The best cheap and free cinema in London
London’s cinema scene is brilliant – but it can also be eye-wateringly expensive. At Cheapskate, we refuse to pay full price to see a film and we think you shouldn’t have to either. Here are our favourite ways to catch a great screening in the city without breaking the bank...
(Subscribe to our free newsletter for more of London’s best free culture – including lots of recommendations for free film showings!)
Be strategic
Once you’ve lived here a while, you start to know where to look for the best bargains, and cinema is no exception. Some of our favourite cinemas offer ‘pay what you can’ screenings – on Fridays for instance, the Barbican Cinema offers tickets starting at £3 for one current film. Recent picks have included Hollywood hits like Pillion and The Drama.
Meanwhile, south of the river you don’t even need to wait for a particular day of the week, as Peckhamplex prides itself on all its films costing just £6.99 (plus a small booking fee if you book online).
Leap into the unknown
Theatreship, the brilliant non-profit performing arts space on a ship in the old docks of Canary Wharf, offers free film screenings every Wednesday evening. However, there’s a catch: you won’t know what film you’re going to see until you show up on the day.
The team at Theatreship likes to have a bit of fun with the mystery concept, so check their Instagram and mailing list for clues leading up to your screening (if you guess correctly on the day, you’ll win a free round of drinks!). You can book tickets for mystery film screenings, plus all of Theatreship’s other events, here.
For all the family
If you have kids (or even if you don’t have kids, but love timeless animated classics), there are tonnes of free and cheap family-friendly screenings at cinemas around London. Our faves include the pay-what-you-can weekend screenings at the Garden Cinema (tickets start from £0!) and the Rio Cinema in Dalston’s £7 family flicks during the school holidays.
For more ideas for how to enjoy London with kids on a budget, subscribe to our spin-off newsletter, Cheapskate Kids, here
Get geeky
Are you your friendship group’s resident film buff? Discuss your hot takes with other film nerds at London’s many free film discussion events, including this free event series focusing on philosophical interpretations of classic films, and Exploding Cinema, which offers eclectic movie-themed hangouts for under £10 at Elephant & Castle’s Cinema Museum.
Turn up early
London gets taken over in the summer by free open-air screenings – Vauxhall Summer Screens every Tuesday in July, Summer by the River near London Bridge, Everyman Screen on the Canal in King’s Cross, the list goes on.
Many of these events don’t require pre-booking, so they tend to get crowded quickly. If you want to secure a seat, we recommend arriving at least an hour before the film starts.
Escape for a while
Here’s another one that books up quickly – every couple of months or so, the BFI and National Lottery-funded Escapes programme screens new releases in cinemas all over the country… for free.
Recent programming has included Eternity and I Swear, as well as a 25th anniversary screening of Amelie, in London cinemas like Genesis in Whitechapel and The Lexi Cinema in Kensal Rise. Keep an eye on Cheapskate London’s ‘looking ahead’ section for upcoming screening announcements – and remember to snap those tickets up before they’re gone!
Clementine Scott is a journalist from London. As well as being one of the writers behind Cheapskate, she also reviews theatre and opera on a regular basis. She’s thrilled to share her passion for the arts with Cheapskate readers.
