Everyman Cinema, Hampstead

The Everyman, in Holly Bush Vale, Hampstead, London, opened as a cinema on 26 December 1933.

For the Everyman Group, see Everyman Cinemas.

The Everyman Cinema

The building was first opened as the Hampstead Drill Hall and Assembly Rooms in the 1880s. Later it was transformed into a theatre, the Everyman Theatre, which opened in 1920 under the direction of Norman MacDermott (1890–1977) with the first British production of Jacinto Benavente's The Bonds of Interest (Los intereses creados, 1907). You Never Can Tell, opened two weeks later and was a success, leading to the performance of more revivals from George Bernard Shaw. Another notable performance is that of Noël Coward's The Vortex, which was first performed there.

The Everyman opened as a cinema on Boxing Day 1933. The opening programme consisted of Rene Clair's Le Million, Turbulent Timber, a Mack Sennett comedy, a Disney cartoon and Paramount News. The Everyman had been bought by a local solicitor, James Fairfax-Jones. “FJ”, as he was known, lived with wife, Tessa, in a sprawling manor house in the secluded Vale of Health. He ran the Everyman as a hobby rather than as a business, hoping that its 302 seats would generate enough money to pay the staff and the overheads as well as his annual treat - attending the Venice Film Festival which he surveyed from the splendour of the Cipriani Hotel. His staff, principally projectionist Tom Robinson and manager Dennis Lloyd, stayed with him for decades. Usherettes were all part-time and were an extraordinary mix - some were wartime refugees, others local au pairs, language students and so on. One woman who worked in the cash desk selling tickets owned the West End furniture store Heals.

Fairfax-Jones died in April 1973. His son, Martin, took over as Managing Director of the cinema which was programmed until 1977 by one of its managers, Adrian Turner, and subsequently by Tony Dalton. Since 1933 the Everyman always showed a wide range of movies in repertory seasons - the Marx Brothers, the Maxim Gorky Trilogy, Jean-Luc Godard, Humphrey Bogart and Ingmar Bergman being especially popular with the local Hampstead crowd. Local residents such as John Gielgud, Peter O'Toole, Melvyn Bragg were regulars. HRH Princess Margaret brought her two children to see High Society.

In the 1980s the Everyman had various owners and even had a second auditorium made out of the spacious basement. The cinema was threatened with closure in 2000.[1] It was bought by Everyman Cinemas group.

Now retitled as the 'Everyman Hampstead', the cinema shows films and special events, including the Metropolitan Opera from New York and the National Theatre, live Q&As, film festivals and seasons. The venue features a fully licensed bar and restaurant, , and digital technology by way of Sony Digital 4K projectors and Dolby Digital surround sound.

The cinema is referred to in the song, 'Hampstead Incident' by Donovan, with the line, "Standing by the Everyman, digging the rigging of my sails."

References
  1. McLeod, Maurice (25 October 1999). "Everyman cinema faced with closure over losses". The Independent. London.

Further reading
  • Everymania: The History of the Everyman Theatre Hampstead, 1920–26 Norman MacDermott (Society for Theatre Research, April 1975) ISBN 0-85430-024-4


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