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Catford Mews – a popular south east London community venue and Lewisham borough’s only cinema – was suddenly closed by the council last week, to the shock and outrage of many locals.
The cinema opened its doors in September 2019, owned by the Catford Regeneration Partnership Limited (CRPL), which the council set up to redevelop the town centre, but operated by Really Local Group (RLG) – an organisation that aims to regenerate high streets. It was home to three screens as well as a café, bar, food hall and free co-working space. There, alongside moviegoers, elderly visitors dropping by for a drink and some company would rub shoulders with remote workers tapping away on laptops, children playing in the library and toys corner, and local groups meeting for arts and culture events.
As a local, it’s been invaluable: affordable ‘mum and baby’ screenings let me keep up with the latest releases during maternity leave; and in the summer when my daughter’s fourth birthday party got rained off, the cinema manager let us use the space for free – welcoming our balloons, party games and excited preschoolers with open arms.
But when Lewisham Council-owned CRPL took back the keys to the premises and the venue was shuttered last Tuesday, a back-and-forth between the operator and the council began – while local Whatsapp chats, Facebook pages, school gate gatherings and pub table groups reeled at the news. The council claims that Catford Mews had ‘run up significant arrears in excess of £650,000 since opening’, and it and CRPL ‘simply cannot afford to prop up a private commercial organisation to this scale’. RLG disputes this and accuses the council of reneging on the offer of a new ten-year lease.
The news comes at a challenging time for cinemas. In 2020 there were 879 cinemas in the UK, but the figure has fallen to 825, according to the UK Cinema Association. A survey by the Independent Cinema Office last year found 45 percent of indie cinemas were operating at a loss.
The closure is likely to hit the local community hard. Many argue that the venue should remain open: a petition to save the Mews already boasts more than 8,300 signatures.
A spokesperson from RLG tells Time Out that the impact on its cinema staff has been ‘devastating’ and that ‘they do not deserve this’. Sixteen cinema jobs have been lost, along with five external food traders.
Catford Mews’ market hall area served as an incubation hub for ten food businesses, and it has employed more than 125 people since opening. Ticket sales since opening sit at 90,000 tickets per year and 180,000 visitors to the venue per year, RLG says. Adult ticket prices ranged between £5 and £8, with Saturday kids club screenings as little as £3.50.
Our venue has served as a true regenerator for the area
‘Our venue has served as a true regenerator for the area,’ says RLG’s spokesperson. ‘We think [this] will be extremely destructive and the final nail in the coffin of the Team Catford [a project to improve Catford town centre] initiative from 2016-17. The millions of people who have visited our venue will spend their money elsewhere.’
‘Devastating’ is the verdict of Carmina Masoliver, who has been running feminist arts night She Grrrowls at Catford Mews since 2022. ‘I feel really shocked as the news was so sudden and unexpected,’ she tells Time Out. ‘It’s been so much more than a cinema – it is a real cultural hub that brings the local community together. I don't think I will find anywhere else like it.’
Tanio Pizza opened in the market hall just a few months ago. Previously a pizza pop-up run by Lewisham husband-and-wife team Sebastian Eyre and Kara-Jessica Mallett, it set up shop at the Mews at the beginning of September. ‘To have a home where we both grew up was perfect for us,’ said Eyre. ‘We were so happy to be moving into a spot that's so treasured by the local community.’
Catford Mews has been so much more than a cinema
He said he and his wife are ‘absolutely devastated’ at the recent news, having quit full-time jobs, given up former market spots to other traders and ploughed almost all their savings into the Mews move. ‘It will be hugely missed,’ he says, describing it as an inclusive ‘vital third space’ that welcomed people ‘from all walks of life’. ‘What really struck us whilst we were there was how inclusive it was, people from all walks of life came through the doors.’
While for now Catford residents will have to travel to the likes of East Dulwich Picturehouse, Peckhamplex or Beckenham’s Odeon for the nearest cinemas – with the entire of Lewisham borough left without one – Catford Mews offered something else that might prove harder to find by hopping on the bus: a vibrant, inclusive and ever-evolving community.
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