A fundraising campaign is underway to honour an unsung hero of British cinema with a plaque that gives her “the recognition she deserves”.
In 1909, Clara Ludski – characterised by a local heritage group as a “visionary businesswoman and pioneer of early British cinema” – converted her family’s auctioneers shop on Kingsland High Street, in Dalston, into one of London’s first full-time cinemas.
With her Kingsland Palace venue, which today operates as the Dalston Rio, Ludski helped to spearhead the explosion of cinema in London throughout the early 20th century.
At a time when women lacked the right to vote, Ludski, who was born to Jewish Prussian immigrants, carved out a powerful role in Hackney’s cultural life, and went on to expand her cinema into the Kingsland Empire – a massive venue for the time with nearly 1,000 seats.
But despite her achievements, Ludlow – who died in 1933 aged 71 – remains largely unrecognised, a wrong that the Hackney Society hopes to right.
“That’s why we’re raising funds to install a commemorative plaque at the Rio Cinema, honouring her contribution to Hackney and to British film history,” the group said.
The Hackney Society aims to raise enough money to fund the design, production and installation of the plaque, as well as a public unveiling event involving the local community.
It has so far raised £220 of the £1,150 it says it needs to cover the costs.
“Clara’s plaque is part of a wider project to honour the lives and legacies of people who shaped Hackney - particularly its women - but have gone unacknowledged for too long,” it said.
The group said it established its “green plaque scheme” after its applications for official English Heritage plaques were turned down as the figures they hoped to commemorate were not considered famous enough.
In 2017, the JC was contacted the executive director of the charity-run cinema, who was hoping to trace Ludski’s descendants.
After enlisting the help of a genealogy firm, the JC discovered that Ludski was born in Southampton to parents Augusta Phillips and Lipman Goldsmith, a clothing outfitter, and went on to have four children – though she was only survived by two.
It also emerged that Ludski’s great-granddaughter was Deborah Goodman, a Jewish actor and director. Upon learning the identity of her great-grandmother, Goodman told the JC: “I am in shock. It sounds like Clara was a fantastic businesswoman and somebody who was passionate about the arts, like me.”
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