Secrets from the Savoy Cinema, Stoke Newington Road

For almost 50 years the building we now know as EartH on Stoke Newington Road was one of Hackney’s numerous cinemas. Opened in 1936 as the beautiful art deco Savoy, by the time it closed in 1984 it was the shabby and short-lived Ace. Prior to its transformation into a music venue and arts centre the former picture palace was semi-derelict but just before its redevelopment in 2017 a box of relics was rescued, full of ephemera from the 1960s when the cinema was known as the ABC Stoke Newington. In this talk we’ll discover how the contents of that box sheds light on London's cinemas in a state of decline and look back at the cinema during its pre-war heyday.

Nigel Smith is a tour guide who specialises in the history of cinemas and cinema-going in London. His website Memory Palaces is telling the stories of 100 buildings in the capital that are or have been cinemas. Visit memorypalaces.co.uk and find Nigel on Instagram @nigelsmithwalks.