The Friends of the Hyde Park Picture House is a registered charity promoting appreciation of film in Hyde Park and the wider area and celebrating the heritage of Hyde Park Picture House to preserve its continued use for cinema and other arts for local communities.

The Friends of the Hyde Park Picture House and the Hyde Park Picture House are separate organisations. The Friends are a group of people who enjoy cinema and feel in some way connected to the Hyde Park Picture House. We want to ensure that it does not go the way of so many wonderful historic cinemas across the country. In particular we want as many, and as wide a range of people as possible to be able to experience the same enjoyment through it that we do.

We are democratic charity, with a Committee elected by our members at our Annual General Meeting each year.

Membership to the Friends was suspended during the development work at the Picture House and the Covid-19 pandemic but we will be welcoming new (and old) members for 2023.  It was the Friends that played a key role to help save the cinema when it was under threat some years ago. Now, following the extension and enhancement of the cinema we have an opportunity to influence its development into a vibrant multicultural community resource. By becoming a ‘Friend’ you can play your part.

Membership is based on an annual “Pay What You Decide” donation which help us delivery our aims. You can find more details on How To Join and suggested donations in the Join Us section of our website.

Exactly what we do will depend on what our members want to do. Our Committee of Trustees is small but we can enable members to organise events and activities and advertise them to the wider membership. When the Picture House has reopened, we will be looking into ways of supporting the cinema such as finding volunteers to work on preserving and cataloguing the archives, commissioning and overseeing the production of a mural on the exterior wall in Pearson Grove, co-ordinating film discussion groups, and outreach to the wider Hyde Park community and further afield.