A pioneering figure of London's independent cinema has died at the age of 80.
Peter Howden, who served as chief projectionist at the Rio Cinema in Dalston for 27 years, died on January 18, following a brief illness.
Peter was also the programmer at the art deco gem since 2014.
Before that he programmed Notting Hill's Imperial Cinema in the 70s - later the Electric Cinema Club.
And he turned the original Everyman cinema in Hampstead into London's foremost arthouse movie theatre.
Born in York as the Second World War ended, Peter grew up in a conventional household of modest means.
His mother was a stay-at-home “housewife,” while his father worked at Rowntree’s Cocoa Works, a factory that dominated York’s economy.
A typical week saw cinema visits with his father, as well as an occasional bunk off Sunday school to go to the pictures.
The young Peter’s childhood fascination with movies grew into a lifelong obsession during his university days in Sussex in the mid-1960s.
While a member of the student film society, Peter acquired his first projector – a silent super eight – and soon after a 16mm with sound. He was on his way to creating audiences for his own film programmes.
Coming to London in the “swinging ‘60s”, he found a job with the left-wing arthouse distributor Contemporary Films.
Peter also joined a travelling film collective against the backdrop of student protests, the Vietnam War and May 1968.
He screened newsreel footage and political documentaries at public meetings and festivals, eventually securing a regular slot at Camden’s Roundhouse that featured music documentaries and concert footage at all-night happenings.
The 1970s saw Peter take on the programming of repertory cinema.
After screening Eisenstein’s classic, Battleship Potemkin, at the then Imperial Cinema in Notting Hill, he soon became the venue’s manager with the Imperial’s transformation into the legendary Electric Cinema Club.
Over the next decade at what Peter termed “the last of the great ‘70s flea-pits”, he developed a template for independent cinema, blending double and even triple bills, cult midnight screenings and Q&As, while pouring profits into the restoration of the building.
Under Peter’s direction the Electric proved a training ground for a whole generation of film programmers and critics.
In 1980 Peter moved on to the original Everyman in Hampstead where he pursued a similar vision.
In 1998, he arrived at a transformative moment in the Rio’s history, just as a grant enabled the refurbishment of the art deco features of the Grade II listed cinema.
George Binette, vice-chair of the Rio board of trustees, recalled how The Rio provided Howden with a platform for his cinematic vision – at once idiosyncratic, compassionate and frequently magical.
He said Peter featured in a 2016 Guardian piece on the projectionist’s dying craft soon after officially assuming the role of Rio programmer.
He remarked that “digital was more flexible but very dull, once the film was on there was little to do in the projection booth".
In 2018 the Rio won independent cinema of the year at the Screen Awards, as well as the prize for marketing initiative of the year for attracting young audiences back to the cinema.
"Laconic and self-effacingly modest, albeit with a sardonic sense of humour, Peter would have claimed little credit, but the combination of his film knowledge, industry intelligence and uncanny ability to spot and champion new, sometimes provocative film-making contributed hugely to the Rio’s achievements," said Mr Binette.
Peter Howden, film programmer and independent cinema pioneer, 27 March 1945 – 18 January 2026 is survived by his long time partner Wallace Kwong.
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