London’s West End Cinemas

London’s West End Cinemas, Allen Eyles with Keith Skone, English Heritage, 2014, 208 pages, black and white illustrations, paperback.

This is the third edition of the valuable guide to west end cinemas produced by English Heritage in conjunction with the Cinema Theatre Association. After a short introduction, the text consists of a gazetteer of cinemas, totalling over 100, both surviving and lost. The oldest survivor is the Cineworld Haymarket, dating from 1928, and other famous examples are the Odeon Leicester Square and the Curzons in Mayfair and Soho. Many cinemas have been converted to alternative uses. The new edition brings the history of these buildings up to date, and includes many newly discovered archive photographs.

This article originally appeared in Context 140, published by the Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC) in July 2015.

--Institute of Historic Building Conservation

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