Silent films get new reel at London haven

The black-and-white silent movie flickered into life as the pianist started up with a dramatic flourish.

Cue the latest exploits of daring master criminal Three-Fingered Kate.

The head of a gang behind a string of audacious robberies, Kate - who is missing the last two digits of her right hand - always manages to outwit her rival, Sheerluck Finch, also known as fictional detective Sherlock Holmes.

Nearly a century after the first "talkies" displaced silent movies for good, a society of London cinephiles still gathers regularly to celebrate these largely forgotten works from the dawn of cinema.

The Kennington Bioscope searches out rare films from the era - many not seen for many decades - and screens them with live improvised accompaniment on the piano, just as they would have been a century ago.

In a curious twist, the cavernous venue where the Bioscope meets - now home to London's Cinema Museum - was formerly the chapel of the 19th-century south London workhouse to which a young Charlie Chaplin was sent.

"It's an amazing synchronicity," said silent film devotee Alex Kirstukas, 32.

Chaplin, the legendary British comic actor and director, grew up in poverty nearby before beginning his career in the silent era.

Along with his struggling theatre hall artiste mother and elder brother, he was sent to the workhouse - grim institutions for the destitute - twice before the age of nine.