The Screen On  The Green cinema [Jeff]

THE daughter of a cinema pioneer whose picture house made Upper Street so popular she “priced herself out of the area” has added her voice to the campaign to install a plaque in her honour.

Nicola Hart said her mother Romaine Hart, who died in 2021, had changed the face of Islington for ever with the success of her cinema Screen on the Green, famously called the “coolest cinema in London” by Hollywood film director Quentin Tarantino.

The businesswoman, who runs her own company, Agua de Madre, selling fermented drink products, said: “Romaine and the cinema are responsible for bringing the area up to a new era of respectability and cultural interest.

“She was responsible for that – she thinks she was responsible for house prices going up. “The cinema made it less dangerous for people to walk along Upper Street and of course it became a totally hip area over the years. She laughed that she’d priced herself out of living in Islington!”

Romaine and Nicola Hart

Ms Hart took over running the Upper Street cinema in 1971 from her father, who owned a chain of flea pit cinemas across London called Blooms. With a careful eye and modern sensibilities, she changed its name to Screen on the Green and began showing art house movies and securing up- and-coming bands to play there.

Ms Hart said she had spoken to Bafta CEO Jane Millichip and that she was “super supportive of Romaine” as a female pioneer in the cinema and film distribution industry.

“She was so key and yet she hasn’t been [properly recognised]. She was ahead of her time with starting independent cinema on her own,” she said.

Romaine Hart and Jeremy Irons

Romaine Hart

Ms Hart plans to approach Islington Council and Screen on the Green to try and build a groundswell of support for a project to have a permanent tribute to her mother installed at the site.

She heard about the drive to commemorate Romaine after a friend read about it in the Tribune.

In an interview last month, Islington cinema tour guide Nigel Smith called her a “rare female figure in largely male-dominated industry” and said he wanted to see her remembered publicly as the cinema prepares to celebrate its 110th anniversary next month. “It’s important for Islington to have a plaque,” said Ms Hart.

Putting her mother’s success down to be being “very focused and single minded,” she added: “I am very proud of having an entrepreneurial mother.

“She had huge creative flair and good people around her, and she was always interested in what was new and interesting. Her taste in film was broad as well.”

Describing how Romaine would react to having a plaque in her honour, she said: “I think she would be thrilled that people had recognised her. It would be an affirmation of all her hard work.”