Goldsmiths University has scrapped plans to move 600 fine art and design students to Catford – only nine months after a deal was announced with Lewisham Council.
The courses were due to move to the Old Town Hall next summer from their current base at the old Lewisham College site at Deptford Bridge, which is at the centre of controversial redevelopment plans.
But Lewisham Council announced on social media on Friday afternoon that it was “surprised and frustrated to learn” that the plans had been scrapped.
Goldsmiths would instead be moving courses to its main campus in New Cross, the council said. The university has made no public statement of its own.
Like many higher education institutions, Goldsmiths has been suffering from financial difficulties for some time, with plans to cut £22 million from its budget by the end of this academic year.
Teaching staff who have been threatened with redundancies have been on strike since June, while a marking boycott led to graduates receiving their marks late. The strike is the longest ever walkout in UK higher education.
A new vice-chancellor, Joanna Newman, took over last month.
The plans for a Catford campus were announced in January, when Lewisham Council was under Labour control. It had hoped the students’ arrival would help boost Catford town centre, where plans for regeneration have suffered a series of setbacks. The Greens won control of the council in May.
Last month a paper to the council’s cabinet said the plan, called Project Catford, was “a strategically important initiative”, but noted that the lease was yet to be signed.
A spokesperson for the council said: “We worked with Goldsmiths in good faith for around a year to prepare the Old Town Hall to welcome students from September 2027, so we are surprised and frustrated by this decision. We know how important this move was to the people of Catford and our partners.
“This decision was made by Goldsmiths based on their own financial and strategic considerations following a change in university leadership last month. We made significant investment into the building to facilitate the move and officers were working on plans for the move right up until we received the communication from Goldsmiths that they would not be proceeding.”
The council said it would “take some time” to consider the future of the building, which is currently home to NHS teams and an employment and skills company.
Goldsmiths pulling out of the deal follows the Green-led council scaling back plans to redevelop Catford town centre last month, shelving plans to demolish the shopping centre and homes at Milford Towers and opting to retrofit them instead.
Last month it emerged that a lease had not yet been signed for the planned Castle Catford cinema, even though the cinema’s arrival had been announced by the council in February, three months before the election.
Underneath the Instagram post announcing the end of the Goldsmiths deal, Daniel Dream, the cabinet member for inclusive regeneration responsible for the Catford plans, left the response: “Gutted.”
The news came in the same week that the developer Landsec shelved major plans to redevelop Lewisham Shopping Centre after Liam Shrivastava, the borough’s elected mayor, demanded an increase in social housing in return for council help in taking control of land to make the scheme happen.
Ese Erheriene, the Labour opposition leader in Lewisham, said: “Goldsmiths pulling out of Catford is the second major blow to our borough in a week.
“This partnership, announced under Labour, would have brought more than 600 students and new footfall for local businesses in Catford, breathing new life into our high street for the next 10 years.
“The mayor must explain when he knew the campus was at risk, what he did to keep Goldsmiths in Catford and why those efforts failed.Protecting this partnership should have been a priority. Residents deserve answers and a credible plan to replace the opportunity Catford has lost.”
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