Prince Charles Cinema: No Admission 25 Minutes After the Start

Turn up twenty-six minutes late and they will not let you in. Not reluctantly, not with a word to an usher. The door is shut.

“There will be NO admissions 25 minutes after the advertised time.”

Their capitals, not ours. No other cinema in central London publishes a hard number like that. Odeon and Cineworld will walk you in during the third act if you ask nicely; the Prince Charles will not.

And before that cut-off there is a softer rule worth knowing. Once the film has started the management reserves the right to refuse admission to latecomers, and at busy screenings latecomers may be asked to sit towards the back. So arriving ten minutes late at a sold-out Sing-A-Long-A does not get you the seat you booked.

The practical upshot: treat the advertised time as the time, because here it is.

A £15 membership buys 20 per cent off dinner next door

The membership is sold on cheaper tickets. The better value is in a list almost nobody reads.

Bone Daddies at Leicester Square: 20 per cent off food, for the member and three guests, or a table of four.

One discount per table of four, and larger groups are asked to contact the restaurant first. But run the numbers: a £60 dinner for four comes down by £12, which is most of a £15 annual membership recovered in a single meal, before you have seen a film.

The rest of the partner list, all requiring the physical membership card:

Forbidden Planet Megastore, 10 per cent, London Megastore only, non-sale items.

Bun House, 10 per cent, Chinatown only, lunchtime 12 to 4pm Monday to Friday, sit-in customers only.

Forza Wine, 10 per cent, Soho only, all week, lunch and dinner, maximum 6 guests per booking.

Cass Art, 10 per cent, Soho and Charing Cross branches.

Japan Centre, Three Lanterns and Lost Souls Pizza Camden, 10 per cent.

Tenmaru, 10 per cent, Oxford Circus branch only.

Every one of those is a walk from Leicester Place, which is the point: the cinema has quietly built a discount scheme for an evening out, not just for a film.

The concession membership is £12.50 and you cannot buy it online

A genuinely hidden price, stated once in a paragraph on their membership page.

“Concession Annual Membership (£12.50) is available at the box office only.”

So a student or senior buying online pays £15 for the same thing. The £2.50 saving requires walking to 7 Leicester Place.

The full ladder:

Annual £15. Lifetime £60. Annual 1UP £20. Lifetime 1UP £100. Concession Annual £12.50, box office only.

1UP lets one membership buy two discounted tickets per performance rather than one, which is the version for anyone who always goes in a pair. At £20 against £15, the second ticket discount costs £5 a year.

Lifetime holders can upgrade to Lifetime 1UP by paying the difference, over the phone or at the counter.

What the membership actually gets you

Minimum £2.50 off tickets per screening.

£8 weekday matinees.

15 per cent off all drinks and snacks at the bar and kiosk.

Regular £1 screenings.

Priority booking, with a pre-sale window they aim to make 48 hours, applied only to events they expect to be in demand such as Q&As and previews. Members can also buy non-member tickets in that window, so you can book for a friend.

At £2.50 a visit the annual membership pays back in six films. At £8 weekday matinees it pays back faster.

One limit to note: one member ticket per show, per membership, on the standard tiers, and discounts apply to cinema-curated events rather than external hires.

The complimentary tickets have four exclusions and a two-week blackout

Lifetime membership includes two complimentary tickets. Read where they do not work before you count on them.

Not valid for Sing-A-Long-As, All-Night Marathons, Double or Triple Features, or screenings with live Q&As or introductions.

“All new release films are Free-List Suspended during their first two weeks of release.”

Put those together and the complimentary tickets are for the repertory programme, not for the events the cinema is famous for and not for anything new. Which is fine if you knew, and annoying if you did not.

Gift membership vouchers expire 18 months after purchase.

Two screens, 850 films a year

The scale is the thing that makes the programming possible.

Downstairs: 300 seats. Upstairs: 104.

Over 850 films a year across those two screens, spanning the history of cinema, with over 250,000 customers a year and no public funding.

That is roughly two and a half different films a day, every day, from two rooms. No other cinema in the country programmes at that density.

Westminster made it an Asset of Community Value

Worth knowing because the cinema’s future has been genuinely in doubt.

On 1 May 2025 Westminster Council included the Prince Charles Cinema in its list of Assets of Community Value under section 87 of the Localism Act 2011, making it only the sixth asset currently holding that designation.

The Council’s letter said the cinema “is distinguished from other local cinemas by means of its independent ethos, unparalleled programming and a close relationship with the local community”.

The underlying dispute is the lease. Under section 26 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 the cinema is legally entitled to a new lease at market rates unless the landlord can prove specific conditions, and it applied at the earliest opportunity. The designation is a recognition rather than a resolution, and the cinema says the fight for a long term lease continues.

There is a petition and a dedicated email address, both on their own site under #SaveThePCC.

