{"id":149293,"date":"2025-06-01T11:12:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T11:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/149293\/"},"modified":"2025-06-01T11:12:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T11:12:09","slug":"the-cinema-that-never-was-becomes-a-gym","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/149293\/","title":{"rendered":"The cinema that never was\u2008becomes a gym"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new gym at the old Pizza Express building<\/strong><\/p>\n

A SITE earmarked for a community cinema in Kentish Town has instead opened as an exclusive gym.<\/p>\n

For more than a\u00a0 decade, the former North London Polytechnic building on Prince of Wales Road has been at the centre of a planning saga after developers were given permission to build expensive new flats by adding an extra storey.<\/p>\n

The sweetener in securing consent was a pledge to get a picture house open on the ground floor.<\/p>\n

But after the original developers went bankrupt, a new firm, Vabel,\u00a0stepped in to complete the project \u2013 and said it spent years trying to find a viable partner to run the small cinema promised to planning chiefs.<\/p>\n

Vabel eventually applied for permission to change the use of the ground floor last year after saying they had reached a dead end.<\/p>\n

Now Drop Gym has moved in and opened its doors earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Neighbour Alan Morris, chairman of One Prince of Wales Road Residents\u2019 Association, has watched as the work to build the homes was completed \u00ad\u2013 but the downstairs remained a concrete shell.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cA \u2018private\u2019 gym, as it says on the door, has moved in. We are sad that Kentish Town didn\u2019t get its new cinema after so long a wait but I guess that the rent level that most developers would be seeking was always going to be challenge for any small independent cinema operator.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was ideal for a community cinema where running costs could have been lowered to the minimum, hence creating sustainability for the future, but that just didn\u2019t become a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said there was a palpable air of disappointment among many in the neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe first developer who started building on the site seemed committed to making a cinema happen as they started working with a small arts cinema provider at the outset, after the developer\u2019s public consultation on ground floor use voted for a cinema, but that relationship fizzled out once the second developer took over the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cCamden planners probably did their best with imposing a restrictive use class, but as is well known developers frequently end up achieving a relaxation on use class as happened in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Kentish Town still needed a communal space which was linked to the arts. \u201cThe high street desperately needs a meeting place like the cinema could have been,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, where do you find the kind of operator \u00ad\u2013 preferably within the\u00a0 community that could have made such a multi-use arts space come alive, and raise the money to achieve it? A tough ask.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think many of us still live in hope. Of course, we wish good luck to the gym operator, but you never know in a few years the space may become available again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Campaigners call for the original promise of the cinema to be met at a demonstration last year<\/strong><\/p>\n

The new gym call themselves \u201cLondon\u2019s Most Exclusive Gym\u201d on its website, adding that it keep user numbers capped to 15 at any one time so members can enjoy working out without having to wait for machines or lockers.<\/p>\n

It has not been involved in any of the planning negotiations or responsible for the change of use.<\/p>\n

Vabel director Jeremy Spencer was unavailable for comment this week but previously told the New Journal they had worked tirelessly to find a cinema operator, and had entered into contract talks with one independent firm \u2013 but the economics for managing a one screen cinema made it unviable and so a new use would be found.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new gym at the old Pizza Express building A SITE earmarked for a community cinema in Kentish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,5554,18393,393,4884,43189,257,18394,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-149293","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-community","10":"tag-dan-carrier","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-kentish-town","14":"tag-london","15":"tag-the-camden-new-journal","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114607813114969479","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}