The Coronet Theatre in the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre will stay open another year, its lease was extended by landlord Delancey.
The property developer confirmed to the News that the Coronet’s lease agreement was signed last week.
Meanwhile it still anticipates that demolition of the theatre and the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre will take place in 2018, with a planning application for the new shopping centre development submitted “shortly”.
The Coronet’s director Richard Littman told the News: “As you know, we wanted to get a lease here for a long time. That wasn’t possible, but we are happy to stay here for another year, and so are all the groups that work with us.
“We have got 70 to 80 staff who are all delighted to keep their jobs for another year.
“Some of our regular partners are also really happy and are pencilling in dates for next year – we have had a flurry of bookings now. The doors are open for anyone to book events but the diary is looking good now.
“With loads of clubs closing down it affords different opportunities for people to come along, but there has been loads of venues our size diminishing really quickly.
“But it’s an old building and we would love for people to come down for the last time before we do close.”
A Delancey spokeswoman said: “We have recently agreed a new short-term lease with The Coronet which will see them remain on site through 2017. We are on track as per the planning timetable given at the public consultation and plan to submit an application shortly.
“As with any scheme of this size we have built in significant contingencies to address possible changes that may occur to the scheme but we anticipate that we will start demolition and construction in 2018 as stated at our Public Exhibition earlier this year.”