Free Range Film Club Brings Car-Free Alfresco Cinema to London

Car-free households rejoice – the first alfresco cinema series that doesn’t require four wheels has announced three London venues!

*UPDATE*
Unfortunately the Free Range Film Club has been cancelled due to uncertainties caused by the possibility of local lockdowns. More here freerangeclub.co.uk

All photos courtesy Free Range Film Club

Drive-in cinemas are hot property this summer, but many Londoners don’t drive, leaving them bereft of that Grease singalong opportunity.

Personally, I don’t drive. I haven’t driven for seven years and I think I’ve forgotten how to. ‘You don’t need a car in London,’ they say, and for the most part, you don’t.

I walk, cycle, take the Tube and hop in the odd taxi, but lockdown changed everything, and having already experienced the frustration of being turned away from a drive-through coronavirus test centre, I’ve started to feel pretty miffed about all these drive-in cinemas.

So I, for one, am thrilled about the launch of Free Range Film Club, a series of small-scale cinema pop-ups headed for east and south London.

The first three London locations for its socially spacious open-air cinema series are Three Mills Island in Bromley-by-Bow, Blackheath in south east London and Brockwell Park on the Brixton/Herne Hill borders.

Brockwell Park is one of the first three venues announced by Free Range Film Club

Alongside is Three Mills Island in east London

…and Blackheath in south east London

Capacities at Free Range Film Club will be strictly limited, allowing cinema-goers to enjoy an evening under the stars in allocated spaces, socially distanced from other groups, but close enough to share the experience.

The alfresco cinema pop-ups will feature an eclectic mix of movies, from feel-good favourites like 10 Things I Hate About You and Bridesmaids, to cult classics like Thelma & Louise, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Jackie Brown, as well as more left-field flicks like Little Miss Sunshine and The Life Aquatic.

Three Mills Islands, home to the Three Mills Island Studios, a TV and film studio that produced some of Danny Boyle’s and Wes Anderson’s best loved movies, is not only a fitting place to catch a movie, it’s also a very picturesque spot to recapture the magic of date night.

This is where Free Range Film Club kicks off, running from 29 July to 2 August, before heading south of the river for five nights on Blackheath Common from 12-16 August and stretching out the bank holiday weekend at Brockwell Park from 26-30 August.

Further venues will be announced shortly.