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Cinema closure: 'There are not many places like it left'

Robert Firth Gabriella is stood outside Catford Mews looking into the camera. She is wearing glasses and a black jumper. There is graffiti over the shutters of the cinema. Robert Firth
Gabriella Wilkie is disappointed Catford Mews has closed

"Everybody would be there, everybody was welcome."

Gabriella Wilkie, 38, is one of many people who live in Catford who worry the area will be left without a vital place to bring the community together if its only cinema remains closed.

Catford Mews, a cinema and food hall located in the Catford Centre, has been shut since 29 October when the building was reclaimed by Lewisham Council over rent arrears.

"There are not many places like that left in south-east London," Gabriella says of Catford's only cinema. "I worry the divide you get elsewhere is coming," she explains, adding it is as a "massive loss to the community".

'Increasingly impossible terms'

Another Catford resident Zak Kilburn, 39, echoes Gabriella's concerns.

“It was one of the few openly queer-aligned spaces in the area," he says.

"You could sit and have a coffee with someone down the road, and where are you going to do that now?

"They’re clearly not going to be bringing it back in the same form.”

Lewisham Council said the cinema’s operator, the Really Local Group (RLG), owed more than £650,000 and had been in arrears since 2019.

The authority added it could not afford to continue to go without the money that was owed to the Catford Regeneration Partnership (CRPL), a firm owned by the council that controls the property's lease.

Robert Firth Zak Kilburn is wearing a mask, cap and denim jacket with a black and white scarf. He is stood facing the camera with the Catford Mews behind him. The shutters are covered in space-themed graffiti. Robert Firth
A petition to save the venue has received more than 8,000 signatures

Responding, the RLG said: "Closing Catford Mews on half term week was intended to inflict maximum damage to our venue and to our reputation."

Its statement continued: "Catford Mews has been a crucial pillar of the local community which has now been ripped away from the very people it was designed to serve.

"We remain optimistic that the council will engage with ourselves to resolve this situation as it is in everyone's best interest to do so."

'Significant rent-free period'

Disagreements between the council and RLG have revolved around the upkeep of the surrounding areas and allocation of grants.

The RLG also said the council’s closure notice had come as a surprise as it had agreed in May a 10-year deal with the authority to operate the venue.

In response the council said: “The operators of Catford Mews, have run up significant arrears in since 2019.

"Despite CRPL’s best efforts, RLG haven’t been able to find a way forward."

A Change.org appeal to save the venue has received more than 8,000 signatures since it was set up on Tuesday.

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