'Birthplace of British cinema' reopens

A central London film theatre known as "the birthplace of British cinema" will reopen on Wednesday three decades after it closed - thanks to a £6m restoration project backed by the UK film industry.

Regent Street Cinema was first used for film screenings in 1896 when the Lumiere brothers chose it to showcase their invention of a projector called the cinematographe. Audience members were said to have recoiled in fear as a train hurtled towards them.

The cinema went on to show everything from wartime newsreels to foreign language and avant-garde films, before closing in 1980 to become a lecture hall for the University of Westminster.

The 187-seat auditorium will reopen with a screening of Lambert and Stamp, a 2014 documentary about the managers of English rock band The Who.

The University of Westminster launched a fundraising campaign in 2012 to restore the cinema to its original Victorian grandeur, with the backing of a number of high-profile film industry figures including Working Title co-chairman Tim Bevan.

The £6.1m restoration project has been funded by a £1.5m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund grant and a £2m donation from the Quintin Hogg Trust. Further support came from a "Name a Seat" campaign that gives donors a personalised plaque on selected seats in the cinema.

The venue was built in 1848 and housed within the Polytechnic Institution on Regent Street in London's West End. Many of the architectural features from its heyday have been preserved and the cinema has also been fitted with the latest digital technology.

Shira MacLeod, director of Regent Street Cinema, said it is the only cinema in the UK that can show 16mm, 35mm, Super 8 and 4K digital formats. That means it will be able to screen films that have been held in archives for many years.

The cinema will offer "a distinctive and highly informed programming style" featuring both old and new films from around the world, she said.

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