The evenings are getting darker and every year around now I start wanting to be in a cinema again. I love watching a film in the dark with a room full of strangers all feeling the same thing at the same time. These are the three I go to when I want it to be more than just seeing a film.
Curzon
My favourite of the three. Comfortable seats, a proper bar, and a mix of new releases, independent features, and older films you don’t often get to see on a big screen. There are Curzons all over London, so there’s usually one near enough.
Aldgate is the one I know best. I lived five minutes away for years and it was my happy place, so much so that I had a membership. I went on my own as often as with my partner or my friends. The bar does coffee and snacks, so you can make a day of it: work there through a rainy afternoon, then watch a film in the evening with a pizza in front of it.
📍2 Canter Way, London E1 8PS
Electric Cinema
I went to Electric Cinema on Portobello Road earlier this year for a Clueless screening and it was one of the best cinema evenings I’ve had.
The room is properly beautiful. Edwardian Baroque, a high arched ceiling, chandeliers, and a red velvet curtain over the screen. The seats are deep red two-seaters with little lamps on the tables between them, and the front row ones are big enough to lie down on. Food and drinks come to your seat.
It’s one screen and the programme is short, so you have to keep an eye on the website and book ahead. Worth planning around.
📍 191 Portobello Road, London W11 2ED
Everyman
The most popular one on this list, and reasonably so. They have over forty venues across the UK and plenty of choice, with new releases as well as some throwbacks.
Here are the three Everyman locations worth keeping on your radar:
The Whiteley in Bayswater opened in 2025 in the old Whiteleys department store, and it’s the most glamorous of the lot. An excellent date night one.
📍8 Porchester Gardens, London W2 4DB
Hampstead is where the whole thing started, on Boxing Day 1933, in a converted Victorian drill hall.
📍5 Holly Bush Vale, London NW3 6TX
Screen on the Green in Islington opened in 1913 and is one of the oldest continuously running cinemas in the UK.
📍83 Upper Street, London N1 0NU