Save the Park Cinema, Hither Green

I'm glad to see our campaign to save the former Kids Korner (once Park Cinema) in Hither Green is getting some publicity. The Londonist picks up the story from This is Local London.

Our website can be found at hithergreenhall.org. To quote some of the background:

The bad news is that a planning application to demolish the former cinema and build a block of flats with a shop on the front has been submitted by a land developer.

Allowing this to be the end of the Kids Korner site would effectively be surrendering to someone else’s laxity, an easy option that furthers the decline of the area.

Its position on a busy junction on the high street is perfect for a community type of use but very poorly suited for quality housing. Not all desirable objectives can be fulfilled in one closely packed area and robust public amenities are more important for long term community cohesion than a few more flats.

The area has a dramatic lack of community facilities and youth provision and as such we support the use of the Kids Korner as a multi-use arts and community centre to include a performance space (which was the original purpose of the building) as well as other spaces for different uses so to allow as wide as possible use for the whole of our community.

The provision of a community centre is also the vision of the Hither Green Urban Design and Development Framework, and a recent audit of Youth Provision made by the Council found a complete lack of indoor spaces for activities for the youths in this part of the borough.

A community centre on the Kids Korner site will support trade as well as improve safety in the area because of the increased passage and its location at the gate of the Meridian South development will also act as a bridge across the community thus furthering community cohesion in the neighbourhood.