Iconic ‘secret' UK cinema famed for showing cult movies & loved by Hollywood stars ‘fighting for survival'
TUCKED away down an unassuming side street in London's famous West End is a "secret" cinema beloved by Hollywood art brats.
The Prince Charles Cinema opened 60 years ago as a regular theatre and then briefly a "film house of ill repute" where it showed soft porn.
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As time went on, the cinema - just around the corner from bustling Chinatown and towering ODEON multiplex - became famous for showing cult and hard-to-find movies.
In the 1980s it specialised in controversial horror flicks like The Evil Dead and even hosted the world premier of Hellraiser in 1987.
In 1991 it largely became a repertory cinema, specialising largely in older classics and second-runs of films a few years after general release.
It also regularly hosts sing-a-long versions of The Sound of Music and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
The Prince Charles has just two auditoriums, with capacity for around 400 people, and prides itself on being a time capsule of movie theatres from the past - before the multiplex invasion.
Hollywood A-list praise
Directors such as Paul Thomas Anderson and John Waters have praised the venue - with Quentin Tarantino, a major champion of edgy B-movies and grind house, calling it 'everything an independent movie theatre should be".
However, with the lease up in less than three months, its billionaire landlord Asif Aziz - dubbed "Mr West End" - has reportedly demanded double the rent, throwing its future into doubt.
Cinema managing director Ben Freedman told The Sun talks about the venue's future appeared to breakdown earlier this year.
He said: "We don't want to fight, to run a campaign. We want to run a cinema."
And for Mr Freedman and his staff they have unwittingly become the face of a fight for the soul of the West End itself.
The 64-year-old told The Sun that the area - fame as a glitzy arts hub - has been "hollowed out" as creatives are forced to go elsewhere in the city due to developers.
Hotel tycoon Mr Aziz is one of the biggest landowners in Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus, as well as being a philanthropist - his foundation funds community work, arts, culture and research.
But he's not popular at Prince Charles Cinema.
The bosses at the Leicester Square venue allege the rent increase is an attempt to get them out once their lease ends in September 2025, in order to shut the cinema and redevelop the property as a hotel.
And it seems that all of London - and all of Hollywood - has rallied to its defence.
Heartthrob Paul Mescal - who recently starred in blockbuster Gladiator 2 - called the potential closure "incredibly disheartening" and told GQ: "It's imperative that this cultural institution does not close its doors."
Christopher Nolan - the genius director behind Inception and Interstellar - proclaimed: " Film culture in Great Britain is unthinkable without the Prince Charles."
Westminster Council recently made the cinema an asset of community value, calling it a "cultural landmark that brings so much life, character, and cinematic adventure to the West End".
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Mr Freedman told us: "It goes back a couple of years when we first started talking about renewing our lease. In the first couple of meetings it was relatively friendly.
"Early last year it got to a point where they were trying to raise our rent. We had reports from surveyors and reports on the market rates and said what we thought the rent should be.
"But they wanted double. That was the beginning of this.
"Then there were talks about redeveloping the building. We put out the petition and got this incredible wave of support from our audiences.
"We saw this coming and put money aside a few years ago for this fight.
"But this isn't what we want to be doing. We don't want to fight, to run a campaign. We want to run a cinema."
He added: " Hotels are nice, but in the West End? What if it all turned into hotels?
"I've worked in Soho for 40 years. It's a community. It's an area that is unique - there isn't anywhere like it in the world. Not LA, not New York, nowhere.
"It is a place for creatives, for cinema, for the film industry - but everyone is moving out to different places across the city now. It's been hollowed out.
"The things that people used to come to the West End for are no longer here."
Hell of a fight
He said that central London seems to just be for tourists now.
But instead of giving into the weight of the ultra-wealthy landlord, the small cinema is determined to put up a hell of a fight.
And the film lovers of London have come out in full force to support it.
Mr Freedman said: "We have been very very busy recently. From people who haven't come here in a while to people who have never been.
"It is not a sense of sadness here, but more of standing up for ourselves. We want to stay in the West End. We want to continue to bring films to our audiences."
We have bent over backwards to try to negotiate with him. He doesn't seem to want to talk to us, he ignores us, then goes and makes out that he's the aggrieved one. It's frustrating.
Ben NeedhamPrince Charles Cinema MD
Referring to Mr Aziz, he added: "The spirit of our relationship…I have not enjoyed it.
"We have bent over backwards to try to negotiate with him. He doesn't seem to want to talk to us, he ignores us, then goes and makes out that he's the aggrieved one. It's frustrating.
"It's a consistent pattern here, we are not alone. And that is unfortunate.
"The support we have had has been wonderful. Our ticket-buying public have put their money where their mouth is."
Just 20 minutes down the road, the world's first YMCA club is fighting the same battle - against the same mega-rich businessman.
In February, members of Central YMCA exchanged heartbroken hugs as it closed its doors for the last time.
The huge 116,000 sq ft building on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, near the British Museum, was sold to Aziz's company Criterion Capital in December.
The YMCA club had 3,600 members and saw 10,000 people use it regularly and they fought to keep it open, even submitting a failed High Court injunction application.
Criterion has a luxury Zedwell hotel next door and the club members fear their community hub will be incorporated into the building.
David Bieda, who is in his 60s, used the YMCA three times a week.
He told The Sun what is happening with the YMCA and the Prince Charles is just the start of a wider problem in the city.
"What if this happened to every single community space in England?" he said.
"There need to be protections. It's happening all over the place.
"If the whole thing was demolished and turned into hotels then it would be far more profitable. But what happens to the community?
"It will have a big impact on those who use it. For the YMCA, people in their sixties like me go there a lot - it has arts, sports, pottery…all in one building. That is very unusual. I go to three classes a week there.
"We've all written to Asif Aziz. We've had no response. He's been trying to get this space for ages. It's happening all over the place."
The Sun has approached Mr Aziz for comment.
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