Catford Mews is the third of its owner’s venues to hit financial problems in the past three months, The Greenwich Wire can reveal, a day after a Lewisham Council company repossessed the borough’s only cinema.
News of the cinema’s closure was met with a wave of shock after it was revealed that Catford Regeneration Partnership Limited (CRPL), which the council set up to redevelop the town centre, had taken back the keys to the premises.
Really Local Group (RLG), which operated the cinema, accused the council in a social media post of reneging on the offer of a new 10-year lease, and launched a “Save Catford Mews” campaign.
But Lewisham Council said in a statement on Wednesday that RLG had run up £650,000 in arrears in the five years since Catford Mews opened – and had requested that the lease was transferred to a new company that would be free of debt. RLG has disputed this, saying Lewisham had included sums that the company had not been invoiced for.
Lewisham said it had asked for an asset-based guarantee to ensure it could recover its cash, but RLG did not provide one. RLG had previously accused Lewisham of demanding “an impossibly large upfront payment”. It has gone on to insist that it offered such a guarantee.
“The council, or CRPL, simply cannot afford to prop up a private commercial organisation to this scale,” the council said. “It isn’t fair to local businesses who pay their rent and service charges, and it isn’t fair to Lewisham Council taxpayers.
“Much of what Really Local Group have said in their statement about Catford Mews isn’t true. Similar situations have been reported at sites run by them across London.”
Some 16 staff are thought to be affected, while a number of small businesses are also caught up in the affair, as the venue hosted a number of small food operators.
Lewisham said it would offer support to those affected, while Catford Mews said it would automatically refund cinema tickets.
A petition to save the venue had gathered over 4,600 signatures by 4pm on Wednesday.
But Catford Mews is the third venue linked to RLG to hit the rocks in the past nine weeks.
On August 27, Southwark Council announced a change in operator at Peckham Levels, a workspace, food hall and arts venue in an old car park off Rye Lane, after the company that ran it – Peckham Levels Ltd – went into administration with nearly £5 million in debts.
Really Local Group’s founder, Preston Benson, was the sole director of Peckham Levels Ltd. This was controlled by his company Intelligere Investments, which shared an address with RLG. Intelligere had bought Peckham Levels Ltd in 2021 for £1 after its previous owner hit financial difficulties during the pandemic, inheriting a lot of debt.
Peckham Levels Ltd had been lent £166,000 by RLG to keep the business going, and Southwark Council had considered taking a share in the business, an administrators’ report reveals. But the company was sold to The Trampery as part of a pre-pack administration, where the viable parts of a business are bought quickly to avoid the whole enterprise collapsing.
The Trampery, which now runs Peckham Levels, pledged to donate its first £20,000 of profits to businesses affected by the original company’s failure.
Then on October 5, the RLG company running the Ealing Project cinema in west London was put into liquidation with debts of more than £2 million, including £459,000 to its landlord at the Ealing Broadway Shopping Centre.
Really Local Group (Broadway) Ltd owed 15 employees a total of £16,000, according to Companies House filings. Film companies, food distributors and Ealing Council were also owed thousands, while its parent company, RLG, was owed £924,000.
The cinema remains open and is still offering memberships to local film-lovers.
Other sites run by RLG include the Sidcup Storyteller cinema, which opened alongside a new high street library last year. Bexley Council has been contacted for comment. RLG also runs Throwley Yard in Sutton and the Biscuit Factory in Reading.
The company has also been planning to open a cinema in the Hallsville Quarter development in Canning Town.
RLG said that have the cases of Peckham Levels and The Ealing Project had “little in common” with Catford Mews “as both of these venues still continue to trade with supportive landlords”. It said that Peckham Levels already had £4 million of debt when it got involved there and that it was “defamatory and outrageous” to suggest that it was responsible for the difficulties there.
Really Local (Catford Mews) Ltd’s last set of accounts, dated December 2022, showed that the company was £495,000 in debt, and owed £752,000 to a sister company in the group.
Lewisham Council said: “We recognise operations like Catford Mews were severely impacted during the pandemic. In response to this, CRPL provided a significant rent-free period.
“The council, in addition, chose to support Really Local Group with a total of £77,890 of additional financial support during this period. A £50,000 grant was awarded to refurbish the rear of the property and increase the offer, and therefore income, at Catford Mews. That work was never delivered.”
Lewisham said it was “exploring a number of options” to reopen Catford Mews and minimise the amount of time it is closed.
Really Local Group said on social media on Wednesday that Lewisham’s latest statement was “full of misinformation and spin”.
The Greenwich Wire attempted to contact the company by email on Tuesday evening and early on Wednesday morning but had no response; it later promised a “comprehensive response” via its social media.
On Thursday evening, RLG published a lengthy statement on its website, accusing Lewisham of issuing a “defamatory statement … the objective of which destroys the reputation of our company and deflects from the council’s responsibility for the closure of Catford Mews”.
“Under our lease we were responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the internal structure of Catford Mews, CRPL was to be responsible for everything else such as the roof and including the provision of security,” it said. “Sadly, this was not to be and over the past five years we have been forced to pour hundreds of thousands of pounds into the Catford Centre for maintenance, upkeep and security.
“it would appear that closing Catford Mews on half term week was intended to inflict maximum damage to our venue and to our reputation, especially whilst we were offering a number of community-based events including a Wild Robot themed colouring event for families and a screening of an indie film made by a local filmmaker.
“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. Our door is open.”
Story updated at 9.40pm on Thursday to include Really Local Group’s response.
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