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Empire, Leicester Square
The Empire, Leicester Square is a cinema currently operated by Cineworld on the north side of Leicester Square, London, England. The Empire was originally built in 1884 as a variety theatre and was rebuilt for films in the 1920s. It is one of several cinemas in and adjoining Leicester Square which are regularly used for film premieres and first runs. Today, it has nine auditoria, including an IMAX, a Superscreen and a 4DX screen. History 1884: The Empire Theatre opens The Empire Theatre opened on 17 April 1884 under the ownership of Daniel Nicols as a West End variety theatre on Leicester Square, as well as a ballet venue, with a capacity of about 2,000 seats. The first performance was '' Chilpéric'', with music by Hervé, adapted by H. Hersee and H. B. Farnie and described as ''a Grand Musical Spectacular, in three acts and seven tableaux''. The corps de ballet for the performance was 50 strong. Edward Solomon and Sydney Grundy premièred their comic opera, ''Pocaho ...
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Leicester Square
Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised town square, square in the West End of London, England, and is the centre of London's entertainment district. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leicester House, Westminster, Leicester House, itself named after Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester. The square was originally a gentrification, gentrified residential area, with tenants including Frederick, Prince of Wales and the artists William Hogarth and Joshua Reynolds. It became more down-market in the late 18th century as Leicester House was demolished and retail developments took place, becoming a centre for entertainment. Major theatres were built in the 19th century, which were converted to cinemas towards the middle of the next. Leicester Square is the location of nationally significant cinemas such as the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square and Empire, Leicester Square, which are often used for film premieres. The nearby Prince Charles C ...
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George Edwardes
George Joseph Edwardes (né Edwards; 8 October 1855 – 4 October 1915) was an English theatre manager and producer of Irish ancestry who brought a new era in musical theatre to the British stage and beyond. Edwardes started out in theatre management, soon working at a number of West End theatres. By the age of 20, he was managing theatres for Richard D'Oyly Carte. In 1885, Edwardes became a manager at the Gaiety Theatre, London, Gaiety Theatre with John Hollingshead, who soon retired. For the next three decades, Edwardes ruled a theatrical empire including the Gaiety, Daly's Theatre, the Adelphi Theatre and others, and sent touring companies around Britain and abroad. In the early 1890s, Edwardes recognised the changing tastes of musical theatre audiences and led the movement away from Victorian burlesque, burlesque and comic opera to Edwardian musical comedy. Life and career Edwardes was born at Great Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England. He was the eldest of four sons and three ...
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Hatton Garden
Hatton Garden is a street and commercial zone in the Holborn district of the London Borough of Camden, abutting the narrow precinct of Saffron Hill which then abuts the City of London. It takes its name from Sir Christopher Hatton, a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I of England, Elizabeth I, who established a mansion here and gained possession of the garden and orchard of Ely Place, the London seat of the Bishop of Ely, Bishops of Ely. It remained in the Hatton family and was built up as a stylish residential development in the reign of King Charles II of England, Charles II. For some decades it often went, outside of the main street, by an alternative name St Alban's Holborn, after St Alban's Church, Holborn, the local church built in 1861. St Etheldreda's Church, London, St Etheldreda's Church in Ely Place, all that survives of the old Bishop's Palace, is one of only two remaining buildings in London dating from the reign of Edward I of England, Edward I. It is one of the oldes ...
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Robert W
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, praise, renown, godlike" and ''berht'' "bright, light, shining"). It is the second most frequently used given name of ancient Germanic origin.Reaney & Wilson, 1997. ''Dictionary of English Surnames''. Oxford University Press. It is also in use as a surname. Another commonly used form of the name is Rupert. After becoming widely used in Continental Europe, the name entered England in its Old French form ''Robert'', where an Old English cognate form (''Hrēodbēorht'', ''Hrodberht'', ''Hrēodbēorð'', ''Hrœdbœrð'', ''Hrœdberð'', ''Hrōðberχtŕ'') had existed before the Norman Conquest. The feminine version is Roberta. The Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish form is Roberto. Robert is also a common name in many Germanic languages, including En ...
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Regent Street
Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George IV of the United Kingdom, George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash (architect), John Nash and James Burton (property developer), James Burton. It runs from Waterloo Place in St James's at the southern end, through Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Circus, to All Souls Church, Langham Place, All Souls Church. From there Langham Place, London, Langham Place and Portland Place continue the route to Regent's Park. The street's layout was completed in 1825 and was an early example of town planning in England, replacing earlier roads including Swallow Street. Nash and Burton's street layout has survived, although all the original buildings except All Souls Church have been replaced following reconstruction in the late 19th century. The street is known for its flagship retail stores, including Liberty (department store), Liberty, ...
