DOWN THE SHAFT FILM CLUB

Lovers of film, silent film, cocktails, underground spaces, historic venues, rooftop gardens, plants, firepits, toasted marshmallows, grand pianos, virtuoso musicians.....we have just the thing for you.

Midnight Apothecary is combining cosy campfire and wild cocktails in our candle-lit garden above ground with iconic films underground in the very special second season of ‘Down the Shaft Film Club'.  

For your delectation we present Charlie Chaplin's 'Easy Street' and Laurel & Hardy's 'Big Business' and 'Liberty'.  They will be accompanied on grand piano by the virtuoso talents of the UK's leading silent film piano accompanists Meg Morley (2 May) and Neil Brand (16 May) in the Victorian underground Grand Entrance Hall to Brunel's Thames Tunnel at the Brunel Museum. 

This is one of London's secret and most unusual underground venues to enjoy classic silent cinema.  This historic venue is directly below our hidden candlelit garden where you will be able to toast marshmallows around the firepit and sample a hot toddy, delicious street food or one of our award-winning botanical cocktails made from ingredients grown in the garden or foraged close by. We also have rather wonderful beer from local Bermondsey brewers Hiver and Anspach & Hobday and gin from award-winning Bermondsey distiller Jensen.

What better venue to celebrate the medium of film than the entrance to Marc Brunel’s engineering masterpiece, the Thames Tunnel: the first tunnel under a navigable river anywhere in the world. A place of imagination, inspiration and wonder.

Arrive from 6pm for campfire, wild cocktails, deluxe hot toddies, locally crafted beer and sizzling seasonal street food (not included in the price of your ticket) in our enchanting candle-lit secret roof garden.  Descend underground to be transported by films before emerging into the night air for more real-life fireside adventures.  Films begin at 7.30pm. Our campfire, complimentary toasted marshmallows and streetfood will be available for you before and between the films.

We can warm your cockles with hot toddies but please wear warm outdoor clothing for this event as it takes place in a garden and underground shaft so can get a bit chilly.

Midnight Apothecary is a celebration of wild cocktails, campfire and camaraderie in the city. We grow and forage the ingredients for our drinks in our rooftop garden at the Brunel Museum.  

THE FILMS

EASY STREET (1917)

Truly one of Charlie Chaplin's finest and most enduring short films. The first great comedian of the silver screen and the most important figure of the silent film era stars as The Little Tramp.  As a  reformed tramp he becomes a police constable who must fight a huge thug who dominates an inner city street. The look and feel of 'Easy Street' evokes the south London of Charlie Chaplin's childhood with some stating that Easy Street could be Walworth's East Street - the street of his birthplace and just round the corner from The Brunel Museum in Rotherhithe. A film that walks a fine line between humour and pathos and does so hilariously. 

LIBERTY (1929)

Unlike the athletic antics of Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy based their comedy around mannerisms, reactions and silly situations, But in Liberty we find them out of their depth quite literally, high above the city in a half built skyscraper. Liberty was one of Laurel & Hardy's last silent films to many fans, their funniest ever film. This film has it all. With the police hot on their tail as two escaped convicts, Stan and Ollie attempt to change clothes in their getaway car only to find themselves struggling to balance on top of the girders of an unfinished skyscraper. They were comedic geniuses and this film shows them at the peak of their game.

BIG BUSINESS (1929)

Laurel & Hardy are two Christmas tree sales trying to sell their wares door to door in California in the summer. It is most people's favourite Laurel & Hardy silent film, 

MEG MORLEY

Playing for her first silent film three years ago, Meg Morley has quickly become one of the UK's pre-eminent silent film accompanists, performing at various international film festivals (Flatpack Festival - Birmingham, Il Cinema Ritrovato – Bologna, Nederlands Silent Film Festival - Eindhoven) and playing regularly at the London Cinema Museum. Her latest commission, from the British Film Institute, was a semi-improvised score for several Mabel Normand films, which was recorded for DVD and toured with her jazz trio – a recently-formed group, hailed in All About Jazz  as “one of the most exciting on the current UK scene”.

For more updates visit megmorleymusic.com

Neil Brand

Neil Brand has been a silent film accompanist for over 30 years, regularly in London at the Barbican and BFI National Film Theatres, throughout the UK and at film festivals and special events around the world. In 2007 his orchestral score for the 20s chiller The Cat and the Canary was a highlight of the New Zealand Film Festival, while his new scores for Hitchcock’s Blackmail and Asquith’s Underground for an 80-piece orchestra received UK and world premieres with the BBC Symphony Orchestra to great acclaim. 

He is becoming well-known as a TV presenter on BBC4 with his hugely successful series Sound of Cinema - The Music that Made the Movies and Sound of Song  and is a a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio 4's Film Programme.  He is particularly known for his analyses of classic film scores on the Film Programme. He a Visiting Professor of the Royal College of Music and is considered one of the finest improvising piano accompanists in the world.