by sitar player Ravi Shankar. [6]
Watermans established a reputation for live music and early raves took place there. In fact, the term Acid Jazz was originally coined by DJ Gilles Peterson at one of Nicky Holloway's Special Branch gigs at the Watermans in late 1987. [7] Gilles Peterson recollected that "Acid jazz happened when Bangsy and me were playing at the Waterman's Art Centre in Brentford. A one-off gig by Nicky Holloway. I think Paul Oakenfold or Pete Tong were DJing. It was all ‘get on one, matey’ and it was banging acid house." [8]
On 19 August 1988, alternative rock band Spacemen 3 gave an unusual live performance. An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music took place in the foyer to act as a prelude to a screening of the film Wings of Desire. Peter Kember, Jason Pierce and Will Carruthers were joined by Rugby musician Steve Evans. They played a 45-minute jam, based around a single chord strummed by Evans, featuring riffs from some of the songs from their as yet unreleased Playing with Fire material. This performance was recorded and was later released, in 1990, as Dreamweapon .
The performance was not well received at the time. Pat Fish said "it was fucking beautiful, but in this setting it was really, really annoying people. It was quite loud in the room... tempers were beginning to fray." [9]
Robert Rankin held a position as the Writer in Residence of Watermans during the 1980s and organised a regular poetry event which he claims was the largest in Britain. [10] Rankin's The Brentford Trilogy is a series of nine novels humorously chronicling the lives of a couple of drunken middle-aged layabouts who confront the forces of darkness in Brentford.
In that decade. there were several reported sightings of a Griffin near Watermans. John Baraldi reported that "a woman came from the parking along the street. She was in an awful state. She had seen a huge bird and was obviously rather shaken by it." Robert Rankin said "it has been a local myth for years. There were sightings of the ones prior to the last year. Previous ones go back to at least before the Second World War. A year ago a jogger called John Olssen reported seeing the bird as he was running by the arts centre. And a woman saw it from the top of a bus." [11] The legend went on to be referenced in Rankin's book Web Site Story .
During the 1990s, Watermans was known for focusing on South Asian arts. [12] Doctor Alda Terracciano argued that "the last decade has witnessed the rapidly increasing achievements of a number of British Asian playwrights, directors and actors – a trend fostered by the support of venues such as the Watermans Arts Centre," noting that the comedy circuit benefited from Watermans' support through the regular 'One Nation Under a Groove...Innit' event which "offered the opportunity to a number of emerging Asian comedians to exercise their skills before being cast in proper comedy dramas." [13] Actor Sanjeev Bhaskar's musical comedy double act "The Secret Indians (non-Asian)" performed at Watermans.
Comedian Jo Brand visited in 2008. She said of Watermans that "these sort of places are important for local people in west London. You have the West End but the average person cannot afford that, so their only access to theatre is somewhere like Watermans." She also noted: "I was in a stand-up show there about 20 years ago." [14] Other notable names who have appeared include Peter Greenaway, Elvis Costello, Mica Paris, Meera Syal, Melvin Bragg and Shabana Azmi.
Watermans presented a year-round programme of independent cinema, children's theatre, cabaret, dance, music, talks and creative workshops. Watermans also worked across the borough of Hounslow, bringing outdoor arts to Bell Square, a purpose-built outdoor arts space in Hounslow Town Centre. It led the Creative People and Places Hounslow consortium, which was a 10 year programme funded by Arts Council England to help engage new audiences in the arts. [15]
During the Covid lockdowns Watermans instituted a fortnightly film club 'No Ticket Required' to continue its film programming and support its audiences. [16] This proved to be insufficient to sustain the centre and after a planned relocation was indefinitely delayed it was announced the centre would close in April of 2024. [17]
Hounslow is a large suburban district of West London, England, 10+3⁄4 miles west-southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hounslow, and is identified in the London Plan as one of the 14 metropolitan centres in Greater London.
Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, 8 miles (13 km) west of Charing Cross.
Chiswick is a district in the London Borough of Hounslow, West London, England. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist William Hogarth; Chiswick House, a neo-Palladian villa regarded as one of the finest in England; and Fuller's Brewery, London's largest and oldest brewery. In a meander of the River Thames used for competitive and recreational rowing, with several rowing clubs on the river bank, the finishing post for the Boat Race is just downstream of Chiswick Bridge.
The London Borough of Hounslow is a London borough in West London, England, forming part of Outer London. It was created in 1965 when three smaller borough councils amalgamated under the London Government Act 1963. It is governed by Hounslow London Borough Council.
Osterley is an affluent district of the historic parish of Isleworth in west London approximately 8.7 miles (14.0 km) from Charing Cross and is part of the London Borough of Hounslow. Most of its land use is mixed agricultural and aesthetic parkland at Osterley House, charity-run, much of which is open to paying visitor access.
