Penny Blood's Black Book - My Independent Guide to London » Cinemas

The Phoenix Cinema

Penny Blood — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:27:44 +0000

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 Britain. It’s plush red velvet chairs, unique art-deco auditorium and bar serving sweets and homemade cakes make it one of the most charming cinema’s around. Although nowhere near where I live I do find myself going there to catch the better breed of films that don’t make the rounds of the more centrally located cinemas. The last thing I saw was a gypsy film but Tony Gatliff called Transylvania. It was so depressing and on leaving the cinema I got shouted at by an old lady on the street for standing too close to her. A short walk away is Bishops Avenue, home to London’s most ostentatious mansions of Arab arm dealer, Beverly hills meets Dubai ridiculously over the top, glamorous and gaudy tackorama, where no house is older than 10 years as each new owner just buys the plot, brings in a bulldozer and joins the ongoing competition as to who can create the biggest heap of brick, bile, glitter and glass.

http://www.phoenixcinema.co.uk/

Phoenix Cinema, 52 High Road, East Finchley, London, N2 9PJ
020 8444 6789

The Electric Cinema

Penny Blood — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:26:32 +0000

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 breaded prawns, great brownies and good wine. It’s the next best thing to having your own screening room with surround sound and on a Monday all tickets are half price. It’s rather beautiful too. It also claims to be the oldest cinema in town, opened in 1910 and finely restored to its Edwardian glamour boasting a gorgeous gilt-domed box office and pretty mosaic floor leading to an elegant paneled baroque styled auditorium.

http://www.electriccinema.co.uk/

191, Portobello Road, London, W11 2ED
020 7908 9696

The Gate Cinema

Penny Blood — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:24:57 +0000

What was once originally a brothel is now one of London’s longest standing 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?) There is also a small bar and you can take your drinks or hot chocolate in with you. I often come here as I’m a member so get £2 off my ticket (well every £1 saved is spent on another cup of tea) It’s a little crowded today. I’m used to having the place to myself as I go at obscure hours. I’m feeling twangs of jealousy at the 12 year old standing in line before me looking so much cooler than I ever did at that age. She’s wearing a Gibo by Julie Verhoeven shirt that I wanted but couldn’t really justify the £270 price tag but now that Gibo is sadly no more it would have been a true investment, c’est la vie.

N.B Although a chain Le Pain Quotidien next door is a nice place to eat or get coffee before or after, other than that you’re pretty limited in Notting Hill Gate.

http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/site/cinemas/gate/local.htm

The Gate Cinema, 87 Notting Hill Gate, London, W11 3JZ
0870 704 2058

Curzon Soho

Penny Blood — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:43:01 +0000

The Curzon specialises in independent films, including a lot of British and European ones and is 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 couches, it’s the ideal cinema really to hang out before and after a film. I don’t usually go in for cinema food, I have a tendency to accumulate everything I put in my mouth in my teeth, so popcorn’s out but they do have these amazing white chocolate covered freeze dried gooseberries, raspberries and strawberries which I will devour in minutes, feel guilty about the approximate 3000 calories I have just consumed before I proceed onto the next box. It’s modern without having any of the usual horrors that modern cinema’s have although it does lack small perks such as service at your seat, footstools or anything like that. It’s the most fun to people watch as being central London’s main independent cinema with 3 screens it’s always busy. One of the main reasons I would be loath to leave London is for places like the Curzon. Other cities just don’t seem to have as many wonderful unique cinema’s (apart from Paris, but they are mainly repertory) not L.A not even New York.

http://www.curzoncinemas.com/

Curzon Soho, 99 Shaftesbury Avenue London W1D 5DY
Box Office: 0871 7033 988 Recorded Information – 020 7292 1686

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ICA

Penny Blood — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:01:33 +0000

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 and her son, who she claims back from his loving foster parents only to show him how shit life can be. I haven’t honestly been able to go back since, it’s been 2 years. Aside from that the ICA has everything conveniently housed under one roof. There’s a great Oliver Peyton (of Peyton and Byrne bakery’s) café/restaurant/bar, an art dvd/bookshop (which you can browse through then of course buy on Amazon), two cinema screens where they show various films and documentaries generally of an artistic persuasion and a venue where the likes of the Libertines play before they get famous. Its nicely located on the Mall just off Trafalgar Square so on approach there’s a good view of Buckingham palace.

