A petrol station may not be the first venue that springs to mind when setting up a temporary screening space for the summer. However, the team behind the Cineroleum project is not your average bunch of entrepreneurs. Bringing different skills to the table, boundless energy and a creative edge, they have managed to tap into 'pop-up', as well as popular culture, and increase viewing opportunities for Londoners looking for something different from their night out on the tiles. One of Cineroleum's founders, Mathew Leung, tells Film London about 'recycled' cinema at its very best.

Cineroleum was conceived by a collective of young artists, designers and architects committed to the creative re-use of urban expanses. What made you build a cinema over some other kind of event space?
I think that in the first few meetings we had as a group, before we even knew what or where we wanted to build, decided the notion of public engagement was central to our intentions. We also noted the exodus of cinemas from the heart of the city and its communities to out-of-town multiplexes as a trend that none of us wanted to see. Soon after, the idea of redressing this balance and having a temporary picture palace - with all its associated grandeur and ceremony - seemed to present itself naturally.

You've taken advantage of the new phenomenon of 'pop-up' culture that has swept London this summer. What drew you to the petrol station in particular as a venue for your cinema?
The increase in the number of petrol stations that have been vacated in the previous decade seems to have run parallel to the decline of the picture palace. They appear to have popped up all over London almost surreptitiously; lying quietly abandoned, or used as car washes or car parks. We were initially interested in the typology of the forecourt itself, not only because of the fact that the canopy presents its own sheltered space and that the central location suggests a type of public square, but also because the use of that particular place had the possibility of being applied to a whole host of other sites.

The project was kick-started with a £2,500 grant from [arts network and funding body] Ideas Tap, but can you explain how you managed to secure other sources of financial and in-kind support?
Monetary grants and donations were hard to come by, which is not surprising given the current financial circumstance. However, we have been amazed at the good will of donors, such as Tyvek giving us the fabric to make our industrial curtain and the National Theatre donating a screen and helping us source a suitable projector. People such as [theatre supplies experts] Ken Creasy and Flints have been invaluable and have given their time most willingly - we are most thankful that our enthusiasm seems to have rubbed off on them!

Was there a specific 'green' element to the project - in as much as the entire thing is hand built, with the screen sourced from the National Theatre and the chairs made from scaffolding boards - or was this purely a budgetary decision?
I think that the materials that we used are informed partly by the temporary nature of the project, partly by our awareness of sustainability, and also from that fact that we wanted to work with materials that we knew we could manipulate easily and with confidence. I suppose from the outset we wanted to use the skills of our group, with backgrounds in carpentry, model making, set design and stone masonry, to create an extravagance and opulence from materials that are usually perceived as ugly. There is a certain amount of fun in turning materials like Tyvek, scaffolding boards and scaffolding poles on their heads and in to a cinema curtain, seating and seating rake.

Islington Council issued a short term license for Cineroleum, but would you have ideally undertaken a longer run?
I don't think that any of us ever thought that we might run a cinema for the long run, but it is a shame that only a limited amount of people will be able to see and experience what we have tried to create. Ideally we would have liked to have run for more nights, as we have already had a lot of disappointed people turning up on the door and sending us emails saying that they haven't been able to get tickets, but it is inevitable in a event on such a small scale where each element is handmade and we have a such small capacity.

Your programming was directly influenced by the environment - picking films with a strong soundtrack to compete with the city traffic on Clerkenwell Road. If Cineroleum had been located somewhere quieter do you think the event might have been themed differently?
Absolutely - these decisions were informed as much as by the location as by the nature of the petrol station itself. Films with too much dialogue or quiet passages would not have stood the test of the Cineroleum! Spielberg's debut Duel was perfect for the setting, and at the other end of the scale, so was Buster Keaton. No doubt quieter locations and differing situations would have informed a different selection. 

How did you source and book the films you're showing throughout August - did you bring any distributors on board as partners in order to achieve this?
Guerilla Cinema has been absolutely integral to curating the shorts that precede the feature films each night, but on the whole we have sourced the main films off our own back. We have managed to finds some classics that are to be re-released this year on Blu-ray, such as The Third Man and Delicatessen, but securing the selection that we desired has largely been down to strong headedness, perseverance and luck.

How did you manage to get Mike Leigh on board as a patron?
Little White Lies have been a huge help on the publicity and general promotion, as have Guerilla Cinema, and luckily, we have not had to work too hard at this side of things, it just seems to have fallen in to place at the right time.

Profits from this event will be ploughed back into future Cineroleums - what do you have in mind?
Who knows?! We've had a lot of fun building, with a huge number of volunteers helping out. I hope that everyone who has come to watch has enjoyed it too. All we can hope for is that the next project will be conceived as naturally and be as much fun as this one!


From Night of the Living Dead to Metropolis, there are still a host of films to look forward to at Cineroleum. This unusual space is only open for another few weeks, so take advantage of it whilst you can!