London:  Cecil Court, in between Charing Cross Road and St Martin’s Lane, has remained as it was  at the beginning of the 20^th century, with its little shops with the wooden fronts and hanging signs, selling books and prints. The shops haven’t been touched in more than a century, keeping the Victorian charme intact.  Cecil Court is now famous for its independent shops where it is possible to find rare books, small antiques and with some unique shops like the only Italian Bookshop in Great Britain or the esotheric shop Watkins founded in 1894 and reopened just a few months ago after a period of closure, but at the beginning of the last century it was known as “ Flicker Alley” because of its involvement with the cinema industry.

But the connection with the early cinema in England has not been known to many. This small little street has been the heart of the British cinema trade where all the big company, the suppliers and the societies had their offices, now moved to the trendier Soho .

The 24^th of July a step in the past has been possible, organized by  Tenderflix, and most shops in Cecil Court  displayed a cinema theme in their windows, with posters, italian cinema at the Italian Bookshop, autographs at T.Alana Brett, books, pictures and one beautiful window at Christopher St James showed jewellery worn by iconic actresses like Theda Bara or Bette Davis, or Ann Sheridan just to name a few. Blue plaques have been placed to show where offices or shops from the cinema industry were, and at the Tenderpix Gallery a small cinema hall has been created and at appointed times it has been shown a collection of the earliest films from 1895 with Lumiere first attempts where the audience could watch the famous L'arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat that more than hunderd years ago made the people run away from the cinema because they were thinking that the train was going to run inside the room or Auguste Lumiere and his wife feeding their son.

During a very pleasant hour were fresh pop corn has been offered to the people attending the screening and with the piano accompaniment by John Sweeney, it has been possible to see the beginning of the cinema industry with very rare films dated up to 1907 included  the first “ Alice in Wonderland” very damaged, the only surviving copy, been restored by the BFI, made by Cecil Hepworth in 1903 and distributed from Cecil Court.

During the day micro performances from the Short Film Movement have taken places in the street with music, acting and dancing.

In the nice summer weather, this lovely street in the centre of London has given life to a trip of memories dedicated to the birth of the silver screen in England.

Blue plaques