The old Lambeth Workhouse where Charlie Chaplin spent some of his childhood has been home to The Cinema Museum for 19 years.
Despite numerous attempts to buy the building over the years and promises in writing from SLaM (South London and Maudsley NHS Trust) that they would sell it to the Museum for a fair and independent price, they are now planning to sell at speed to the highest bidder, telling them The Cinema Museum’s lease expires in March 2018, implying that we can be easily evicted.
The Museum has never asked SLaM for charity – its prepared to pay a fair price to secure its home and its future so why does SLaM keep refusing to do that? The Cinema Museum is willing to work with potential developers to find a solution that provides affordable housing without destroying cinema heritage, our Museum and our important community-wellbeing work.
What SLaM may be forgetting is that the Museum is entirely run by volunteers at no cost to the public purse and it has a committed following – proven when the Museum recently won the Time Out Love London award.
We call on Dr Matthew Patrick and the board of SLaM, to keep their promise, be fair to the Museum who have provided vital community services (as well as housing the countries most significant collection of cinema memorabilia) and agree to work with us to find a solution that guarantees not just their sale profits, but also our sustainable future.
You can sign the petition, and I urge you to do so by following this link
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