WHAT'S A COMMUNITY CINEMA, AND WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?
Cinema, run by the people who watch it.
It's not a cinema. It's a room full of people.
A community cinema is a volunteer-run, non-profit screening space — often in a village hall, a bar, a library, or a former chapel. No corporate chain, just people who want to watch films together.
The first one in the UK was founded in London in 1925. Its founding members included H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw.
Why It Matters
Watching a film at home is easy. Watching it with the people from your street is different. Community cinemas exist for what streaming can't replicate: shared silence, shared laughter, the walk-out conversation that lasts longer than the film itself.
At a community cinema you’ll know the person on the door, recognise faces in the queue and stay after the credits to argue about the ending. For people who live alone, a weekly screening can be their most regular social plan.
"When people come to watch a film it's not a question of just walking in and then walking out afterwards, people stay for a while, people have conversations".
London: Where to find?
London: Rio Cinema, Dalston
A cinema has stood on Kingsland High Street since 1909. When it was threatened with closure in the 1970s, locals took over and turned it into a co-operative. Today it’s a charity with a classic matinee for over-60s, cheap kids’ screenings and a radical archive of 1980s Hackney.
London: The Lexi, Kensal Rise
It began after a freak tornado hit the neighbourhood in 2006 and brought residents together. The Lexi is run largely by volunteers and gives every penny of profit to charity, including a sustainability project in South Africa. Two screens, one very good cause.
London: Deptford Cinema
Volunteers turned a derelict shopfront into Lewisham’s only cinema in 2014. No hierarchy: anyone can programme, pour drinks or run the projector. They lost their Broadway home in 2020 and have been popping up across south-east London ever since.
Beyond London: Hebden Bridge Picture House
Built in 1921 for mill workers, nearly turned into a carpet warehouse in the 1960s, saved by the local council. It’s one of the very few cinemas in Britain owned by a town. Expect proper mugs of tea, local beer and free Warm Space screenings in winter.
What They Actually Show
Expect a bit of everything. New releases sit next to Iranian arthouse, cult horror and a 35-year-old classic on a Sunday afternoon. A good share of the programme is homegrown, as roughly one in four films shown by community groups is British. At some venues, you can even pick the film yourself.
