Abstract

This article examines the records of cinema-going contained in the unpublished 1915 diary of Archibald Walker, a young, upper-middle-class ‘man about town’ living in wartime London. It considers the role of cinema in the context of Walker’s everyday life, and uses his diary to reconstruct a snapshot of the contemporary entertainment landscape of London’s West End. It then situates cinema in relation to two other West End leisure venues that Walker frequented: the variety theatre and the gentlemen’s club.