Our beloved little that museum that could, the wonderful Cinema Museum, reopened its doors last week after being shut for over 18 months. We always think of the Cinema Museum as like that slightly dotty aunt Vera you have always been meaning to visit in Norfolk. You kind of forget about it and until your mum calls you in floods of tears to announce that Vera is no longer of this mortal coil.

The Cinema Museum is housed in the former administration block of Lambeth Workhouse. We wrote about it in 2019  and this building would have been the dropping off place for a destitute Charlie Chaplin and his mum. For the past 22 years it has served as HQ to the Museum and it’s fascinating and packed collection of film related ephemera including posters, projectors, scary mannequins, scripts, costumes and lights. This collection is only on view if you go for a film viewing or book a private tour with a volunteer, but doing either is easy. 

The Museum has a large viewing area amongst the historical pieces (plus a bar) and puts on a variety of talks, film series, and films both old and new. Just before closure director Ken Loach introduced a series of shorts, In the coming weeks they will be showing ‘Hairspray’, ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’, and very intriguing sounding film series called ‘Women and Cocaine’. They also have film related events relating to people like Laurel and Hardy, in addition to silent flicks. All can be found on their website. 

The Cinema Museum has always required the patronage of Greater Kenningtonians to keep it afloat and it now needs us as never before. If we fail to visit we might wake up one day and find it’s gone the path of dear aunty Vera. But worse, aunty Very will be in heaven and not reincarnated as an estate agent, barber shop, coffee shop or…….wait for it… Franco Manca pizza.