The O₂ Academy Brixton began simply as the Brixton Astoria nearly 100 years ago on August 19, 1929. The grand cinema that featured a domed ceiling with artificial stars and Mediterranean-inspired interiors, was built for £250,000 and designed by Thomas Somerford and E.A. Stone.
Its debut included a screening of the Al Jolson part-talkie, The Singing Fool, and live BBC radio performances. It thrived for over 40 years as a major cinema and performance venue that bragged being the home of an iconic Compton organ.
The Astoria closed in the summer of 1972 after 43 years of operation, in part because single-screen theaters were being squeezed out by new fangled multiplexes.
That September, it briefly reopened as The Sundown Centre, a rock venue and disco, but shut down just four months later. When demolition was proposed in 1974, the community rallied to save the old girl, which they did, but then it pretty much sat empty for the remainder of the decade.
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