Posted June 2025
Below are some short sketches of people who worked at the Everyman over the years. The Everyman attracted a cast of characters who, whatever their roles, shared a loyalty to the cinema and a love of film. They are listed here in the order of their start of employment at the Everyman.
Jim Fairfax-Jones, managing director
Jim was a solicitor in Southampton where he developed a passion for world cinema through the local film society. He moved to London and married Tess on 23 December 1933. Three days later the couple opened the Everyman Cinema in Hampstead. A Victorian drill hall and then a theatre, the building was now a two hundred and eighty five seat cinema. Despite a shoe string budget and no experience of running a cinema, let alone on a part time basis, the Everyman soon became a local and London-wide centre for world cinema. The repertory programme (for a time the only one in London) showed increasingly popular seasons of directors or stars, from René Clair to the Marx Brothers and Alfred Hitchcock.
The Everyman closed shortly after the War broke out and Jim, who was working in the London office of the RAF, did not return to running the cinema till 1946. Soon after, the family moved into Manor Lodge, a beautiful, rambling old house in the Vale of Health on Hampstead Heath which also housed Jim’s solicitor’s office.
In the 1950s and 1960s Jim continued the successful formula of seasons – now including Orson Welles, Ingmar Bergman, the New Wave, Indian and Japana cinema. Many Londoners claim that they got their film education at The Everyman, through Jim’s legendary seasons. The cinema was austere but tickets were cheap and standards of projection, if not the quality of the prints, were high. Jim was often to be seen engaging with hopeful audience members in the queue outside, or sitting in the auditorium checking the sound.
Jim and Tess were active members of the local Hampstead community: regular children’s screenings and holiday-time family friendly films, the foyer art exhibitions and Sunday morning concerts were all part of the cinema going experience. Jim’s great achievement was the creation of an arthouse with a distinctive local identity rooted in a shared love of world cinema. His death in 1973 marked the end of an era.
Tess Fairfax-Jones, exhibitions curator
Tess, who came from a well-off family in Kings Norton, attended the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London where she qualified as a silversmith.
The opening of the Everyman on Boxing Day 1933 was a completely hands on venture for the newly married couple, Tess and Jim, who were busy in front of house operating the cash desk and tearing tickets. Tess played a leading role in the many social occasions which characterised the cinema, for example the Christmas craft sales in the 1930s where cards, silverware and gifts were for sale in the foyer. The film society was also held on site on Sunday afternoons in the 1930s and was revived in the 1950s. The meetings were held in the large basement where post screening discussions, often with experts and film makers, were accompanied by Tess’s homemade soup.
But her main contribution to the reputation of the Everyman Cinema was the foyer gallery which she set up in 1934. Originally a kind of corridor, it was remodelled in 1955 to create an intimate exhibition space for painting, photography and 3D works. The selling exhibitions provided a platform for early career artists, the most famous being Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson in the 1930s. The monthly Sunday morning openings were convivial affairs, with the Fairfax-Jones children recruited to hand out refreshments.
After the death of her husband in 1973 the Everyman was run as a family trust with Martin, the oldest, in overall control of the cinema. Tess continued to be active at the Everyman running the exhibition programme. She remained a trustee until her death in 1991.
Sarah Bloomfield, usherette
Sarah worked as an usherette at the Everyman for twenty three years from 1958 to 1983 One of the Everyman ‘characters’ who worked at the matinees, Sarah was severely deaf but her contribution to the Everyman community and her kindness were valued by staff and audience alike. Her background was typical of bohemian cultural Hampstead where her intellectual parents presided over an extraordinary salon of writers, artists, musicians in their large book-lined house in Thurlow Road. Sarah, who early on displayed artistic flair, attended St Martins School of Art and came to specialise in costume design for opera. She did get some commissions but her regular income came from the Everyman. The Fairfax-Joneses were proud of her achievements and Tess put on an exhibition of her designs in the foyer gallery in 1970.
Sadly, when the 80s came, and the Everyman entered a new chapter of its history, Sarah was dismissed on the grounds that her deafness was considered a safety hazard. With the backing of the Royal National Institute for the Deaf she bravely took her case to an industrial tribunal where her close friend Lindsay Anderson spoke on her behalf. She was awarded some compensation but had left the Everyman forever.
Sarah had enthusiasm for, and extensive knowledge of, both theatre and film. She was fascinated by the history of the Everyman and she gathered research material which she intended to write up as a book.
Adrian Turner, programme manager
From his schooldays Adrian was an ardent fan of Hollywood, but was converted to arthouse films by some older friends. On leaving school he worked at London Weekend Television. He lived in St Johns Wood and walked regularly to screenings at the Everyman. In 1969 he saw an ad for the post of assistant manager. At interview his enthusiasm apparently made up for his lack of experience in cinema management. Fairfax-Jones appointed him, took him under his wing and gave him programming experience. When Fairfax-Jone became ill in 1971 Adrian took on more responsibilities, including two highly successful seasons, Bergman Revisited and a Bogart season, until that time not the usual thing at the Everyman.
