The Lexi team are still buzzing from a fantastic night last week at The Brent Design Awards, where we were the only project to scoop two prizes:
Culture & Heritage and Peoples Choice! From a Civic Trust Commendation to winning big at last week’s Design Awards, the first five months of this year have really made us proud - of the work we do as an independent cinema, of our architects RISE Design Studio and contractors CBC Design and Build, and of all our supporters. After the journey we’ve been on together, being on stage with the wonderful people from RISE and CBC was a wonderful moment. And yes we may all have raised quite a few glasses afterwards…
The Lexi Hub - our second screen - has, in particular, received much accolade recently. Earlier this year, Lexi Hub won a commendation from The Civic Trust. These awards are intended to highlight buildings which ‘offer a positive cultural, social, economic or environmental benefit to their local communities’. The Hub is a dedicated space for our programme of community events - from our year-round film club with refugee charity Salusbury World, to screenings for local schools - as well as an opportunity to broaden our programme to include a wider range of independent and foreign language features. It is also a very beautiful and sustainable space - from the wildflower roof to the cutting edge sustainability of the build.
Just in case it wasn’t already obvious… we’re really proud of our hub (and its green roof!).
Receiving recognition from organisations like RIBA, the Civic Trust and Brent Design Awards means the world to us as it is, but even more so because of our backstory, which rivals that of a character from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So, incoming: a sentimental look back at the architectural history of The Lexi, and of our glorious home borough!
Nestled in a residential row on Chamberlayne Road, The Lexi Cinema is housed within a grand red brick structure: an Edwardian building which opened in 1927 and which has been home to everything from a community theatre to a pool hall. The facade of ‘Pinkham Hall’ - as the structure was once called - has always inspired us!
Fast forward almost a century, and in 2008, this storied and historic building became none other than The Lexi Cinema.
Another time jump now, to 2020. The pandemic in 2020 was truly devastating for so many of our neighbours in the borough. Many of our local businesses are still recovering. It was an exceptionally challenging year for our cinema and staff team, too. But just as The Lexi was re-opening its doors in October 2020 after weathering the first lockdown, a devastating fire closed our doors again. It was an unimaginable setback.
But, with the help and incredible hard work of our friends at RISE Design Studio and CBC Design and Build,The Lexi rose from the ashes. Your local picture palace was back, renovated, and - against all odds - better than ever. To have the cinema’s design commended and awarded takes on a special significance when we remember the horrible days immediately after the fire.
Can we fix it? Our founder Sally Wilton at The Lexi building site in 2021.
While we’ve been reflecting on The Lexi’s history, our win at The Brent Design Awards has also led us to think about the history of our wonderful borough more generally…
What a night! From left to right: Iljaz Brija (CBC Design and Build), Rosie Greatorex (Lexi Director), Sean Ronnie Hill (RISE Design Studio), Musa Kurbalaj (CBC Design and Build), and Imran Jahn (RISE Design Stuido).
Brent came to exist in 1965, when Willesden and Wembley joined to form the borough of Brent that The Lexi calls home. Since then, the metropolitan area has transformed into London’s most diverse borough - home to Ealing Road’s ‘Little India’, and Trojan Records. (Did you know that Brent-based band The Cimarons were allegedly the UK’s first self-contained Reggae band?). Since its early days, Brent has been a pioneering borough - and it was even named the London Borough of Culture 2020.
From Black History Studies to Refugee Week Screenings to our recent screenings of ‘Brent Gets Wilder’, our programme is as diverse - and as welcoming! - as the people of Brent.
Here’s hoping that the second half of 2023 has more great news in store…
Gen Sandle
Lexi Marketing & Comms
References
History of Brent, https://www.brent.gov.uk/libraries-arts-and-heritage/brent-museum-and-archives/your-local-area/history-of-brent#articles
