Hackney cinema founder honoured with plaque

A "visionary businesswoman" who opened what is now one of the UK's longest continuously running cinemas has been commemorated by a plaque installed at the venue.

Clara Ludski, who died aged 71 in 1933, turned her family's auctioneer shop on Kingsland High Street in Dalston into one of the capital's first full-time cinemas in 1909.

Today it operates as The Rio, an independent community-run cinema, which opened in 1976. The plaque installation took place on Friday to kick off The Rio's 50th birthday celebrations.

"I'm thrilled our cinema was founded all those years ago by a woman," said Rosie Greatorex, executive director of The Rio.

She added: "Clara was a visionary businesswoman and pioneer of early British cinema.

"I wish she could have known that her legacy would be The Rio, still programming for everyone in the borough."

Special screenings and events will continue over the next six months as part of the Rio Forever programme to mark the 50th anniversary.

Ludski was born in the early 1860s to Jewish Prussian immigrants and, at a time when women were still not able to vote, went on to forge a successful business life in London.

She opened the cinema as the Kingsland Palace of Animated Pictures in 1909.

With demand high, she expanded to almost 1,000 seats in 1915 – a huge venue for the time – and changed the name to the Kingsland Empire.

The plaque, which can be seen on an exterior wall, was unveiled by Ludski's great-granddaughter Deborah Goodman, with other members of the family in attendance.

Funds for the plaque were raised by the Hackney Society as part of its Women of Hackney project.

"The unveiling of Clara Ludski's plaque is a fitting tribute to a remarkable woman who helped shape Hackney's cultural life," said Hackney Society chair Janet Chapman.

"Honouring her legacy at the very site of her achievement restores her rightful place in history, while inspiring future generations to recognise the vital contributions women have made to the borough."

In 1937-38, about four years after Ludski's death, the cinema was modernised in the Art Deco style and has remained looking pretty much the same ever since.

"When you are in this auditorium you can really feel all of the history associated with this place," said 2004 Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller, a contemporary artist who helped curate the Rio Forever launch party.

"Most cinemas have been chopped up and made into multi screens. This is one of the few in London that still has that feel of a 1930s cinema."

Since opening on the site of Ludski's Kingsland Empire in 1976, The Rio has gone on to become what is believed to be the longest continuously running community cinema in the UK.

Asked whether it will still be around in another 50 years, Rosie Greatorex said: "Absolutely, that's why this celebration is called Rio Forever. For as long as there is cinema there will be a community cinema for the people of Hackney."

Clara Ludski would no doubt admire that level of ambition.

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