ancient cities

major changes—the widening of major streets; the
creation of two new north–south streets, King and
Queen; and the establishing of new, off-street market
spaces—all ideas initially proposed by Wren
and Evelyn.
Although Wren’s plan for London was never
implemented, it was disseminated through numerous
engravings beginning in 1724 and continuing
through the eighteenth century, including a French
version in 1758. Thus, as a visionary project,
Wren’s 1666 plan for London may have had an
important influence on the designs of capital cities,
including L’Enfant’s Washington, D.C. (1791),
and Haussmann’s Paris (1853–1870).
Lydia M. Soo
See also Haussmann, Baron Georges-Eugène; London,
United Kingdom; Paris, France; Urban Planning;
Wren, Sir Christopher
Further Readings
Cooper, Michael. 2003. “A More Beautiful City”: Robert
Hooke and the Rebuilding of London after the Great
Fire. Thrupp, UK: Sutton.
Evelyn, John. 1938. London Revived: Considerations for
Its Rebuilding in 1666, edited by E. S. de Beer.
Oxford, UK: Clarendon.
Reddaway, Thomas F. 1940. The Rebuilding of London
after the Great Fire. London: Jonathan Cape.
Soo, Lydia M. Forthcoming. “A Baroque City? London
after the Great Fire of 1666.” In Giambattista Nolli,
Rome and Mapping: Before and after the Pianta
Grande, edited by I. Verstegen and A. Ceen. Rome:
Gangemi.
Ci nE M a (Mo V i E ho u s E )
A cinema or movie house is a public site where
motion pictures are exhibited to a paying public.
Movie house architecture, audience composition,
and filmic entertainment have changed dramatically
since the first storefront theaters were opened
in the earliest years of the twentieth century.
However, in almost all of its manifestations, the
cinema has been a vital element of urban life. The
cinema can be viewed as a portal for understanding
the various developmental cadences of urban
Cinema (Movie House)
137
centers, as well as the pursuits of leisure for working-
and middle-class city dwellers during the twentieth
century.
Film was the first mediated popular entertainment.
From a local perspective, the development
of the motion picture projector enabled films to
be exhibited to large groups of people who were
often strangers to one another. They sat together
in one room or hall and watched either a portion
of a film or an entire motion picture simultaneously.
From a national perspective, the mass distribution
of motion pictures created the conditions
for audiences across a large geographic region,
or even an entire country, to view the same
motion picture nearly simultaneously. These conditions
helped to create an urban identity, constructed
around the pursuit of leisure and visual
entertainment.
As both cities and the movie industry changed
and grew, so did the movie houses that projected
motion pictures. During the first few years of the
twentieth century, for example, when the motion
picture industry was still in its infancy, motion
pictures were not projected in movie houses at all.
They were exhibited in vaudeville theaters, as only
part of the evening’s entertainment, or they were
exhibited in storefronts; entrepreneurs purchased
motion picture projectors, chairs, and makeshift
screens and opened for business. As the motion
picture industry matured and as films grew more
sophisticated and longer in length, the movie house
in its earliest manifestation was born.
Nickelodeon
The nickelodeon was a gathering place for urban
immigrants and the working class and the first successful
expression of the movie house. It was the
predominant movie house form from approximately
1905 to 1917. Generally situated in working-class
neighborhoods, on side streets where rent
was cheap, but in close proximity to popular shopping
areas, the nickelodeon served as a gathering
place for the working class. On the way home
from work, factory workers would congregate at
the nickelodeon, and women, children, and entire
families used the nickelodeon as a way to enjoy
public life. The humble conditions of the inexpensive
movie house frequently paralleled the realities
of working-class life. While the quality of both the