Outdoor cinema in London
The best places to see open-air movies in the capital this summer
We’ve all watched a lot of things on our televisions these past months – obviously, in between learning a multitude of languages (habari ya jioni!) and making incredible strides in the field of sourdough. The good news is that the big-screen experience is inching its way back as a viable evening – or afternoon – going-out option. Cinemas are reopening and the summer’s great innovation, drive-in cinema, continues to pack in punters with Puntos.
Outdoor cinema, usually such a staple of the London summer, is back too – in new socially distanced forms. There are new venues and new experiences, like cycle-in cinema, to accommodate movie-lovers who want to switch off the small screen and upscale their film-watching under the stars. Here are the options available.
Recommended: London and UK cinema listings, film reviews and exclusive interviews
Outdoor cinema in summer 2020
Bar Elba
One of the very few rooftop cinemas to open this summer, Waterloo’s Bar Elba has been welcoming filmgoers since early July. Social-distancing rules and extra hygiene measures are in ace – expect to be sanitised – and waiters deliver popcorn, hotdogs and retro sweets to your seat. Because they’re taking place in a bar, the screenings are rated 18, even if the movies aren’t. Standard tickets cost £15 and include a snack.
Where Waterloo
When July-October
Summer highlights ‘Blade Runner’, ‘Mean Girls’, ‘Hustlers’, ‘Tremors’, ‘The Invisible Man’