The Cinema Museum is without question a local institution, and often one that is sometimes overlooked in our busy lives. The first of this two part piece is about the Cinema Museum itself. The next is about the intriguing history of the building and space in which it inhabits. Namely, the Lambeth Workhouse and former home of Charlie Chaplin (who seems to have lived in every property in Kennington).
The Cinema Museum was founded as a private collection in 1986 in Brixton. In 1998 it moved to the then derelict masters quarters of the Lambeth Workhouse which offered it the chance to expand it’s growing collection of cinematic ephemera and to also show films and provide a space for film related events. This hybrid role meant that it could act as a cinema and also a quirky and weird museum of lights, film posters, projectors and costumes which persists to this day.
Given their limited budget the museum is usually only open to the public by appointment or before and after a screening, gig or a talk. On film nights you can pitch up early and have a intrusive KR prod around its nooks and crannies. Coming up on Thursday BBC journalist Samira Ahmed is speaking as part of their Argentinean film series and vintage flicks are shown on an almost daily basis. They also have upcoming film screenings introduced by Ken Loach and even *clutches Kennington pearls* former porn stars.
The Cinema Museum is a local asset very much at risk of closure without donations and relies entirely on people turning up to events (mea culpa!). Even if you don’t give a hoot about the film on offer it’s a great chance to have a nose around and learn a bit about of cinematic history. And they have a bar!
