UPDATED Jeannine Angel has lived in Putney for 14 years and has run The Kitchen café at Putney Leisure Centre for ten. “This is my community,” she says. “This place feels like home.”
But after what she describes as months of pressure to leave, that home is under threat.
It started in May. Angel was told to close her café after Places Leisure, the company that runs the centre, said it had found problems during an inspection. She immediately challenged the decision. The next month, Places Leisure admitted there had been a “misunderstanding” and said she could reopen.
Five months later, the company still won’t explain what that misunderstanding was. And Angel is now in discussions about leaving the business she’s built over a decade.
Places Leisure said in a statement: “Over the past ten years, Places Leisure has worked closely with JDSR Ltd to support them and their business to operate successfully within some of our leisure centres. We have been and will continue to have discussions with JDSR Ltd to ensure the best outcomes for our customers, JDSR Ltd, and Places Leisure. Due to the nature of the discussions, we are unable to provide further information at this time.”
A family business with a good record
Angel is Venezuelan. She runs The Kitchen with her husband and daughter, making homemade Venezuelan food, fresh sandwiches, and handmade fruit lollies. The family operates three cafés across Wandsworth – at Putney, Tooting Leisure Centre, and the Latchmere in Battersea.
Food Standards Agency records show The Kitchen holds five-star ratings for food safety at all of them. It held a five-star rating at Putney when Places Leisure inspected it on 21 May.
That inspection is where the trouble started. Angel says managers arrived without warning on a day when she’d just learned some very upsetting news about her son.
“I wasn’t in a good place that day,” she says. “I asked them, if you find anything, just email me and I’ll fix it. I didn’t agree to close. But I felt I had no choice.”
Just before 5pm, Places Leisure’s general manager sent Angel an email. It said the inspection had found “multiple issues” and “serious failings under health & safety, including non compliance of legal responsibilities” relating to food safety and allergen rules. The email said Angel had agreed to close immediately.
That evening, Angel replied. “I would like to respectfully clarify that at no point did I agree to close the café,” she wrote. “This decision was taken by you… and although I did not agree with it, I felt I had no other option but to comply.”
Angel says she was told to shut immediately, though the company didn’t send her a formal inspection report until six days later. In the meantime, she was shut for reasons she didn’t understand.
Places Leisure wouldn’t answer questions about whether they’d given Angel advance notice of the inspection, what problems were serious enough to warrant shutting down a five-star café, or how they interpret the conflicting accounts sent on the same day.
The ‘misunderstanding’
Angel got a solicitor and a week later sent Places Leisure a formal complaint calling the closure “unlawful interference.”
Places Leisure’s legal team took another week to write back. That letter called the whole thing a “misunderstanding” and said Angel could reopen immediately. They also promised to give “a minimum of 48 hours’ written notice” before any future inspections.
Five months later, Places Leisure still hasn’t explained what happened. The company declined to say what it meant by “misunderstanding,” what went wrong, or why it needed to change its inspections approach.
Angel reopened the café. But the closure had already cost her losses totalling nearly £17,000. Soon after reopening, discussions began about her leaving.
The bigger picture
Angel thinks she knows why she’s being pushed out. Putney Leisure Centre is about to get a major refurbishment as part of a £24 million investment programme across Wandsworth’s leisure centres. We have previously reported that it will be transformed into one of the greenest leisure centres in the UK.
Council budget documents from earlier this year show £80,000 is earmarked for “Putney Leisure Centre Dryburgh Hall Kitchen refurbishment” in 2026/27. Places Leisure says this refers to a different kitchen space within the leisure centre, not Angel’s café.
The Putney work is part of wider plans. According to the contract approved by Wandsworth Council, Putney will get “general refurbishment and decoration, including reception area, café studio, soft play area, party room and health and wellbeing suite” plus improvements to the pool and fitness facilities.
“They have refurbished other centres – and put in a Costa Coffee,” Angel says.
She’s right. Places Leisure has installed Costa Coffee at three of its major refurbished facilities, including a £28 million centre in Eastleigh that opened in 2017 and a £22 million facility in Camberley that launched in 2021. At these flagship sites, Costa operates prominent cafés with extensive seating.
Places Leisure points out that both Eastleigh and Camberley are newly built leisure centres in different council areas, whereas Putney is undergoing a refurbishment of an existing facility.
The company maintains a different catering arrangement at most of its 100+ other centres nationwide, but the pattern at major new builds is clear.
Places Leisure wouldn’t answer questions about whether it plans to install Costa Coffee at Putney or what it intends to do about food and drink provision after the refurbishment.
Angel is clear that her problems are specific to Putney. “We have had no problems with the managers in Latchmere and Tooting,” she says. The three cafés are run by the same family company in the same way, but only Putney has been an issue.
What happens next
The café is still open. Discussions through solicitors are ongoing. Places Leisure says these are about finding “the best outcomes” for everyone involved, but hasn’t given details.
Putney.news sent Places Leisure detailed questions about the May inspection, what the “misunderstanding” meant, why procedures changed if everything had been done properly, and what plans exist for food and drink provision during and after the refurbishment.
The company declined to answer the specific questions, saying only that discussions with Angel’s company are ongoing through solicitors.
For Angel, what hurts most is the uncertainty. She’s spent ten years building this business and 14 years as part of Putney. Now she doesn’t know if she has a future here – and the company that admitted something went wrong in May still won’t say what it was.
“I’m just fighting for justice,” Angel says, welling up when she tells us that the leisure centre staff she’s known for years have stopped popping by her cafe because of a conflict she didn’t start or want.
“I want to stay but only under the right conditions and with the right treatment. But if they don’t want me here…” She stiffens. “If they don’t want me here, they have to pay me what is fair.”
UPDATE After publication on 20 October 2025, Places Leisure contacted Putney.news on the morning of 21 October with two factual clarifications.
First, the company states that the £80,000 “Dryburgh Hall Kitchen refurbishment” budget line in Wandsworth Council’s capital programme refers to a different kitchen space within Putney Leisure Centre, not the location where The Kitchen café operates. We have amended the article to reflect this clarification.
Second, Places Leisure notes that the two leisure centres mentioned in the article where Costa Coffee has been installed – Eastleigh and Camberley – are newly built facilities in different council areas, whereas Putney is undergoing refurbishment of an existing centre. We have added this distinction to the article for clarity.
The substance of the article – including the timeline of events in May 2025, the admission of a “misunderstanding,” and the unanswered questions about what that misunderstanding entailed – remains unchanged. Places Leisure’s full statement, provided before publication, appears in the article.
Thanks for this report, Kieren. The blind lack of a proper response by Places Leisure is disturbing, as is the apparent corporate decision to install Costa Coffee over the head of Angel. Good local journalism!
And what makes it worse is that Places Leisure isn’t owned by some heedless, greedy hedge fund but by Places for People, a social enterprise that is also a leading housing association.