Greenwich Picturehouse

This Greenwich cinema has not been a resounding success. Since opening in 1989 it's gone bankrupt twice, closing down for long periods. Fortunately for locals - and indeed for cinema-lovers throughout east London - it's been bought by the wonderful people at Picturehouse, who run some of our favourite London cinemas, adding the Greenwich Picturehouse to its portfolio of venues on the outskirts of the city. The bar area is being run by the team who made the Ritzy Cinema bar one of the coolest joints in south London, so expect laidback jazz, and a chilled ambience. But most important of all is the Picturehouse programming, which offers an inspired mixture of blockbusters, art-house movies, revivals, documentaries and shorts. The cinema has five screens, one of them a basement lounge, where movie-goers can eat, drink and relax on sofas. Picturehouse run very, very good cinemas, and it's great to see them spreading their gospel a little further east.