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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
The room where the Lumiere brothers showed moving pictures to a paying British audience in 1896.
Repertory & seasonsNew releasesHistoric picture palaceWorth it for the building
British cinema started in this auditorium. The Lumiere brothers brought their Cinematographe here in 1896 and charged for it, and the building kept the habit of being first: Pepper's Ghost was demonstrated here, Alfred West's naval films ran for fourteen unbroken years, and the first film ever given an X certificate was shown here. Between 1980 and 2012 none of that was visible, because the University of Westminster used the room as a lecture hall. It was restored and reopened to the public in 2015 with Heritage Lottery money.
What came back is an Art Deco auditorium with velvet seats, gold coat hooks and a shallow coved ceiling, running 4K digital with surround sound, a restored original 35mm projector for film prints, and a working Compton cinema organ - one of very few left in the country - which is played in recital on the first Monday of the month before the afternoon film. The programme mixes new releases with curated seasons.
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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.