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© PHOTO Pan 3 Sixty Limited

The cinema that hosted the Lumière brothers’ first ever moving picture show in 1896 is to be restored to its former glory and reopened to the public as a state-of-the-art cinema. Formerly part of Regent Street Polytechnic and currently owned by the University of Westminster and used as a lecture theatre, the Regent Street Cinema aims to reopen in as a landmark venue for the British film industry, connecting arts, culture, education and communities and providing film students with a space to showcase their work. It has been designed by Tim Ronalds Architects, whose portfolio includes the Hackney Empire, Salisbury Arts Centre, The Circus Space in Hoxton and The Mick Jagger Centre at Dartford Grammar School. The final phase of the University’s £5m fundraising campaign to restore the cinema begins this week, with a target reopening date of November 2013. The scheme is backed by some of the biggest names in the British film industry and the Heritage Lottery Fund, as well as the MBI Al Jaber Foundation and the Quintin Hogg Trust.