Hotels near Regent Street Cinema

In February 1896 the Lumiere brothers ran their Cinematographe in the Polytechnic Institution's lecture theatre at 307 Regent Street, the first public film screening in Britain. The room closed to the public in 1980, served as a university lecture hall for thirty-five years, and reopened in 2015 after a £6.1 million restoration. It holds 187 seats, is Grade II listed, and kept its 1936 John Compton organ, which is still played at recitals.

The building is not a BFI London Film Festival venue, and that is the argument for going. Two minutes north of Oxford Circus station, it is close enough to the West End festival cinemas to drop into a gap between screenings, and far enough outside the programme that you can walk up on a Friday in October and get a seat. It projects 16mm, 35mm, Super 8 and 4K digital, so repertory here tends to arrive on actual film.

Full-price seats are not cheap. Adults pay £17 after 17:00 on weekdays and all day Saturday, £15 for weekday screenings before 17:00, and £12.50 on Sundays and bank holidays, with concessions at £15, £12.50 and £10.50. The value sits in two standing offers: Choose Days every Tuesday, where you pick £6, £8 or £10 yourself, and the 13:00 Monday matinee for over-55s at £5. Both land inside the festival's twelve days.

Pro Tip: Tuesday 13 October 2026 is the only Choose Days date inside the festival. Pick the £6 tier online, add the 90p transaction fee, and you have a seat in a Grade II listed 1896 auditorium for less than a standby ticket on the South Bank.