

Clerkenwell’s new DIY cinema is a stellar addition to London’s movie-going scene. Beginning life as a pop-up in pubs across the city, the Nickel opened as a permanent venue in June 2025 after owner Dominic Hicks crowdfunded £15,000 to open London’s first proper grindhouse cinema. The programme features everything from Italian crime flicks to German industrial cinema, 70s neo-noir to pre-Code Hollywood gems, with regular Mystery Movie screenings and at least one film print per week. With its 37 cinema seats rescued from the now-closed Odeon Covent Garden, a lobby decorated with vinyl records, VHS tapes and film reels and a cosy little bar and video shop in the basement, it’s a real haven for the city’s film buffs, and proof that cinema lives on in London.


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