"Nigel's tours are absolutely brilliant... He knows his stuff inside out."

— Mark Kermode

I first fell under cinema’s spell when my Dad took me to see Superman II as a four-year-old – I can still picture the flying horse Pegasus in the Clash of the Titans trailer that ran before it.

I’ve since spent most of my life in London, a city that provides endless delights to movie-lovers – my book An Opinionated Guide to Film London is testament to that. Yet compared to the boom years of the 1930s and 40s, the capital now has a fraction of the cinemas it had when millions flocked each week “to the pictures,” irrespective of what was showing.

Memory Palaces celebrates London’s picture palaces past and present, with photographs and information on more than 100 buildings that either are or have been cinemas. You can also explore the history of cinemas and cinema-going with me, in person, on one of the regular guided tours I lead throughout London.