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London's cinemas worth crossing town for: the repertory and arthouse houses, the picture palaces kept going, the one IMAX, and the rooms above pubs and behind bars where the programme is somebody's taste. What is showing is listed under each cinema, and in What's On.
What is showing this week is in What's On: Film
A family-run cinema on a site that has been selling entertainment since 1848, with the music hall's name still on its bar.
Repertory & seasonsNew releasesHistoric picture palaceLate
The Eagle public house stood here first, with a room big enough for music hall. William Lusby bought it in 1868, and by 1877 it was Lusby's Summer and Winter Palace, holding five thousand people and opening five folding doors onto a garden promenade - the first music hall to have one. It burned down in January 1884, and the owners hired Frank Matcham, who would go on to build the Hackney Empire, the London Palladium and the Victoria Palace. The Paragon Theatre of Varieties opened in May 1885 and gave stages to Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel, Little Tich and Gertie Gitana. Film crept into the bill from 1912, ABC demolished the theatre and rebuilt in 1938, and in 1963 Joan Littlewood held the East End's first royal film premiere here for Sparrows Can't Sing, with Barbara Windsor in it and the Krays in the audience.
It is independent and family-run now, and programmes wider than a cinema strictly needs to: new releases and independent film, 35mm prints, National Theatre broadcasts, a cult and trash strand in the bar, professional wrestling, and a run of festivals through the autumn - the London Independent Film Festival, Fringe!, the Hong Kong and Tibet film festivals. The bar is called Paragon, after the theatre that stood here.
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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.