About The Cinema

Phoenix Cinema is one of the UK’s oldest purpose-built, continuously operating cinemas. Beneath the vaulted ceiling which dates back to 1910, the history of film has been shared with millions of audience members. From silent films with live music through two world wars when newsreels were the only source of moving images that captured events overseas; from the clicking reels of 24 frames a second to the digital projection of today, The Phoenix has witnessed it all.

The other unique aspect of Phoenix Cinema is that since 1985 it has been a cinema of the community, run by a charitable trust for the community. Saved from the wrecker’s ball by the formation of The Phoenix Cinema Trust, it is a wholly independent single screen cinema screening the latest independent and foreign films and reinvesting its profits in education work and maintaining this historic building.

To find out more about London’s oldest cinema, take a look at this online exhibition.

Plus, watch this film celebrating The Phoenix’s first 100 years:

Built in 1910

Built in 1910, the cinema finally opened in 1912 as The East Finchley Picturedrome, part of the first wave of cinema building happening across the UK in the early 1900s.

Here Gerry Turvey introduces the cinema’s beginnings:

The 1909 Cinematograph Act introduced laws to make cinemas safer. As a result, more purpose-built cinemas began to appear from

1910 onwards including this one. It was built by Premier Electric Theatres in 1910 on what was considered an excellent site, with electric trams running past and the station nearby. However, the company went bankrupt before the cinema could open.

In 1912, the building was purchased by businessmen who had been involved in setting up East Sheen Picturedrome. It finally opened as The East Finchley Picturedrome in May 1912 with a film about the tragic Titanic ocean liner which had recently sunk.

At its opening it looked very different than it does today with a façade of towers and domes. Inside, there was a café on the 1st floor, which has recently been reinstated. In the auditorium, there was an orchestra pit and twice the number of seats as today. Maisie Williams describes the auditorium at this time:

The Coliseum

The 1920s saw the cinema change its name to The Coliseum and become the first cinema in the area to screen a sound film.

The cinema’s name was changed to The Coliseum in 1924. At this time, the typical programme was silent movies accompanied by live music, plus variety acts such as singers, magicians and comedians.

But in 1928, British cinema went through a huge transformation when the first sound film, The Jazz Singer, featuring the voice of the film’s star Al Jolson, premiered in London’s West End. Cinemas across London started the transition to sound and on 22 July 1929 this cinema was the first in the area to show a sound film, screening Al Jolson’s latest The Singing Fool. Maisie Williams remembers coming to see The Singing Fool here in 1929:

The Rex

In the late 1930s the cinema was transformed to compete with the new chain cinemas opening up in the area. Along with its new modern look it was renamed The Rex.

The 1930s saw the second period of national cinema building. In this area alone, four new cinemas were opened by chains such as Odeon and Gaumont. These new cinemas were built in modern styles with luxurious interiors and all mod-cons, which this 25 year old cinema struggled to compete with.

So in 1938 the cinema underwent a transformation, reopening in September as The Rex with a new modernist façade by Howes and Jackman and an Art Deco auditorium designed by renowned cinema interior designers Mollo and Egan. The original 1910 barrel vaulted ceiling was retained, with decorative Art Deco panels added along the walls. The auditorium was reversed, with the screen moving to the opposite end. This involved considerable alteration to the flooring to create a rake for the seating. The colour scheme, like today, was red, bronze and gold. Here Ken Edwards talks about his reaction to the cinema’s redevelopment:

At war

Thankfully, the cinema made it through World War II unscathed, with minimal closures. Instead it benefited from the national increase in cinema going as people sort out information or distraction.

Throughout World War II, The Rex was fortunately untouched by the bombings of the Blitz. People continued to flock to the cinema to watch newsreels with the latest information or for feature films which allowed them to escape the oppression and austerity of the war for a few hours. By 1946, national cinema audiences peaked at 1.64 billion, with many people going 2 – 3 times a week.
In 1942, the cinema was selected as a reception centre for evacuees from coastal towns as part of the German invasion precautions. Extra gas points were installed so that if contingency plans went into action, a number of tea urns could be set up. They were never needed.

