Oxshott railway station building. Photo: Stacey Harris, CC BY-SA 2.0From brickworks village to private estate
Oxshott was a small farming hamlet until 1885, when the station, first called Oxshott and Fairmile, opened on the new Guildford line. Land released by the Crown Estate was built up with large mock Tudor houses for London commuters. The village also had a brickworks, which ran from 1866 to 1958 on a deep patch of clay, and Oxshott became a parish in its own right in 1913. Today many of its residential roads are gated and private, the public land around the village is Metropolitan Green Belt, and Prince's Coverts is still part of the Crown Estate.
Few of the original Crown Estate houses still stand; many plots have been rebuilt as large 21st century houses. That shapes the work we do here. Much of it is either wiring a new house properly from the start, or upgrading a cinema room that has not lived up to expectations.
From our Oxshott projectOur immersive cinema in Oxshott
Our Oxshott cinema began as an upgrade. The client, a Chelsea fan with children and grandchildren, already had a cinema room, but it lacked impact, the sound was not as clear as it should be and the lighting control was limited. He wanted one room for two jobs: match day with the family, and a proper film when he wanted to escape.
We designed the room around a 120 inch acoustically transparent screen and a ceiling-mounted Epson LS-12000 laser projector, with a KEF THX 7.2.2 Dolby Atmos speaker package and a Denon receiver. Six Front Row leather recliners sit in two rows. Acoustic treatment, dark walls and grey carpet stop light and sound bouncing around, and the layout was worked out around the room's sloped ceiling. Control4 with a colour touchscreen remote runs the lot, so anyone in the family can start a film. The result is one room that handles a Saturday match with the grandchildren and a late film alone, with the same simple remote for both.
From our Oxshott projectWhat if your cinema room already disappoints?
The Oxshott room tells a common story. An older cinema might have a projector that has lost its brightness, speakers placed where the furniture allowed rather than where the sound needs them, and a pile of remotes nobody understands. We start by looking and listening, then decide what to keep. Often the room itself is fine and the fix is the screen, the speaker layout, acoustic treatment and one control system. Our home cinema design service works out seating distance, screen size and speaker positions for the room you already have.
From our Oxshott projectRebuilding? Plan the cabling at first fix
If you are rebuilding on an Oxshott plot, the best time to plan the technology is before the plasterboard goes up. At that stage we can run cables to every keypad, speaker, access point and camera, set aside a ventilated space for the equipment rack, and design the lighting circuits for scene control. Lutron lighting control and Control4 then go in as the rooms are finished, rather than being retrofitted later. Bring your architect's drawings and we will mark up where everything goes.
Our demonstration cinema in Walton-on-ThamesPrivate roads and the Green Belt
Oxshott sits in Elmbridge, and unlike Cobham or Esher it does not appear on Elmbridge Borough Council's list of conservation areas. The usual questions here are the Green Belt and the rules of your road. If you are thinking about a garden building for a cinema or gym, check with the council early. On the Crown Estate, a residents' association and estate company with its own covenants look after the private roads, and on any gated road we plan access, deliveries and parking around the estate's arrangements.
Our Walton-on-Thames showroom is close enough for an evening visit. Book a showroom visit to hear Dolby Atmos in our demonstration cinema, or book a free design consultation.
