The Cinema Museum

MASTERS-HOUSE-for-Open-House

The Cinema Museum is participating in Open House London again today, and it’s a magical place, so once you’ve given up queueing for Battersea Power Station, jump on the 344 bus towards Elephant & Castle and head there. They’re open until 5pm with free tours of the building at 2pm and 4pm on a first come basis, and refreshments for sale (they always seem to have made way too many cakes). Be warned though – it’s as hard to find as it is enchanting.

The bar and shop at the Cinema Museum - kenningtonrunoff.com

The museum co-founder Ronald Grant was a projectionist who would find out when old Art Deco cinemas were due for demolition, and would hand the demolition men a few quid to let him walk away with anything from the seats to the doors to the signs to the uniforms. Now all these items and many more are permanently housed in a building with its own relevance to cinema history – it began life as a workhouse where the young Charlie Chaplin and his mum ended up more than once. It’s basically Cinema Paradiso in the form of a museum. More history here.

Signs at the Cinema Museum - kenningtonrunoff.com

Pathe News at the Cinema Musem - kenningtonrunoff.com

The museum receives no state funding and has none of the sterility one might associate with museums that do. It’s run by volunteers who have a real passion for the cinema – expect to be asked if you’ve seen a little-known silent film from the twenties before having the plot explained to you. Wondering who the most popular English actor of 1915 was? The Cinema Museum have the answer – Stewart Rome.

Stewart Rome, English actor - The Cinema Museum - kenningtonrunoff.com

Certificate given to Stewart Rome by Pictures and Picturegoer - kenningtonrunoff.com

There are rooms full of archive material stretching back throughout the last century. This is the magazines room:

The Magazines Room at the Cinema Museum - kenningtonrunoff.com

The museum tour ends with a display of uniforms:

Uniforms, The Cinema Museum - kenningtonrunoff.com

If you don’t make it along today, get along to one of their events. Wonder Reels: Malphino present Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria on October 17th looks good – Latin band Malphino play a Fellini-inspired set and screen his 1957 film about an endearing prostitute with a talent for mambo and hard luck. The museum occasionally plays host to more conventional gigs – Keaton Henson played his hugely acclaimed first ever headline shows there. Look out for talks from legends of cinema – the likes of Terry Gilliam and Ray Harryhausen have appeared in the past. They also sell old film posters for anything from £5 to £500. 

Open House Kennington

Open House London is this weekend and Kennington is well represented.

First up, places that are varying degrees of difficult to visit outside of Open House:

60 Ambergate Street, a “small but well-crafted flat renovation” near Kennington tube

The Mobile Gardeners Park, which we wrote about here

Morley College, the adult education centre in North West Kennington. While you’re there, why not visit London’s largest guerrilla gardening site, located directly in front of Morley College in the giant, lavender-filled flower beds in the middle of Westminster Bridge Road:

Guerrilla tulips in bloom at the Guerrilla Gardening on Westminster Bridge Road, London April 2011, by Richard Reynolds

Guerrilla tulips in bloom at the Guerrilla Gardening on Westminster Bridge Road, London April 2011, by Richard Reynolds

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain

The Cinema Museum, a true labour of love in the former Master’s House of the Lambeth Workhouse, a Victorian Gothic building where Charlie Chaplin once stayed with his destitute mother. It can be a little tricky to organise tours of the Cinema Museum normally, and there’s a charge, so going during Open House is recommended.

Perronet House, a concrete council block on the north roundabout in North Kennington. If this looks or sounds unpromising then wait till you see the inside – fantastic views across London from two sides, outstanding use of period features, and a sun-drenched terrace full of plants. The photo of Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre below was taken from Perronet House.


Then there are these places which can be visited easily enough outside of Open House:

Beaconsfield, which we wrote about here

Siobhan Davies Studios, which we wrote about here

Lambeth Palace, the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury in England which dates back to the 13th century, is fully booked during Open House, but you can buy tickets for future tours here.

The Garden Museum

[Update July 2017: The Garden Museum and Cafe have been redeveloped since this post]

The Garden Museum (formerly the Museum of Garden History) is in the deconsecrated St Mary’s church next to Lambeth Palace in North West Kennington. Even if you’re not interested in gardening, it’s worth a visit for the good quality vegetarian cafe and the lovely garden (there’s a charge to enter the museum but not the shop, cafe or garden).

The Garden Museum exterior - kenningtonrunoff.com

The knot garden with the walls of Lambeth Palace in the background:

The garden of The Garden Museum - kenningtonrunoff.com

William Bligh lived in Kennington, on Lambeth Road in a house that is now a B&B, and was buried at St Mary’s. Appropriately enough for a site that was to become a garden museum, his grave features the breadfruit plant which he discovered and brought back to England. Presumably whoever designed his grave was hoping he would be remembered for this, rather than for being the ship’s captain who inspired the Mutiny on the Bounty.

The grave of William Bligh, The Garden Museum garden (formerly St Mary's) - kenningtonrunoff.com

The well-stocked shop featuring gifts for gardeners and books:

The Garden Museum shop - kenningtonrunoff.com

The interior of the museum:

The Garden museum interior - kenningtonrunoff.com