Last month, as part of this year’s UCL Festival of the Arts, I spent a couple of very enjoyable days leading cinema history walks around the West End. The idea was to share some of the research I’ve been doing into West End cinemas, but also to give a kind of potted history of early film exhibition in London told through a handful of representative sites. As it happened, I also learned a lot from the people who came on the walks – many of them incredibly knowledgable about cinema history and the history of London.
For anyone who is interested in where we went, the link below should take you to a map of the route we went on, plus a little information about the sites we stopped at…
As part of the Festival promotion, the UCL Communications team also put together a short video about this part of my research, which shows some of the places on the route. Thanks to Rob Eagle and Jack Dean for doing such a nice job!
London Filmland 
I do hope that it is not forgotten that in the early 1900’s many John W paul short films were shown in the Alexandra Palace Victorian Theatre and the projection box remains in situ, Obviously not a West End theatre, but still important. The Friends of the Theatre are attempting to organise a silent film show in the undeveloped auditorium of some of the John Paul films. later this year.
Thanks for the comment. Good luck with the plans for the Robert(?) Paul film show! I’m sure the Cine-Tourist will be interested: http://www.thecinetourist.net/my-local-filmmaker.html