Only three days after its launch, a petition designed to convince landlords of popular demand for a cinema and arts hub in Palmers Green is well on its way to accumulating 2500 signatures.
The online petition on change.org was started by the Palmers Green Action Team and expresses the frustration felt by the team's members and by a potential cinema operator at the unwillingness of landlords who own suitable properties in PG to lease them out.
Calling local people! A message from Palmers Green Action Team
We need you, local people, to tell us what having a space like this would mean for our community, for all residents old and young. Please sign the petition, leave a comment, tell your neighbours, colleagues and friends about our campaign. And if you know the owners of those commercial properties, talk to them, we need a willing landlord who can become a champion for Palmers Green Cinema!
A cinema has long been one of the items on the wish list of the PG Action Team, who see it as fitting the manifesto that they set out to achieve when they formed five years ago:
A high street that serves the community, to make the area the best it can be.
However, up till now, for fear of disappointing PG residents, the Action Team have kept their work to bring a cinema to our high street "under the radar":
"There have been conversations with various operators, developers, and landlords; we have come very close, but we’ve never got it over the line. But now, waiting in the wings, is a highly experienced operator, Sam Neophytou, owner of Arthouse Cinema in Crouch End. He sees the huge potential in Palmers Green."
The Crouch End Arthouse is a truly independent cinema and live performance space that Sam says has played a huge role in the area's cultural and economic regeneration. He's keen to bring the same benefits to Palmers Green, but after four years of trying to lease a unit on our high street and despite a ready, attractive commercial deal on the table, he has been unable to secure a space for the business.
The Action Team say this makes no sense:
"Anyone who lives in Palmers Green knows that there are several large sites that are prime for development, but for a myriad of reasons these huge units remain empty and Palmers Green continues without that jewel our high street so deserves. And we know that when a major business like a community cinema comes to town, more interesting shops and traders will follow."
Local MP Bambos Charalambous is fully onside:
"I am hugely supportive of the campaign to bring an independent art cinema to Palmers Green. I believe it will be great for the local area and will help to rejuvenate our high street after a difficult few years during the pandemic. I am confident it will be a unique local space for everyone in the community to enjoy and I will support every effort towards making this a reality."
So what is it that, thanks to uncooperative landlords, we're missing out on? A lot more than just a cinema. Sam Neophytou points out the wealth of varied cultural opportunities that an Arthouse could bring to PG:
"By mixing the world of film, fine art, live music, discussion groups, theatre, live streaming from the Royal Shakespeare and National theatres, workshops, dance, comedy and whatever else that inspires, we strive to create a unique arts hub in Palmers Green for both artists to feel inspired and lovers of the arts to be thoroughly entertained and moved."
