Electric Cinema - Portobello
191 Portobello Road,
London,
W11 2ED
191 Portobello Road,
London,
W11 2ED
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Happy memories from the mid 70s of being an Electric Cinema Club member and seeing some amazing movies not available in mainstream cinemas, in that faded and jaded, but utterly charming old Electric auditorium. The Electric and the Gate along with the Paris Pullman between Old Brompton Rd and Fulham Rd were my regular haunts and refuge for a number of years.
I think this theatre might have the Guinness World record for the World’s oldest cinema with most of the original fabric intact?
I worked here tearing tickets back in the day when the Electric showed 4 films a day…the main double bill with a matinee/late night double bill. Incredible! I got such an education in world cinema.
I’ll post some pictures from those days shortly, once I’ve got the permission of everyone who are in them.
In the meantime time check out this link to a brochure which was put together for the 100th anniversary by Mandy Kean of the Soho House Group in 2011. It’s featured on the Electric’s official web site…..
https://www.electriccinema.co.uk/images/portobello/Electric100years.pdf
rob small
correction to the main entry, the cinema is run by the Soho House group and programmed by City Screen
photos from the uk premiere of Fade To Black
exterior
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/4689426004/
director and producer on stage
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/4688795033/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/4688795553/
night time shot of the marquee last sunday night for the Fade To Black premiere (new Orson Welles biopic)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/2310362199/
A sunny day in London? I thought they didn’t have any.
A close-up of the front and sign of the Electric Cinema in August 2006:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zonca/214889425/
Here is a recent interior photograph showing the rear seating area. The Electric Cinema has this new luxury leather armchair style seating installed right down to the front row.
View link
In my student days in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s I used to frequent the electric cinema when it was a cinema club (a means of circumventing some of the licensing requirements). Inside it was a bit of a small screen flea pit, but it had a magical charm of its own and generally an audience of film lovers. There were midweek late night double bills starting at 11:15 pm and finishing at 3-4:00 am. I believe that the regulars such as myself were known by the staff as “Charlies†!
There was a little hatch at the rear of the cinema where one could buy fresh coffee, the odour of which wafted across the auditorium. Homemade cold pizza and carrot cake were also available.
Some of my magical memories of cinema were watching the Buster Keaton season with live piano accompaniment and a full house of belly laughing people. It must have been similar 60 years earlier. Another fond memory was of watching Murnau’s silent Nosferatu with Brian Eno’s Music for Films (an album used frequently at the Electric in the intervals) as the backing music then followed by Herzog’s version in German. Where could you see that sort of programme today? â€" but then again who would want to watch it?….. Somewhere I still have an old programme, a badge and a photo of the stylized neon sign â€" if I find them I will try to post them on the site.
A few years ago the cinema reopened as a den of luxury after a long period of closure. The programming while more interesting than most cinemas is less adventurous than in the 70’s/80’s, but we do have to live in the real (commercial) world!
Exterior photo and some history on the Electric Cinema here:
http://www.tnunn.f2s.com/electric.htm
Interior photo:
View link
The Electric Cinema Theatre address is 191 Portobello Road, Notting Hill, London. W11. The architect of this 600 seat cinema was Gerald Seymour Valentin. It opened on 24th February 1910 and from 1932 it was re-named Imperial Playhouse until it closed on 12th December 1970. It re-opened as the Electric Cinema Club screening classic Avante Garde movies and since then has had several closing and re-openings. It still survives as one of the UK’s oldest operating purpose built cinemas.
weblink www.electriccinema.co.uk
this has to be the most wonderful cinema in the world, huge leather armchairs, a bar at the back of the auditorium, all the original plasterwork and a screen that magically folds out of the original square proscenium