Goldsmiths, University of London has pulled out of its planned move to Catford’s Old Town Hall, scrapping a partnership that was supposed to bring more than 600 students to the south-east London town centre from September 2027.
The university has told Lewisham Council it will not go ahead with moving some of its courses from Deptford to Catford when its existing lease ends next year. Instead, it plans to consolidate its estate on its New Cross campus.
Lewisham Council said it was blindsided by the decision after roughly a year of joint work preparing the Grade II-listed building for students.
A council spokesperson said: “We worked with Goldsmiths in good faith for around a year to prepare the Old Town Hall to welcome students from September 2027, so we are surprised and frustrated by this decision. We know how important this move was to the people of Catford and our partners.”
“This decision was made by Goldsmiths based on their own financial and strategic considerations following a change in university leadership last month. We made significant investment into the building to facilitate the move and officers were working on plans for the move right up until we received the communication from Goldsmiths that they would not be proceeding.”
“We will take some time to consider how to move forward in terms of the long-term use of the Old Town Hall, as part of our refreshed masterplan for Catford. We remain committed to revitalising the area and working with the community to bring genuine improvements to Catford.”
A year of work undone
The plan would have seen Goldsmiths take roughly 6,000 square metres of space in the Old Town Hall on a 10-year lease, housing graduate design and fine arts courses. The university had been looking for a new home after identifying that it would have to leave its existing facilities at the former Lewisham College site in Deptford, which is slated for redevelopment and requires an exit by July 2027.
Catford was presented as the university’s answer: a landmark civic building in a town centre the council is trying to revive, with the promise of student footfall boosting local businesses on the high street. Goldsmiths had been working closely with the council since last year to secure the space, and staff and services housed in the Old Town Hall were already moving to alternative venues.
The university’s interim vice-chancellor had described the partnership as a deepening of Goldsmiths’ civic roots in the borough, where it has been an anchor institution since opening in New Cross 120 years ago.
What it means for Catford’s rescue plan
The timing is awkward for Lewisham. The council only recently unveiled its updated Catford Town Centre Business Plan for 2026–2030, billed as a “rescue plan” for the district after a string of stalled projects. The new Goldsmiths campus was one of its headline regeneration projects, alongside 113 affordable homes and transport upgrades.
With the university out, the council must now decide what to do with a Grade II-listed building it had already started preparing for academic use, and which forms part of the refreshed masterplan for the town centre. The council has said it made significant investment in the building to facilitate the move.
Other London boroughs have found new uses for surplus civic buildings — Tower Hamlets, for example, is turning four Canary Wharf office blocks into 180 temporary homes — but an academic tenant is harder to replace. Repurposing a listed town hall will take time.
Catford’s regeneration has had false starts before. The town centre has been promised renewal for years, and local businesses had been counting on the student presence to lift trade.
The wider picture for London’s universities
Goldsmiths is not the only London institution reshaping its estate under financial pressure. Across the capital, universities have been reviewing campuses, merging courses and cutting jobs as funding squeezes bite — a reminder that ambitious London education institutions are having to make hard choices about where and how they operate.
For Catford, though, the loss is immediate and local. A town centre waiting for its revival has just lost one of the tenants meant to anchor it.
Goldsmiths had not published its own public statement on the decision at the time of writing. The council says it will now take stock and come back with new proposals for the Old Town Hall as part of its refreshed masterplan.