http://www.ica.org.uk/

ICA, 12 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AH
Box office: 020 7930 3647 Telephone: 020 7930 0493

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Rio Cinema

Penny Blood — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:01:05 +0000

It’s an ongoing dilemma for me where to sit in the cinema. I’m forever up against the tricky decision as to whether to sacrifice a good view of the screen for mental comfort by taking an aisle seat, reason being, as soon as I’m boxed in with a row of tightly packed viewers to either side of me, having taken their coats off, arranged their popcorn and drinks and settled down, I will feel an immediate need to go to the bathroom. A recent experience of sitting through ‘Qui Etes Vous Polly Magoo’ followed by 2 1/2 hours of Q&A (no matter how good the film is Q&A’s are always boring) I needed to pee 5 minutes in. Without wanting to make 20 people stand up I decided it was preferable to sustain a bladder infection. Anyway the point being that the seating arrangement at the Rio, itself a lovely little independent cinema in the familiar old theatre style is divided up the centre so you can have both an aisle seat and a middle view all at the same time. They also serve tea, coffee, alcohol and home made cakes.

http://www.riocinema.ndirect.co.uk/

Rio Cinema, 107 Kingsland High Street E8
020 7241 9410

Clapham Picture House

Penny Blood — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:00:25 +0000

South of the river is really growing on me. I was never much of a fan of south London. I had decided there wasn’t much down there and it’s a hassle to get to anyway, that was before I discovered the likes of Gastro, Breads etc.. Rosie’s café and now The Clapham Picture House. Tucked away down a back street in Clapham is a great little cinema with some of the most comfortable seating I have found to date. They have a cosy café, perfect for meeting people beforehand which has a fully stocked bar, great food (of the bar snack variety) and serve a proper coffee, I love it when everything is under one roof. Part of the Picturehouse cinema chain (which includes the Gate in Notting Hill and the Ritzy in Brixton) they show a good range of Hollywood and Independent films keeping the adverts to a minimum something I greatly appreciate.

http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema_home_date.aspx?venueId=cph

Clapham Picture House, 76 Venn Street, London, SW4 0AT
020 7498 2242 / Booking: 020 7498 3323

Everyman Hampstead

Penny Blood — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:59:51 +0000

I could not be more enthusiastic about this cinema. I consider myself an expert 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 own side table, a selection of delicious snacks and drinks from wine to coffee but there is table service too. All of this in a quaint old theatre with a small cosy bar and a circle balcony. It’s just a shame that due to the lack of good movies that are ever made I don’t have enough reason to come here.

http://www.everymancinema.com/cinemas/index.asp?ci=2&ln=1

Everyman Hampstead, 5 Holly Bush Vale, Hampstead, London NW3 6TX
0870 066 4777 (9am-9pm)

The Electric Cinema

Ritzy

Penny Blood — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:59:25 +0000

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. The Ritzy has a lovely cafe and bar and is the kind of cinema where you can have dinner or coffee before a movie and you don’t need to risk your life walking around Brixton to find a place to eat which is important as there isn’t anything unless you like pig trotters and salted fish.

http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/site/cinemas/ritzy/local.htm

Ritzy, Brixton Oval, Coldharbour Lane, SW2 1JG
020 7733 2229

Clapham Picture House

Coronet Cinema

Penny Blood — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:48:00 +0000

The Coronet must be the most spectacular of all the old independent cinemas. The interior of cinema one, which is the original theatre, is decorated in a Louis XVI style with the auditorium still possessing 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 manager, she dashed out of his office, ran upstairs, then threw herself from the balcony. A tip, don’t watch anything on Screen 2, the seats are UNBEARABLE they all slope slightly forward. Screen 1; if you’re getting anxious because you’re stuck behind 50 people knowing it’s a free for all seating arrangement, have no fear, most people get all excited about sitting in the balcony and filter off leaving you free reign to take your pick of the spacious seating arrangement in the stalls. The old theatre balconies look gorgeous but you don’t want to sit there as unless you have legs two foot long as they are horrendously uncomfortable. The seats downstairs are wonderful with plenty of legroom. Also it’s only £3.50 a ticket on Tuesday’s, and the projectionist is adorable, say hi to him for me.

http://www.coronet.org/

Coronet Cinema, 103 Notting Hill Gate, London, W11 3LB
020 7727 6705
Monday – Sunday 1pm-6.30pm