Oxford Street, London 1970

Further along, the neon-lit façade of the News Cinema dominates the left-hand side of the frame. This was the New Academy News Theatre, one of London’s last surviving newsreel cinemas. Opened in 1936, it was part of a wave of small picture houses designed for continuous programmes: Pathé and British Movietone newsreels, travelogues, cartoons and short features. Patrons could drop in at any point, watch a rolling 60–70-minute programme, and leave whenever they liked – perfect for killing time between shopping.

By the 1960s it was rebranded as the Academy Twin, becoming one of London’s first two-screen cinemas, though it kept the towering vertical “NEWS” sign seen here. Despite attempts to modernise, it struggled against the rise of television and larger, more commercially focused cinemas. The theatre finally closed in 1986, and the building was later demolished as part of West End redevelopment.

The mixture of black cabs, Ford Z-cars, the queues outside the Tube, and the eclectic shop signs all capture Oxford Circus at its bustling early-70s peak – a moment when the West End was still a place of neon, newsreels and Wimpy bars.