The Time Out Love London Awards are open for a third year and will be celebrating restaurants, cafes, bars, shops and cultural venues across the capital who are dedicated to making Londoner’s lives better.

The Art House, in Tottenham Lane, in Crouch End, has been nominated once again after winning “Best cinema in London” in 2014 and last year the screening house, which also provides live music, discussion groups, workshops and dance, was crowned “Best cultural venue in London”.

This year, they have been nominated for another cultural venue award.

Actor George Georgiou, who graduated from the Drama Centre, in Kings Cross, in 2001, where he was in the same year as Tom Hardy and Michael Fassbender and has also appeared in Games Of Thrones and Homeland, transformed the former Salvation Army Hall alongside his friend, Sam Neophytou, a director who has lived in Crouch End since he was 10-years-old.

The pair set up the Art House in 2014 after wanting to find a venue to showcase the plays they had been working on that was also close to where they lived. They gained planning permission quickly after receiving a huge amount of support from hundreds of local residents who wrote to the council and said it was an amazing idea and should have happened a lot sooner.

George, who has lived in Crouch End since 2010 and grew up in Tufnell Park, in Islington, explains why they wanted to create a new cultural venue that was intimate and personal, rather than overpriced and corporate…

The 38-year-old says: “It is just amazing to be recognised by Time Out, as it has really been a team effort between myself, Sam and all our friends and family. At the time, there wasn’t anything else like it in the area but within a year, we managed to build it into a two screen cinema with a stage.

“For someone like me and people in the arts, you look at Time Out like it is your cultural bible, so we are really excited to be nominated for a third time. The first time we won, we were so surprised, as we got more votes than any other cultural venue in London, which is quite amazing.

“However, we think the reason we have had such a great response from the public is that we are intimate and personal and reflect the people of Crouch End.”

George admits that when he moved to the area six years ago, he was shocked at the amount of writers and actors that lived in Crouch End, as although it was a very creative place, there seemed to be a lack of cinema and theatre.

It made George realise that there needed an outlet to for everyone to meet up and share their ideas and creativity. As a result, the idea for the Art House was born.

He met his business partner Sam, in 2007, after they made a television pilot together called Bubbles, which was set in Crouch End and explored the Greek-Cypriot community in the area.

George, who comes from a Greek-Cypriot background, admits his parents were very against the idea of him pursuing a career in acting, despite the fact he appeared in a number of plays at Bishop Douglass School, in Hamilton Road, east Finchley, including the lead role of Bugsy in Bugsy Malone.

His childhood experiences also played a part in his vision for The Art House, as he is keen for the venue to give a voice and a platform to people from minority backgrounds.

He says: “Nobody else in my family is an actor and due to our culture, it has been a struggle as my parents were very against me being an actor. Funnily enough, Sam is from the same background and because of that, we had a lot to say about our culture and always make it a talking point.

“We make an effort to get different minorities into a platform that may normally be underrepresented. That is what is so great about the Time Out awards, they give a platform to the local people.”

To vote for The Art House, visit: timeout.com/london/things-to-do/the-time-out-love-london-awards-3