In 1973 Fairfax-Jones died and Adrian became programme manager. He continued to widen the programme and put on further high profile seasons including German Expressionism, Film Noir and Hollywood Musicals. He also changed the format of the programming. The traditional seven day runs gave way to twice weekly runs, and late night screenings were introduced to attract the younger audiences.
In 1977 he left the Everyman to join the National Film Theatre. This inaugurated a very exciting time in his career. He frequently travelled abroad on NFT business or to festivals and he organised the prestigious Guardian lectures, often interviewing prominent film personalities on the NFT stage. He has written widely on film, including books on Hollywood musicals, David Lean and Billy Wilder.
Peter Howden, manager and programmer
Peter ran the Everyman from 1981 to 1998. In the late 1960s he had been one of the founders of the iconic Electric Notting Hill, a singularly scruffy cinema with an enormous reputation amongst London cinephiles. Peter was chief programmer at the Electric which became a model for independent repertory cinemas. The programming was eclectic and daring and included cult and avant-garde films as well as classics and recent world cinema.
He brought this experience to the Everyman which by the early 80s was showing signs of decline. Double bills in the 70s and triple bills in the 80s, all for the price of one ticket, became the norm as did daily changes of programme. He aimed to attract new younger audiences including students with new Hollywood directors but he also took advantage of the BFI re-issuing old arthouse classics like La Dolce Vita, and, as always silent films were screened regularly, as were old Everyman favourites, the latter usually on a Sunday.
Peter successfully kept the cinema and its reputation going but by the second half of the 1990s the Everyman was once again dominated by financial problems. When Pullman took over in 1998, Peter left the Everyman. He joined the Rio Cinema in Dalston as chief projectionist and subsequently became one of the programmers.
Corinne Gilson, projectionist
Corinne worked as a projectionist at the Everyman in the 1980s and 1990s. She arrived in London with her partner from France in 1986 They didn’t think they were going to stay forever, but they enjoyed London and took a series of small jobs as a way of spending time in a city that they loved. One day Corinne came back to their bedsit and announced that she thought she had a real job as a projectionist in a small cinema in Hampstead. She did in fact have a French projectionist diploma, but it was useless in France as there were no positions available. Corinne was interviewed by the chief projectionist along with Peter Howden, the Managing Director. Her limited English meant that she didn’t understand much of what they were saying but she did pick up that they were very interested in the French Nouvelle Vague. She got the job and started the next day.
The projection room was shared with Sprocket the cat, owned by Peter Howden who lived in the flat upstairs. There was a door opening on to a small balcony with a view of the back of restaurants, a good place to hang out in the Summer. The hardest part of the job was to get the films into the projection room. There was no lift so the metallic boxes, once delivered, were carried up the many flights of stairs. The quality of the prints was sometimes very poor and needed skillfull handling. By all accounts Corinne was highly professional. For much of her time at the Everyman she shared the week with fellow projectionist Pete Bell, both working very long hours on part timers’ pay.
Eventually Corinne got a projectionist job at the Barbican. She died in 2021
Michael Brooke, administrator
The Everyman was Michael’s first proper job after leaving university. He joined as administrative assistant in 1989 and, like others before him, he got the job on the strength of his knowledge and enthusiasm for films rather than any work experience. His tasks included general administration for the managing director Peter Howden, researching and booking films and dealing with distributors. He was also responsible for the design, marketing and writing of the text for programmes. The skill of writing quickly and clearly about films has stayed with him throughout his career.
The Everyman was a challenging work environment with two or three different double or triple bills each day, events to organise and negotiations with distributors. Michael also worked on audience development. For example, after the successful screening of A Great Day in Harlem he realised that there was an audience for jazz films which then became part of the Everyman programme. However, by the early 90s it was clear that running a repertory cinema was a risky business. In 1993, on the death of Tess Fairfax-Jones Michael joined the board. Audiences continued to dwindle to such an extent that weekly board meetings were held to check that the cinema was still solvent.
He left in 1995. His subsequent career, including at the BFI, was devoted to film. He is currently a freelance film writer and DVD producer.
June Carroll, owner
June Carroll, ex-olympic sprinter and all round businesswoman, took over the Everyman in 1993 in the hopes of reviving its fortunes. June was not a film person but she could claim both personal charisma and drive as well as a flamboyant career which included air stewarding and a spell as a circus clown. Born into a working class family in Shepherds Bush and with no academic qualifications she became an Olympic champion in the 1950s, beating all records in running. In the 1960s she married popstar Ronnie Carroll and together they attempted to make it in the hotel business, but their beachside club in the Caribbean failed. On her return to London, now divorced for the second time and with five children, she set up a burger stall in Camden Lock which expanded into the successful North London chain Huffs.
She lived in Hampstead close to the Heath and first became involved with the Everyman through the basement café. But when she bought the cinema in 1993, it was already in financial trouble with audiences dwindling by the month. June, who was glamorous and persuasive, tried to make the restaurant a profitable business but apparently it became a drain on the cinema’s budget, despite an extensive menu and the introduction of jazz evenings. June sold the Everyman to the Pullman chain in 1998 and went back to catering. She died in 2020.