Let it be known in no uncertain terms that I will never under any circumstances go anywhere near a multiplex cinema. I would rather trek to north London to a little gem known as the Phoenix Cinema. Built in 1910 and surviving two world wars, it’s believed to be the oldest purpose built cinema in [...]

Aside from The Everyman in Hampstead, I have never known comfort like this. Plush leather armchairs and footstools with cream coloured walls, red velvet-like recesses and golden trimmings and a bar where you can forget the usual packaged and processed fat food and expect Mediterranean snacks such as olives and crudités, stuffed quail eggs and [...]

What was once originally a brothel is now one of London’s longest standing quaint cinema’s, with ornate paneled walls, heavily coffered ceiling of Edwardian plasterwork, red velvet chairs and double love seats that are comfortable enough to fall asleep in (I did once, to the Royal Tennenbaums, I hate Wes Andersen, what was I thinking?) [...]

Specialising in independent films, including a lot of British and European ones and perfectly located on the edge of Soho and Chinatown. It has a street level café selling cakes and cookies from my favourite bakery, Konditor & Cook and a dark relaxing lower ground floor café and bar with a number of cushy leather [...]

Certain experiences can severely taint a place for me (negative association) like suffering that claustrophobic pang when watching a film that sickens you but is hard to walk out of, in this case “The heart is deceitful above all things” an utterly depressing film directed by and starring Asia Argento about a junky degenerate mother [...]

It’s an ongoing dilemma for me where to sit in the cinema. I’m forever up against the tricky decision as to whether or not to sacrifice a good view of the screen for mental comfort by taking an aisle seat as, soon as I’m boxed in with a row of tightly packed viewers to either [...]

I think I’ve mentioned before that Clapham is an area of London generally to be avoided with one of a few exceptions, The Clapham Picture House. Tucked away down a back street this busy little cinema has a bar, comfortable seating area serving food, hosts a film night every Tuesday where those who know the [...]

I could not be more enthusiastic about this cinema. I consider myself an expect as I have pointedly been to every independent cinema in London and the Everyman Hampstead comes at the top of the list. For not much more than you would spend at a regular multiplex cinema you get your own chair, you [...]

Once you manage to negotiate your way from Brixton station through the tramps and junkies scrounging to pick up cigarette butts from under your feet, you’ll find yourself in a little haven in an otherwise 3rd world ghetto know as Brixton. The Ritzy has a lovely cafe and bar and is the kind of cinema [...]

The interior of cinema one, which is the original theatre, is decorated in a Louis XVI manner and the auditorium still has the two original elliptically curved balconies. The ghost of a female cashier reputedly haunts the cinema. Legend has it that when she was caught fiddling the box office receipts and confronted by the [...]