Genesis Cinema

An independant cinema in the heart of the east end, The Genesis feels a bit like a relic from another age. There's loads of random space in the venue some of which is just shut bars and it's as if, once upon a time, this was a whole day out for people.

Best thing is indeed the price and particularly Wacky Wednesdays when it's half price. Hooray.

Always have a good range of current blockbustery films on.

According to the charmingly amateurish website the Genesis is a 5-screen 'multiplex'. For me the word multiplex is synonymous with huge, depressing buildings in out-of-town retail parks. The Genesis is certainly not one of these, built on a site that's been used for theatres for the last 150 years, it manages to retain a fair bit of that charm despite being given the identikit cinema decor treatment inside. The staff are young and not zombies and it has a reasonable bar upstairs as well as the usual range of eye-poppingly expensive snacks. The auditoria are clean and comfortable and sound and vision quality is as you'd expect from a modern cinema. Try and avoid the smaller screens though as you may be left with the feeling that you could have just paid your mate to watch the pirate on his big flatscreen TV. The best thing about the Genesis is the price, at the moment, standard tickets are £4 Monday-Thursday and £6.50 at weekends, with concessions £1 or £1.50 cheaper. This part of east London is not particularly blessed with cinemas and as a whole London is full of expensive ones, which makes the Genesis a good choice in my book.