Pic: Olliver Mallic

One of London’s largest public projection screens has gone up at Canary Wharf station as part of a season of free cinema on the London Underground.

Arts on the Underground will commission art to be displayed for free across the network, with four film institutions running the giant Canary Wharf Screen from now until next February.

Head of Art on the Underground Tamsin Dillon said: “What will be interesting for people who commute on a regular basis through this station is that they will be able to see either a different section of a film, or a different film, pretty much every time they pass through — something that would be intriguing enough to perhaps go and see more of the film on their lunch time.”

The first season, lasting until May, will be run by Film and Video Umbrella, which produces moving image works by artists across the UK. Subsequent seasons will go to the British Film Institute and experimental animation house Animate Projects, with a mixture of new commissions and rare films from the last century.

All films will be shown in the station’s ticket hall free of charge. The first will be Umbrella’s The City in the City, by Suki Chan, Marcus Coates, Dryden Goodwin, Melanie Manchot, Karen Mirza and Brad Butler.

Visitors unwilling to buy a ticket or Oyster card can view the films by downloading a Canary Wharf Screen ticket from the Transport for London website.