Sidcup Storyteller, a multi-use facility on Sidcup High Street that contains a library, café and bar, had to close its three-screen cinema in July after its operator Really Local Group (RLG) encountered financial difficulties.
RLG entered voluntary liquidation in January, but the cinema kept being run by the same team under a short-term licence until its final day on July 29.
The future of the popular local attraction was left uncertain until Bexley Council announced in October that the team behind Hackney’s Castle Cinema would be taking over.
The Castle is a two-screen cinema that opened in 2016 after 663 members of the local community contributed £57k to a Kickstarter campaign started by the cinema’s two founders.
The council worked with a cinema industry consultant expert—which cost them nearly £11k—and identified The Castle as a potential operator for Sidcup Storyteller and offered them a 20 year lease which includes taking over the Storyteller’s café as well.
The council said the aim for the next chapter of the Sidcup location was “for the refurbished café and cinema to share the same ethos, energy, and commitment to the local community of Sidcup that has helped Castle Cinema establish a vibrant venue in East London”.
Cabinet Member for Place Shaping cllr Cafer Munur said last month that the Castle announcement was “brilliant news”.
He added: “Finding the right partner for the cinema has been our key concern for this brilliant community facility.
“I feel confident that Castle Cinema will be a great fit for the cinema and for Bexley. I look forward to seeing people making their way to Sidcup very soon to catch the latest blockbusters.”
According to the Castle’s Sidcup website, the venue will reopen in early December.
The website states: “The renewed cinema will carry forward the same ethos, energy and deep commitment to its local community that have helped us thrive.”
Bexley Council has recently approved a payment of £37k to purchase fittings and fixtures within the cinema space that are still owned by RLG.
The payment from the council will be used to purchase the cinema’s 158 seats across its three auditoriums and other bits of infrastructure.
Council documents state: “Failure to do so would have rendered the facility non-operational with resulting cost and delay as the required equipment was secured and installed.
“Its inclusion enabled the council to offer an inclusive infrastructure package to the new tenant and any future tenant as well as becoming an owned asset of the Council with an intrinsic value.”
As well as this payment, Bexley Council has also approved plans to pay £77.6k to a finance company to purchase the venue’s cinema equipment, namely screen projectors and speakers. RLG took out a three year loan to take possession of this equipment when it took on the cinema in 2023, and as guarantor of that loan Bexley Council needs to settle it so the equipment remains in situ.
The council will then recoup the majority of this money via a year of monthly instalments from Castle which will total £72k.
Once a year has passed and Castle has paid the full amount, it will take over ownership of the cinema equipment.