Peter Willcocks tells a story from this time:

An art house cinema

The 1970s saw the cinema change from a repertory cinema screening classics and films off release date to an art house cinema screening the latest foreign and independent films.

From the 1950s onwards, cinemas struggled to compete with TV and other leisure activities, forcing many to close. As a result, this cinema changed its programming policy, offering something different to its competitors. Instead of mainstream Hollywood movies, it began to show ‘art house’ cinema: independent, classic and foreign films. This policy was the idea of 23-year old manager Steve Wischhusen. He programmed imaginative double-bills such as the documentary Woodstock with Performance starring Mick Jagger and a ‘Fonda Freak Out’ featuring Peter’s Easy Rider and Jane’s Cat Ballou. This quickly became popular although The Rex was not immune to the cinema industry’s declining audience.

Mish Aminoff remembers the effect of watching both Easy Rider and Woodstock here as a teenager at that time:

The Phoenix

In the mid-1970s, the cinema gained a new name and owners, resulting in it becoming a renowned art house cinema.

In October 1975, the film distributor Contemporary Films, led by Charles and Kitty Cooper, purchased the cinema for £64,500 to act as a showcase for the European ‘art house’ and world cinema films they represented. They changed the name to The Phoenix and introduced the logo which is still used today. Here Kitty Cooper talks about changing the name:

Contemporary Films confirmed the move away from splashy double-bills and focussed their audiences’ attention on single non-mainstream features, opening with Werner Herzog’s ‘Kaspar Hauser’. New works by Fassbinder, Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol, Bergman, Fellini and Buñuel followed as Contemporary sought to feed cinemagoers’ hunger for global cinema. Louise Greenberg reminisces about interviewing Werner Herzog here at this time:

Threat of closure

Charles Cooper maintained ‘art house’ standards against heavy odds but, by the early 1980s, The Phoenix was losing £20,000 a year. He was ready to sell the cinema and retire.

In 1983, a property company applied to Barnet Council for planning permission to build an office block on the site occupied by the cinema and the two lock-up garages behind it. Barnet Council’s Planning Committee approved the development in July but the Greater London Council rejected the proposal. Even so, a public inquiry in April 1984 granted permission for the office block to go forward.

In the meantime, widespread opposition had developed, with a 6,235-signature petition against closure being organised by the local Young Socialists in the winter of 1983-4 and various neighbourhood interest groups expressing their disapproval. Given this support, Charles Cooper developed a set of plans that would help guarantee the cinema’s future (including a bar-restaurant and a second screen). Through 1984, the GLC (despite a closure set for spring 1986) developed an active interest in supporting the cinema’s survival and this resulted in a £325,000 grant to The Phoenix Cinema Trust, formed early in 1985, to purchase the cinema from Contemporary in December 1985. Darryl Telles talks about helping to save the cinema from closure:

Phoenix Cinema Trust

Since taking control of The Phoenix in 1985, The Trust has helped the cinema go from strength to strength with the addition of new technologies and new facilities.

In its first decade, the Trust’s resources were very modest but it managed several small-scale improvements, such as the installation of new projection equipment and the creation of space for a small coffee bar. At the same time, in May 1986, it introduced the Friends schemethat is still operating today.

In its second decade (and since), The Trust has been more proactive and ambitious. It developed a Mission Statement to define its overall strategy in 1997 and followed this with a series of plans to improve the building’s facilities. Hence, the entrance area and foyer space were enlarged in 2002, digital projection equipment was installed in 2005, new seating was fitted into the auditorium in 2006 and a café-bar was built over the entrance in 2010, along with a general refurbishment and restoration of the whole building to celebrate the cinema’s centenary.

Over the last 20 years, The Phoenix has regularly been used as film set. Click here to see some of the things that have been filmed here.

Interested in The Phoenix’s history?

• Buy our book The Phoenix Cinema: A Century of Film in East Finchley here for £15 + P&P
• Visit the exhibition on The Phoenix’s history in the cinema’s foyer or visit our touring exhibition
• Watch interviews here with customers and staff past and present about their memories of The Phoenix as part of our Centenary Storybook project