A new community cinema was launched at St John’s Church in Leytonstone on Saturday 21 February with a viewing of the 1980s classic ‘Back to the Future’. 

Reverend Liz Blackham, Vicar for St John’s Church Leytonstone, together with the Leytonstone Town Team, Councillor Ahsan Khan, Cabinet Member for Housing and Regeneration for Waltham Forest Council, and volunteers (pictured above), welcomed the community for the first screening.  

The project has been a collaboration between the Church and the Leytonstone Town Team with support from Waltham Forest Council, following the success of festive film showings in December 2025 as part of Leytonstone’s winter activity programme. 

The official launch of the community cinema marks the start of a new offer for the town centre. It has been set up to be affordable and accessible to everyone, with a suggested donation of £3 per person, or £6 for a family ticket, and no pressure for cinemagoers to donate if they cannot. 

Councillor Ahsan Khan said: “I’m delighted to be a part of the launch of the new community cinema. This is a fantastic idea by the community for the community. Waltham Forest Council is proud to be supporting this initiative.” 

Reverend Liz Blackham, Vicar for St John’s Church Leytonstone, said: “We’re thrilled to be hosting a community cinema venture in partnership with Waltham Forest Council. We’re inviting people to come and watch a film in our beautiful space in the centre of Leytonstone.” 

Samina, an attendee at the cinema said: “What a wonderful opportunity it is to have a community cinema here in Leytonstone. It’s an amazing opportunity for youngsters and families to get together and come to a very affordable, comfortable, and safe place to watch a film.” 

The team behind the community cinema wanted to bring people together, engaging low-income families as well as reaching isolated members of the community. 

The community cinema intends to screen films on a regular basis and is supporting the church to get a permanent premises license to enable this.  

The next screening will be Thursday 12 March. Doors will open at 7.30pm, with the film starting at 8pm, we’ll share more details on this soon. 

Future viewings will include a variety of films for different ages. Stay up to date by visiting the St John’s Church website.