News Cinemas

Whenever I visited London in the 1960s and 70s and wanted an hour to kill, I'd go to one of the News Cinemas that were dotted around the West End. They used to show a revolving programme of cartoons and newsreels.  My favourite one was at Marble Arch opposite Maison Lyons Corner house.  It had a long narrow foyer which meant that you entered the auditorium at a right angle.  At the end of the foyer was a neat little bar where you could buy a juice and other refreshments.  There used to be a News Cinema on Waterloo Station, which was where I came into London and left from, but I never visited that one.  I used to live in Portsmouth and they had a News Cinema as well, which eventually became a general cinema called the Classic.  It was as small as a News Cinema and was unusual as the slope of the seating arrangment went back down away from the screen instead of the normal way of sloping down towards the screen from the back of the stalls.