London’s first LGBT+ cinema to open in Bermondsey later this year

Simon Burke and Piers Greenlees, the duo behind Southwark queer pub The Rising SE1, plan to open cinema and cocktail bar The Arzner in a former Bermondsey picture house.

Burke said the LGBTQ+ venue would give visitors “access to arthouse and independent film.”

He told a Southwark Council licensing meeting on Thursday (September 12): “We are currently the only LGBTQ+ pub in SE1 and this to our knowledge will be the only LGBTQ+ cinema in all of London. This licence will allow us to operate a safe space for all in one of the most LGBTQ+ densely populated areas of the country.”

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The cinema in Bermondsey Square, South London will have one screen with room for up to 50 spectators. The full venue, including the bar, will have space for 150 customers. But Mr Burke said he would be ‘surprised’ if it ever reached full capacity. 

Kino Bermondsey, the space’s former occupant, shut down in January 2023 after not paying rent for 18 months. 

Plans were submitted to allow the cinema venue to be used as a shop, restaurant or fitness studio in autumn 2023, but were later withdrawn after Southwark Council advised the proposals were unlikely to be successful. 

Burke and his business partner Piers Greenlees opened the area’s first LGBTQ+ pub, The Rising SE1, in April last year. He said the addition of The Arzner would double the number of permanent queer venues in the SE1 district. 

A Southwark Council licensing committee gave the new cinema and bar permission to open until 11pm Sunday to Wednesday and until midnight from Thursday to Saturday at a meeting last Thursday.

A representative from a local residents’ association said she was ‘delighted’ that a cinema was planning to reopen in the space, but added that she had concerns about extra noise the new venue might create. 

In response, Mr Burke stressed that The Arzner was ‘not a club’. He added: “This is about having a safe space that people can predominantly relax in rather than being a loud live music venue.”