Arzner Cinema

Located in the south London inner-city district of Bermondsey at the corner of Tower Bridge Road and Long Street. The Shortwave Cinema opened on 8th May 2009. It was the first single screen cinema to be built and opened in Great Britain in the 21st century. Seating was provided for 50 on four stepped rows.

The interior decoration is in red and black, with refurbished seats from the Electric Cinema in Notting Hill. The cinema also contained a bar and a café. On 26th July 2017 it was taken over by the independent Kino Digital chain and was re-named Kino Bermondsey. They also operate the Kino Hawkhurst and the Kino Rye. The Kino Bermondsey was renovated in 2020 while closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It was reopened but sadly closed on 26th January 2023 due to non-payment of rent.

The final screening was a performance of “The Crucible”, by Arthur Miller, broadcast live from the stage of the Olivier Theatre as part of the National Theatre live programming. The operator blamed the closure on a steep increase in its service charge, and a rent rise linked to inflation, believed to be at 14%. There were complaints on social media about such an ‘unsustainable’ rent increase, while the landlord, Oval Real Estate, who acquired Bermondsey Square in May 2022, said that the Kino’s existing lease, signed in 2014, includes inflation-tiered rent increases.

In September 2024 it was announced that it has been taken over by Simon Burke & Piers Greenlees who run a gay bar The Rising on Harper Road, Elephant & Castle, SE1. The former Kino Bermondsey reopened on 20th February 2025 as a LGBTQ+ cinema renamed The Arzner (named after Dorothy Arzner who was the only openly gay female film director in Hollywood during the years 1926 to the early-1940’s). The Arzner Cinema screens arthouse, independent and classic films which have a gay following. The opening films were Zoe Heran in “Tomboy” & Olivia Colman in “The Favourite”. The cinema also has a cocktail lounge.

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