Robert Fleming Rankin is a prolific British author of comedic fantasy novels. Born in Parsons Green, London, he started writing in the late 1970s, and first entered the bestsellers lists with Snuff Fiction in 1999, by which time his previous eighteen books had sold around one million copies. His books are a mix of science fiction, fantasy, the occult, urban legends, running gags, metafiction, steampunk and outrageous characters. According to the biography printed in some Corgi editions of his books, Rankin refers to his style as 'Far Fetched Fiction' in the hope that bookshops will let him have a section to himself. Many of Rankin's books are bestsellers.
Brentford Football Club is a professional association football club in Brentford, West London, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the first level of the English football league system.
Sanjeev Bhaskar is an English actor, comedian and television presenter. He is best known for his work in the BBC Two sketch comedy series Goodness Gracious Me and as the star of the sitcom The Kumars at No. 42. He also presented and starred in a documentary series called India with Sanjeev Bhaskar in which he travelled to India and visited his ancestral home in today's Pakistan. Bhaskar's more dramatic acting roles include the lead role of Dr Prem Sharma in The Indian Doctor and a main role as DI Sunny Khan in Unforgotten. Bhaskar has been the Chancellor of the University of Sussex since 2009.
Brentford and Isleworth is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. It forms the eastern part of the London Borough of Hounslow. Since 2015, it has been represented by Ruth Cadbury of the Labour Party.
Anton Phillips is a Jamaican-born British actor who found success appearing in British television. He remains best known for his role as Dr. Bob Mathias in the science fiction series Space: 1999. Also a theatre producer and director, he has been involved over the years with many initiatives to showcase high-quality professional theatre by and for black people, including the Carib Theatre Company, co-founded with Yvonne Brewster in 1980.
Dreamweapon: An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music is a 1990 live album by Spacemen 3.
Joseph Eghodalo Omigie is an English retired professional footballer who played as a forward in the Football League for Brentford.
Poulomi Desai is a British photographer, multi-media artist, curator and an activist community worker. A self-taught outsider artist originally inspired by a street theatre background, her works are performative, textual, image based, and acoustic - both digital and analog. She works with collaborative working processes which evolve through research, learning and action to examine the elusive, creating live and online large scale photographs, performances and outdoor sound installations.
Brentford F.C. Reserves was the reserve team of Brentford. The reserve team played at varying times from 1900 until 2011. During the 2012 off-season, the English reserve football pyramid and youth system was overhauled under the Elite Player Performance Plan and replaced with a new Academy system and development leagues. Brentford's reserve team was relaunched as the Brentford Development Squad in 2011 and in 2012 it began competing in Professional Development League 2 South. After closing the academy in May 2016, the club withdrew from the Elite Player Performance Plan and Professional Development League and launched a new Brentford B team. Following the first team's promotion to the Premier League in 2021, the club reopened its academy in time for the start of the 2022–23 season, under the Elite Player Performance Plan, while retaining the B team.
Peter William John Gelson was an English professional footballer who played in the Football League for Brentford as a centre back and wing half. A cult hero amongst the club's supporters, he is third on the all-time Brentford appearances list with 516. In 2013, Gelson placed second in a Football League 125th Anniversary poll of Brentford's all-time fan favourites and was inducted into the Brentford Hall of Fame in November 2014.
Brentford Football Club is an English professional football club based in Brentford, Hounslow, London. Between 1897 and 1920, the first team competed in the London League, Southern League and Western League. Since 1920, the first team has competed in the Football League, the Premier League and other nationally and internationally organised competitions. All players who have been awarded the club's Supporters' Player of the Year and Players' Player of the Year awards are listed below.
Ambreen Razia is an English actress and writer. She wrote and appeared in the sitcom Hounslow Diaries (2018). She has also appeared in the television series Murdered by my Father (2016), Trigonometry (2019), This Way Up (2019), Black Mirror (2019), Scrapper (2020), The Long Goodbye (2021), Starstruck (2022), The Curse (2022), and Ted Lasso (2023).
Chiswick High Road is the principal shopping and dining street of Chiswick, a district in the west of London. It was part of the main Roman road running west out of London, and remained the main road until the 1950s when the A4 was built across Chiswick. By the 19th century the road through the village of Turnham Green had grand houses beside it. The road developed into a shopping centre when Chiswick became built up with new streets and housing to the north of Old Chiswick, late in the 19th century. There are several listed buildings including public houses, churches, and a former power station, built to supply electricity to the tram network.
Ozone Theatres Ltd, formerly Ozone Amusements, was a cinema chain based in Adelaide, South Australia, from 1911 until 1951, when it sold its theatres to Hoyts. It was founded by Hugh Waterman and was jointly run by him and seven sons, including Clyde Waterman and Sir Ewen McIntyre Waterman. S.A. Theatres and Ozone Theatres were subsidiary companies, and the chain was referred to as the Ozone circuit.
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