A historic cinema in London’s Notting Hill area had to be evacuated on Saturday bringing the busy Portobello Road market to a standstill.
The Electric Cinema, House and Brasserie had over 200 people in the building when a fire broke out in the brasserie kitchen’s extractor fan.
12 appliances and 60 firefighters were in attendance, and it took them around three hours to contain the blaze. Police set up a cordon and Portobello Road was closed for a short time at the height of the weekend rush.
There was extensive damage to the brasserie and part of the roof was damaged but the cinema itself only suffered from minor damage.
The cinema is an historic part of Portobello Road having opened in 1911 and claiming to be London’s oldest cinema. Well-wishers including celebrity Stephen Merchant who tweeted, “Apparently the Electric Cinema in Notting Hill is on fire. What sad news.”
A statement on the cinema’s website read, “The Electric Cinema, House and Brasserie are currently closed due to a kitchen fire on Saturday 9 June. We will be taking cinema bookings again soon and we will let you know in due course when the brasserie will reopen for business. We look forward to seeing you again as soon as possible.”
The latest from the cinema is that it could reopen by the end of the week, but they are not taking bookings up to today [Wednesday].
