Protesters in Prince of Wales Road

WHEN the plans for a new cinema in Kentish Town were first proposed, riding high in the box office charts was the second instalment of Peter Jackson’s epic tale, The Hobbit.

A decade later the story of the ghost-cinema has become a similarly lengthy yarn.

The cinema, in the former North London Polytechnic in Kentish Town, was a key part of a plan to build 12 homes on the site.

But while the flats have been fitted, curtains are no closer to opening on the much-anticipated picture house, nearly eight years after they were first mooted.

At the weekend, a protest called on the building’s owners Vabel to get bums on seats as soon as possible.

It joined together a range of civic groups, including residents’ associations from the Prince of Wales Road Kelly Street, Inkerman Road, The Bartholomew Road, Kentish Town Road Action and scores of neighbours.

Alan Morris, whose home shares a wall with the former assembly hall, has called on Vabel to accept a lower rent to enable a not-for-profit community cinema to be formed and manage the site.

He said: “It is galling, so we are going to do something about it. We want to use this to put together a community cinema.”

Ideas include Saturday morning children’s clubs, classic Western seasons, Golden Age Hollywood musicals as well as a contemporary art house, foreign language, blockbusters and films with links to the area.

The Kentish Town Neighbourhood Forum’s vice chairwoman Dee Searle said legal obligations should be completed before they are allowed to market the flats above. The homes are ready and being offered up for sale.

Ms Searle said: “The Forum supported the development on the condition it contained a cinema. We would support any enforcement. It is morally vital they abide by the agreement and find the operator who can run it.”

Back in 2006 a scheme came forward that would have seen the 1928 brick-built hall replaced with a chunky, pink and cream coloured Postmodernist block of flats. Uproar ensued, the Town Hall threw it out, and developers lost on appeal.

Then a new plan in 2015 was given permission on the grounds that there would be a cinema provided and the former Pizza Express was set to be redeveloped. The site had at that time been brought by developers Uplift who stripped out the interior.

Mike Sumner, Sue Odell, Alan Morris and Dee Searle join the protest

But the company ran out of funds and the building was again sold – this time to Highgate Road-based developers Vabel. Work has now been completed on the housing, but the ground floor and basement remain a concrete shell with the boxy outline of a cinema waiting for stalls and a screen.

Vabel director Jeremy Spencer told the New Journal: “It is super frustrating. We have put much time and effort in. We have done everything in line with the planning permission.”

Vabel signed terms of agreement with a firm before the pandemic. The Manchester-based company, not named publicly, saw the cinema as running at a loss but giving them a valuable landmark theatre in London

But, post-Covid, the new bill to kit out the cinema was estimated at £750,000 and the company said it was unviable and withdrew. Now the cinema is being marketed and Mr Spencer said he would welcome any offer from the community.

He added: “The issues are the state of the cinema market post-Covid. For example, Curzon has opened five screens nearby, and is not full. “The cost of fitting out, which an operator would have to pay, is another issue. Realistically, it is challenging make a one-screen cinema work – but we are committed.”

Curzon opened its new screens on the Hawley Wharf part of the redevelopment of the Camden Market – a process which was started and completed while all the haggling and changes of ownership have gone on at the Prince of Wales building. Mr Spencer is meeting with the Kentish Town Neighbourhood Forum to discuss what happens next.

He said: “We want a cinema too – but how does the community want it to work? If an operator doesn’t step up, do they want the space left empty? We are not asking for anything more than an acceptable and commercially viable rent.

“We are not trying to price out a possible operator. Even if someone did fit it out, invest and open, it has to be able to work for them in the long run. That is a high risk. Whatever happens needs to sensible and realistic.”

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