Curzon Cinemas Kings Road, London Middlesex England

Curzon Cinemas is London’s leading arthouse cinema chain with six venues across the capital. To be kept up to date with all our new releases, join our newsletter by emailing us with ‘Subscribe’ in the subject line of the email, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Chelsea

A cinematic paradise in the heart of the fashionable King’s Road, Chelsea is our largest venue, boasting the biggest screen outside of the West End and seating 713. Art house wonders rub shoulders with the best in American cinema, plus screenings of opera and theatre productions make this one cinema worth visiting after a day of extensive shopping!

A prized jewel in Curzon’s fleet, Chelsea Cinema boasts over 700 seats and a luxurious atmosphere, nestled in the heart of fashionable King’s Road. Despite its modern appearance, Chelsea’s roots in film history go back to the birth of cinema. The studios and laboratory of film pioneer William Friese-Greene were on the original site and a bas relief of his image can still be seen of the facade of the building.

By 1934, the studio had made way for a huge behemoth of a cinema, the Gaumont Palace. Designed by architects William E. Trent and Ernest F. Tully it had a seating capacity of 2,502 and was equipped with a Compton theatre organ. It had a fully equipped stage with flytower, rehearsal room and eight dressing rooms. There was also a 150 seat cafe which had its own entrance whilst the exterior of the building boasted Art Deco panels. The cinema became the Gaumont Theatre from 1937 and was eventually modernised in 1960. Re-named the Odeon in 1963, the cinema finally closed its main doors in 1972.

The foyer and stalls area were converted into the Habitat store while the former stage area was converted into flats and offices. A new Odeon Cinema seating 739 was created in the former balcony area, opening in September 1973. This Odeon closed in November 1981 with a Midnight Movie double bill of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Young Frankenstein.

The cinema was left vacant for almost two years until the arthouse film distributors Artificial Eye took it over and re-named it the Chelsea Cinema. It re-opened on 15th September 1983 with Gerard Depardieu in Andrzej Wajda’s Danton. Joining Curzon Cinemas along with its sister site, Renoir, in 2006, Chelsea is due a refurbishment in the near future. Upon reopening, this newly polished jewel will join the Curzon family and officially become Curzon Chelsea.