75 And 75A, Upper Street

ISLINGTON

TQ3183NE UPPER STREET 635-1/59/869 (West side) 29/09/72 Nos.75 AND 75A

II

Terraced house and entrance wing to former cinema, the Electric Theatre. The original house mid-C18, the cinema 1908-9. Brick, and presumably stone rendered with stucco or painted, roof of clay tiles. Three storeys with dormer, four-window range. The front wing consists of squat columns supporting a massive elliptical arch to Upper Street and a pair of round arches with keystones to St Alban's Place; parapet with balustrade and hemispherical dome surmounted by a female figure, on her head the massive socket to a globe of electric light, now lost. The original house is set back, with a flat-arched passage to St Alban's Place to the south. The first and second floors have flat-arched windows with moulded stucco architraves and storey bands between floors; parapet. Hipped roof with one dormer. The cinema was opened by Electric Theatres (1908) Ltd, the first company to establish a chain of cinemas in London; the entrance wing is the earliest surviving portion of a cinema in London. (Chris Draper: Islington's cinemas and film studios).

Listing NGR: TQ3161283646