Prince Charles Cinema saved by 25-year lease on Leicester Square

Time Out London reported on 15 October 2026 — a story still high on the site into the 17th — that Leicester Square's Prince Charles Cinema has signed a new 25-year lease with no break clause, securing its future after months of public campaigning. In January 2025 the cinema warned that landlords Zedwell LSQ Ltd and Criterion Capital were seeking a significant rent increase and had threatened to evict it with just six months' notice. More than 168,000 people signed a petition to save it, Westminster Council designated the venue an Asset of Community Value with support from the Soho Society, and the deal was finally confirmed in an Instagram post from the cinema. The Prince Charles, which Time Out ranks eighth on its list of the world's greatest cinemas, can now keep running its signature 35mm screenings, all-night marathons and cult programming for at least another quarter-century — a rare win for independent film in central London.