The company behind Catford Mews has blamed Lewisham Council for the closure of the cinema – accusing its management firm of not maintaining the building properly and even blocking phone calls about the venue’s future.
Really Local Group (RLG) was evicted from Catford Mews on Tuesday after Lewisham said the company had run up over £650,000 in rent arrears on the venue, which opened five years ago.
RLG has challenged this figure, saying it had spent over a quarter of a million pounds on repairs and security costs because of alleged negligence by Catford Regeneration Partnership Ltd (CRPL), the council-owned company that was its landlord.
It said it had been committed to paying off the debts, accusing Lewisham of attempting to “destroy the reputation of our company” with a “defamatory statement” issued the day after it was evicted.
The company said it had lost £930,000 through Covid, energy bills and disruption to the film industry, on top of the £1.4 million it had spent setting up the site.
“It is no secret how much pressure the cinema industry has been under of late and the fact that the council decided to make their incendiary statement on the same day that Cineworld announced the potential closure of 18 of their sites is very disappointing,” it said in a lengthy statement published on Thursday evening.
- Tuesday: Catford Mews closes as cinema repossessed
- Wednesday: Problems at sister venues and £650,000 debt revealed
Both the council and RLG have levelled accusations at each other since Lewisham revealed it had closed Catford Mews on Tuesday afternoon. It is believed 16 staff are affected by the closure, along with a number of independent traders who were based there.
But RLG has insisted that it wants to continue running the cinema and has told the council: “Our door is open.” Over 6,700 people have signed a petition to reopen the cinema.
Lewisham Council has long-term plans to redevelop the Catford Centre, with CRPL taking responsibility for the 50-year-old mall. Catford Mews opened in an old Poundland unit in 2019, and was at the centre of a strategy which encouraged creative businesses to come into the area.
RLG said it had been hit hard by the pandemic and acknowledged it had built £204,000 in arrears, but accused CRPL of not invoicing for another £168,000, and said it had not sent service charge budgets either.
It insisted it wanted to pay off its arrears, and added: “We note that any arrears would be lost permanently with the appointment of a new operator.”
RLG also took a jab at the state of Milford Towers – the council-owned flats above the shopping centre that are in a notoriously poor condition, which are also due to be knocked down and redeveloped.
“Like Milford Towers, the Catford Centre has been underinvested in and poorly managed,” it said.
“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. 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.”
RLG said it had to spend £94,000 on roof repairs, while CRPL’s lack of action had led to the loss of a tenant in the first floor studio, costing a further £84,000.
The company said it also had to invest £178,000 in daily security because of drug abuse and vandalism in its toilets, which the council directed members of the public to use, and because the Catford Centre’s own security team would not assist when its staff faced homophobic and xenophobic abuse.
RLG said it had considered walking away in March when there was a break clause in its lease, but decided not to because it thought it was about to sign a new deal which both parties saw as “an opportunity for a clean slate”.
While Lewisham had said RLG had not put up a guarantee that it would pay its debts, the company said it had offered to do so five times.
“Since 25 September 2024 we have made dozens of attempts to reach out to CRPL and local politicians to try and find a path forward,” it said. “Not only did we hear nothing back, but our number was blocked by CRPL officers, until the lease was forfeited without warning on 29 October.
“Furthermore, 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 film-maker.”
RLG also said it was “defamatory and outrageous” for Lewisham to raise problems at Peckham Levels, which it helped to run for three years after the previous operator had run up debts. Peckham Levels Ltd went into administration during the summer and a new company took over. It also said that problems at its cinema in Ealing, which has gone into liquidation, were unrelated as it was still trading with a supportive landlord.
The closure leaves Lewisham borough without a cinema, and follows the loss of two other southeast London cinemas – the Surrey Quays Odeon, for redevelopment, and the Bromley Picturehouse. The nearest cinemas to Catford are now in Greenwich, Beckenham and East Dulwich.
Catford Mews was Really Local Group’s first venue. Last year the company teamed up with Bexley Council to open the Sidcup Storyteller cinema in a new high-street library It also has cinemas in Sutton and Reading and has plans to open in Canning Town.
Lewisham Council has previously said it “simply cannot afford to prop up a private commercial organisation to this scale”. A spokesperson declined to respond directly to RLG’s statement, adding that the council was concentrating on finding a replacement operator.
Updated at 2pm on Friday with Lewisham Council response.
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