Rainbow Theatre

The Rainbow Theatre, originally known as the Astoria Finsbury Park, is a Grade II listed building in Finsbury Park, London. Built as a cinema in 1930, it later became known as a music venue, boxing venue and is now a Pentecostal church - wikipedia

One-night concerts were held on the stage in the 1960s, with the building becoming one of the premier music venues in the capital.

It was at this theatre that Jimi Hendrix first burnt a guitar, with the collusion of his manager Chas Chandler and a journalist from ''NME''. Hendrix proceeded to set fire to his Fender Stratocaster guitar on 31 March 1967 on the opening night of the Walker Brothers tour, resulting in a hospital appointment for Hendrix's burnt fingers.[ ]

The Beach Boys' album, ''Live In London (Live in London (The Beach Boys album))'', was recorded here in 1968.

Ian Curtis in concert, The Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park, London, 4 April, 1980 - pinterest

Following the closure of the Rainbow Theatre on 24 December 1981, it was designated a listed building, but lay empty and largely disused for the next 14 years. It was used occasionally in unlicensed boxing (bareknuckle boxing) matches, most notably in April 1986 when Lenny McLean beat Roy Shaw in a dramatic first round knockout.

In 1995, the building was taken over by its current owners, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, a Brazilian Pentecostal church. They began work restoring the building and turning it into a church (Church (building)). The auditorium restoration was the last phase to be completed, in 1999, and the theatre is now the main base for UCKG in the UK.

On 28 February 2004 to celebrate the restoration, and in conjunction with the Cinema Theatre Association, the church screened Billy Wilder’s film Sunset Boulevard – its last showing at the venue was in 1950.