Surprisingly enough, the Light House cinema in Dublin is not only not a lighthouse, or a tower of any shape or form, it’s underground. In fact, it’s doubly underground. Underground as in not very well known, kind of arty and different, and very very cool. And underground in that you have to go down a lot of steps.
The architecture inside is quite stunning, with the sloping ceilings created by the tiered seating in the screen rooms above, clad in black, standing out against the clutter-free plain white walls, and splashes of colourful designer seats here and there. It’s like walking into a real life episode of Grand Designs, you keep expecting Kevin McCloud to come strolling round the corner in an artfully distressed jacket. Or at the very least someone with a beret and plenty of existential angst.
The little café on the ground floor is just lovely, and the food and drink is all very posh, in a neat, designer way. They have scones. Scones in a cinema foyer! But they do still have popcorn. However not in anything so crass as a jumbo-sized tub. Oh no. This is like a cinema, but for grown ups.
And you know what? It’s incredibly refreshing to go and see a movie in a place where your feet don’t stick to the floor, there are no small kids jumping up and down during your 15-rated film, and no-one spends the entire time texting their mates, or in some extreme cases actually taking phone calls.
