a1About The London Project

Interior of the Angel Cinema, Islington


Advertisement for the Theatre de Luxe cinema in The Strand

The London Project aims to map, analyse and make more widely known exactly how the new medium made its considerable impact upon the social and economic life of the city in these early years, shaping the cultural geography of London thereafter. In the past there has been research on a number of London 's boroughs, and on the history of cinema buildings , but until now there has been no integrated study looking at the city as a whole.

The first major research output of the London Project is its database of cinemas and film businesses in London, 1894-1914. The database is a work-in-progress, and both new and revised data will be added in time. Users can search across four areas:

• Name of venue (cinemas etc) or business (producers, distributors, exhibition businesses etc)
• Address (street name)
• Borough (any one of the 28 Metropolitan boroughs as covered by the then London County Council, plus the City of London and the Greater London area)
• Classification (Production, Distribution, Exhibition, Related Businesses, Venues)

Information for the London Project database has come from contemporary trade papers and directories, newspapers, local government records, Board of Trade files, memoirs and London borough archives. We would be keen to hear from anyone who has further information on any London cinema or film business from the 1894-1914 period listed (or not listed) here.

The research for this database was undertaken by Senior Research Fellows Simon Brown (Businesses) and Luke McKernan (Venues). The London Project is one of a number of research projects originally launched by the AHRB Centre for British Film and Television Studies, hosted by Birkbeck College, University of London.

For further information, contact:

Professor Ian Christie
Centre for Film and Media Research
School of History of Art, Film and Visual Media
Birkbeck College
43 Gordon Square
London WC1H 0PD

Email: i.christie@bbk.ac.uk

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