Chelsea Classic Cinema

The Chelsea Classic Cinema stood on King’s Road in Chelsea, a borough of grand terraces and quiet mews. It opened in 1913 as the Chelsea Picture Playhouse on land once part of Box Farm, a 17th-century farmhouse pulled down in 1899. Felix Joubert, a cabinet maker who also owned the next-door Pheasantry, designed the building. At first it seated 394 people on one level and was run by the London & Provincial Electric Theatre Company. In the 1920s it became the Electric Theatre, showing short programmes of silent films. By 1937 Classic Cinemas Ltd took over and turned it into a repertory house for classic Hollywood films. The owners lowered the façade and gave it a modern look that lasted until the cinema closed on 4 August 1973. Four weeks after its London premiere at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, The Rocky Horror Show played here for three months. After the final screening the building was demolished the same year. Today the site holds a branch of Boots the Chemist, but passers-by can still see a blue plaque marking the cinema’s former entrance. The plaque notes the repertory seasons of the 1930s and the brief run of The Rocky Horror Show. From King’s Road the corner of Markham Street remains the place to stand and recall the single-screen house that once stood there.