Where it is, and the thing people get wrong

7 Leicester Place, London WC2H 7BY.

North east corner of Leicester Square, up from the church of Notre Dame de France and the Leicester Square Theatre. Their own direction is the best one: “If you end up in China Town you went too far.”

Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus are the stations.

It is not the Leicester Square Theatre, which is a different venue on the same short street and the source of a steady stream of people in the wrong foyer.

Box office 020 7494 3654, open 2pm to 8.30pm. Tickets can be booked online, over the counter or by phone at any point in the programme.

One honest flag: checked on 6 October 2026, the Pricing link in their own footer returns a 404, so standard ticket prices are not readable on the site outside the booking flow. The membership page is where the numbers are.

How to plan it

Be there on time. No admission 25 minutes after the advertised start, and latecomers may be moved to the back.

Student or senior: buy the membership at the box office, where it is £12.50 rather than £15.

Always go in a pair: take 1UP, £20 a year for two discounted tickets per show.

Eating first: Bone Daddies at Leicester Square, 20 per cent off food for a table of four with a membership card.

Cheapest film: an £8 weekday matinee, or watch for the regular £1 screenings.

Lifetime complimentary tickets: repertory only. Not marathons, sing-alongs, double bills, Q&As, or anything released in the last fortnight.

Looking for the Leicester Square Theatre: it is not this building.

Prince Charles Cinema

Address

7 Leicester Place, London WC2H 7BY, at the north east corner of Leicester Square

Nearest

Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus

Hours

Box office 020 7494 3654, 2pm to 8.30pm. Programme runs across two screens with over 850 films a year

Booking

Online, over the counter or by phone at any point in the programme. Members get a pre-sale window of around 48 hours on high demand events

Price

Membership 15 pounds a year or 60 lifetime, 1UP 20 and 100, concession annual 12.50 at the box office only. Members get a minimum 2.50 off per screening, 8 pound weekday matinees, 15 per cent off bar and kiosk and regular 1 pound screenings

Standing

One of the last independent cinemas in central London, 300 seats downstairs and 104 upstairs, over 850 films a year and 250,000 customers, with no public funding

How to get in

There are no admissions 25 minutes after the advertised start time, and latecomers before that may be refused or seated at the back. The concession membership at 12.50 pounds can only be bought at the box office, not online. Membership includes 20 per cent off food at Bone Daddies Leicester Square for a table of four, which recovers most of the annual fee in one dinner. Lifetime complimentary tickets are not valid for sing-alongs, all-night marathons, double or triple features, Q and A screenings, or any new release in its first two weeks. Designated an Asset of Community Value by Westminster Council on 1 May 2025, only the sixth asset with that status.

Where to go next

Soho covers the streets around it, and London at night covers getting home after a marathon.

The restaurants page and the bars cover where the membership discounts apply.

Questions we get asked

How late can you arrive at the Prince Charles Cinema?

There are no admissions 25 minutes after the advertised time, stated in capitals on their own FAQ. Before that point the management reserves the right to refuse latecomers once the film has started, and at busy screenings latecomers may be asked to sit towards the back rather than in their booked seat.

How much is Prince Charles Cinema membership?

£15 for a year or £60 for a lifetime. The 1UP versions, which allow two discounted tickets per performance on one membership, are £20 and £100. A concession annual membership is £12.50 but is only sold at the box office, not online. Lifetime membership includes two complimentary tickets.

What do you get with Prince Charles Cinema membership?

A minimum £2.50 off tickets per screening, £8 weekday matinees, 15% off all drinks and snacks at the bar and kiosk, regular £1 screenings, priority booking of around 48 hours on high demand events, and discounts at local businesses including 20% off food at Bone Daddies Leicester Square for a table of four.

What can Prince Charles Cinema complimentary tickets be used for?

Regular screenings only. They are not valid for Sing-A-Long-As, All-Night Marathons, Double or Triple Features, or screenings with live Q&As or introductions, and all new releases are free-list suspended for their first two weeks, so they cannot be used on anything recent either.

How big is the Prince Charles Cinema?

Two screens: 300 seats downstairs and 104 upstairs. Across those two rooms it programmes over 850 films a year and takes over 250,000 customers, with no public funding, which is the highest programming density of any cinema in the country.

Is the Prince Charles Cinema closing?

Its lease has been in dispute. On 1 May 2025 Westminster Council designated the cinema an Asset of Community Value under section 87 of the Localism Act 2011, only the sixth asset currently holding that status. The cinema says the fight for a long term lease continues, and under section 26 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 it is entitled to a new lease at market rates unless the landlord proves specific conditions.

Where is the Prince Charles Cinema?

7 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BY, at the north east corner of Leicester Square, up from the church of Notre Dame de France. Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus are the nearest stations. It is not the Leicester Square Theatre, which is a separate venue on the same street.