In news that made thousands of film lovers across London raise their fists to the sky and scream “nooooooo”, The Prince Charles Cinema (PCC) has announced that it’s facing the risk of closure.

Any time a beloved institution comes under threat in London, you know that a property developer will be there at the scene of the crime, and this time is no exception. “We are beyond disappointed that our landlords Zedwell LSQ Ltd and their ultimate parent company Criterion Capital, have demanded the inclusion of a break clause in our new lease,” the PCC wrote in an Instagram post. This means the cinema could be homeless with only six months’ notice if the landlords receive planning permission to redevelop the property.

The PCC has interpreted this demand as an attempt to “bully” it off the building once the current lease ends later this year, and accused its landlords of demanding a rent increase “far above market rates, at a level which no cinema proprietor would consider reasonable”. 

First opened in 1962, the Prince Charles Cinema is one of the few repertory cinemas in London, where alongside new releases you can watch classic films. Its celebrity admirers include Paul Thomas Anderson, who once said: “The Prince Charles has a place in my heart. It’s the people, the programming, the accessibility, feeling, texture… you cannot go wrong. You also know that on any given day, you can close your eyes, press your finger to the programme, and you’ll hit something great. It’s like tuning into your favourite radio station.” Quentin Tarantino has described it as a “mecca for lovers of quality films” and John Waters as “the most depraved and beautiful movie theatre in London.”

The PCC is without a doubt one of my favourite things in London, an opinion I share with many, many people. The programming is so fun and diverse: it’s one of the few places you can watch foreign-language art-house cinema, 1920s silent films and sing-a-long screenings of The Muppets Christmas Carol. For me there are few pleasures greater than having a random weekday off and seeing what’s on at the PCC: it might be Goodbye, Dragon Inn, it might be Scream 2, but as Paul Thomas Anderson says, you’re guaranteed to find something worth watching. 

It always seemed that Prince Charles was too good, and too eccentric, to be allowed to exist in the middle of London, right by Piccadilly Circus, so I’m not surprised that property developers are circling. But its loss is not inevitable. We don’t have to capitulate to an ugly, short-sighted model of urban governance which holds that profit-maximisation is the only thing that matters, or the forces that seek to rob London of everything that makes it an interesting place to live. You can sign the petition to save the PCC here.