Help us save Curzon Mayfair cinema

Please help our campaign by objecting to the landlord's planning application

Thank you to everyone who has supported our Save Mayfair campaign so far. The landlord has now submitted a planning application to Westminster City Council to seek to undertake works for a new proposed mixed-use venue that would not include Curzon. We need our supporters to oppose this planning application to help save the Curzon Mayfair for local cinema lovers.

To do this effectively, we need your help to submit an objection to the planning application.

You can do this by logging onto the Westminster planning portal here and clicking the “Make a comment” tab to submit an objection to the planning application reference 23/06072/FULL.

Below is a list of reasons that you can quote to oppose the application. When drafting your response please chose a few from the list below to include in your comment to the Council.

Reasons to object:

  • The proposed change of use to convert the iconic Curzon Cinema into a “mixed-use premises” will completely undermine the Listed Building’s future viable use as a conventional cinema for the community, the use for which the building was designed.
  • The Curzon Cinema has been designated by Westminster City Council as an Asset of Community Value and the planning application’s change of use proposals will undermine continued community access to a fully publicly accessible conventional cinema with a choice of two screens.
  • Government guidance (2012) states it is open to Westminster City Council to decide whether the recent designation of the Curzon as an Asset of Community Value is a material consideration “if an application for change of use is submitted, considering all the circumstances of the case.” The change of use will undermine the basis on which the Asset of Community Value was put forward which was to safeguard the community’s use of the public cinema.
  • Curzon has been the long-term operator at its historic Curzon Street home for almost a century but the applicant has failed to engage with Curzon Cinemas in respect of these proposals. Neither is any other alternative established cinema operator associated with these proposals which must cast doubt on the viability of the proposals for the future of the Listed Building.
  • The Listed Building was specially designed to Curzon’s specification in the 1960s to function as conventional cinema not as a ‘mixed-use premise’.  The proposals will undermine the future continuation of the Listed building as a public cinema for the community, the purpose for which it was designed.  The use for which the Listed building was designed is the best use to secure its long-term future.
  • The application seeks to reduce the number of seats in the venue far below the current capacity. This will limit access to the venue by the community and will undermine the use for which the Listed building was original designed by virtue of introducing alternative uses. If the cinema is no longer economically viable this creates a substantial risk of it ceasing operation in the future, also to the detriment of the local community.
  • The Curzon is a major commercial anchor in the designated Central Activities Zone (CAZ) based on the existing model of operation. The reduction in seated capacity in the main auditorium will undermine the continued use of the venue as a West End destination for film premiers which require a sufficiently large capacity for the number of attendees involved.
  • The proposals are not required to safeguard the future of the Listed building and are actually likely to be detrimental to its future as a cinema for the community as recognised in the designation of the site as an Asset of Community Value.
  • The proposals fail to comply with the City Plan (2019 - 2040) in the absence of providing sufficient evidence that a reduction of seats is necessary for other improvements relating to its operation. Moreover, the current proposals demonstrate that through the retention of the existing two-screens that the reduction is not required to improve accessibility or visibility (noting that this justification has not been put forward by the applicant). 

We cannot let the landlord end the historic association of Curzon which has been on Curzon Street in Mayfair since 1934 and take the cinema away from the local community and film fans who have enjoyed it for many decades.

Thank you for your support for Curzon at this important time.

OBJECT TO LANDLORD