This was a Soho cinema that never was. Plans to convert the building at 5-6 Marshall Street for use as a cinema were submitted to the London County Council (LCC) in the early part of 1910, but were refused. Marshall Street was well known for its Public Baths, one of the few places where women from Soho’s different immigrant communities would regularly mix.1 The building at nos 5-6 was listed as the address of a motor-car makers in 1910, and one of the upstairs rooms was used as a workshop.2
The proposed cinema would have been a small venue, holding around 150 people, with shows consisting of ‘3 or 4 pictures’ at a time.3 The LCC refused the owner’s application for a cinematograph licence because the plans didn’t include room for a women’s lavatory. The architect working on the conversion suggested that female customers could use the ‘convenience’ upstairs, which was used by 20 women employed in the workshop, but the LCC disagreed. The Medical Officer for the council’s Public Health Department wrote:
There is no public convenience in the vicinity, and as it is probable that the persons frequenting the theatre will be of foreign nationality, it is not desirable to waive the requirement in question.4
As Jon Burrows remarks, the implication seemed to be that the Medical Officer didn’t trust the cinema’s likely patrons to refrain from fouling the street.5 The council’s response highlights how difficult it could be to find room for cinemas in such a crowded district as Soho. It also suggests that prejudice against Soho’s immigrant communities could sometimes negatively influence their treatment by local authorities.
Further reading:
- Jon Burrows, ‘Penny Pleasures: Film Exhibition in London during the Nickelodeon Era, 1906-1914’, Film History, 16:1 (2004), 60-91.
- Jon Burrows, ‘Penny Pleasures II: Indecency, Anarchy and Junk Film in London’s “Nickelodeons”’, Film History, 16:2 (2004), 172-97.
- Judith Summers, Soho: A History of London’s Most Colourful Neighbourhood (London: Bloomsbury, 1989).
- Judith Summers, Soho: A History of London’s Most Colourful Neighbourhood (London: Bloomsbury, 1989), p. 165. ↩
- Post Office London Street Directory (London: Kelly’s, 1910), p. 472. ↩
- Letter from Horace G. Turner to the London County Council (LCC), dated 27 June 1910, presented papers of the LCC Theatres and Music Halls Committee, meeting of 6 July 1910, London Metropolitan Archives (LMA), LCC/MIN/10,939, Item 52. ↩
- Report by the Medical Officer of the LCC Public Health Department to the LCC Theatres and Music Halls Committee, dated 5 July 1910, presented papers of the LCC Theatres and Music Halls Committee, meeting of 6 July 1910, LMA, LCC/MIN/10,939, Item 52. ↩
- Jon Burrows, ‘Penny Pleasures II: Indecency, Anarchy and Junk Film in London’s “Nickelodeons”’, Film History, 16:2 (2004): 193. ↩