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Cinématographe
Cinematograph or kinematograph is an early term for several types of motion picture film mechanisms. The name was used for movie cameras as well as movie projector, film projectors, or for complete systems that also provided means to release print, print films (such as the Lumière). History A device by this name was invented and patented as the " Léon Bouly" by French inventor Léon Bouly on February 12, 1892. Bouly coined the term "cinematograph," from the Greek language, Greek for "writing in movement."Abel, Richard. Encyclopedia of Early Cinema. 1st ed. London: Routledge, 2004. Due to a lack of money, Bouly could not develop his ideas properly and maintain his patent fees, so the Auguste and Louis Lumière, Lumière brothers were free to adopt the name. In 1895, they applied it to a device that was mostly their own invention. The Lumière brothers made their first film, ''Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory'' (''Sortie de l'usine Lumière de Lyon''), that same year. Th ...
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Arthur Melbourne-Cooper
Arthur Melbourne Cooper (15 April 1874 – 28 November 1961) was a British photographer and early filmmaker best known for his pioneering work in stop-motion animation. He produced over three hundred films between 1896 and 1915, of which an estimated 36 were all or in part animated. These include ''Dreams of Toyland'' (1908) and according to some sources '' Dolly’s Toys'' (1901), as well as ''Matches: An Appeal'' (date disputed), which Dutch independent researcher Tjitte de Vries has claimed may have been the first animated film to be shown in public. Since his death, Cooper has become a controversial figure among film historians, with disputes arising over his professional relationship with film pioneer Birt Acres; seven films known as the GRG-Series, which archives such as the BFI's currently credit to Brighton-based filmmaker George Albert Smith; and the re-dating of the aforementioned ''Matches: An Appeal'', which archives such as the BFI's currently date to 1914. The claims ...
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Birt Acres
Birt Acres (23 July 1854 – 27 December 1918) was an American and British photographer and film pioneer. Among his contributions to the early film industry are the first working 35 mm camera in Britain (Wales), and ''Birtac'', the first daylight loading home movie camera and projector. He also directed a number of early silent films. Early life Born in Richmond, Virginia, on 23 July 1854, to English parents. He became an orphan at the age of 14, during the American Civil War and was raised by an aunt. Career Acres invented the first British 35 mm moving picture camera, ''Birtac'' which was the first daylight loading home movie camera and projector; he was also the first travelling newsreel reporter in international film history and the first European film maker who had his films shown in the United States in public performances. He contributed much to the introduction and development of cinematography in all its aspects, from the construction of cameras, projectors, ...
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Royal Photographic Society
The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is the world's oldest photographic society having been in continuous existence since 1853. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with the objective of promoting the art and science of photography, and in the same year, received Monarchy of the United Kingdom, royal patronage from then-Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince Consort, Prince Albert. A change to the society's name to reflect the patronage was, however, not considered expedient at the time. In 1874, it was renamed the Photographic Society of Great Britain, and only from 1894 did it become known as the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, a title which it continues to use today. On 25 June 2019, the Duchess of Cambridge, now Catherine, Princess of Wales, became the Society's Patron, taking over from Queen Elizabeth II who had been patron since 1952. A registered Charit ...
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Queen's Hall
The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect Thomas Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it was the home of the The Proms, promenade concerts ("The Proms") founded by Robert Newman (impresario), Robert Newman together with Henry Wood. The hall had drab decor and cramped seating but superb acoustics. It became known as the "musical centre of the [British] British Empire, Empire", and several of the leading musicians and composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries performed there, including Claude Debussy, Edward Elgar, Maurice Ravel and Richard Strauss. In the 1930s, the hall became the main London base of two new orchestras, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. These two ensembles raised the standards of orchestral playing in London to new heights, and the hall's resident ...
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Auguste And Louis Lumière
The Lumière brothers (, ; ), Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas Lumière (19 October 1862 – 10 April 1954) and Louis Jean Lumière (5 October 1864 – 6 June 1948), were French manufacturers of photography equipment, best known for their ' motion picture system and the short films they produced between 1895 and 1905, which places them among the earliest filmmakers. Their screening of a single film on 22 March 1895, for around 200 members of the Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale (Society for the Development of the National Industry) in Paris was probably the first presentation of projected film. Their first commercial public screening on 28 December 1895, for around 40 paying visitors and invited relations has traditionally been regarded as the birth of cinema. Either the techniques or the business models of earlier filmmakers proved to be less viable than the breakthrough presentations of the Lumières. History The Lumière brothers were born in Besançon, ...
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London Empire Theatre EFA
London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. London stands on the River Thames in southeast England, at the head of a tidal estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for nearly 2,000 years. Its ancient core and financial centre, the City of London, was founded by the Romans as Londinium and has retained its medieval boundaries. The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has been the centuries-long host of the national government and parliament. London grew rapidly in the 19th century, becoming the world's largest city at the time. Since the 19th century the name "London" has referred to the metropolis around the City of London, historically split between the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent and Hertfordshire, which since 1965 has largely comprised the adminis ...
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