It’s official: Putney’s Odeon cinema has a rat problem. Food safety inspectors rated the cinema 1 out of 5 last month, after losing confidence in management.
When we visited on Thursday, the cinema was still displaying its old rating of 5 on the front door. When we pointed this out, the duty manager said there were “plans in place” but could not say what they were. More than 24 hours on, no one from Odeon has been in touch and the wrong sign is still on the front door.
The rating of 1 was given on 6 March 2026. The Food Standards Agency rates food businesses from 0 to 5: a 5 means very good, a 1 means major improvement necessary, and a 0 means urgent improvement is required and can trigger enforcement action, including closure.
The Odeon Putney is the only cinema in the chain with a poor rating in south-west London, with both Richmond and Wimbledon rated 5. The most troubling part is the confidence in management score: rated 20, the worst possible result in that category. That is the inspectors’ judgment that the problems are likely to recur and is what turned the score into a 1.
Odeon management knew about the rodent problem long before the inspectors arrived. The evidence is in their own Google responses, going back 18 months.
Eighteen months of rats, mice, and apologies
Lucy Parker visited in October 2024 and found mice running down the chair arms and under the seats. “We moved multiple times to try and avoid them, but they kept following us because we had popcorn,” she wrote in a review online. “When we told the cinema staff, they laughed it off and did absolutely nothing.” Odeon management replied publicly that they were working with pest control contractors to fix the problem.
A year later, in September 2025, two more customers reported mice running across the seats. Management replied to both, promising to address the issue. Two months after that Ashley Harding reported that it hadn’t been any progress: “Was once my favourite cinema, however MICE have become a serious problem to my experience.” Management replied the team was actively addressing it.
Then the inspectors came. The cinema was rated 1.
Three weeks later Akin Josiah sat down in screen 1 to watch the new Scream film. “In the next seat was a rat,” he wrote. “All movie I could hear the rats: little scratches and squeaks happening behind me. In the end I couldn’t finish the movie.” Management again promised that they were “taking immediate steps.”
Five public acknowledgments. Five promises of action. The March inspection came between the fourth and the fifth.
The other option is not much better
Putney’s other main cinema, Cineworld Wandsworth at Southside, carries a rating of 2.
It is better than the Odeon’s, but it tells its own story. Reader Anders Nielsen reported mouse droppings to the council back in January. Inspectors confirmed an active infestation that had been running for months, with pest proofing incomplete including inside the screen rooms. The council issued a warning letter and re-rated the cinema to 2. Cineworld scored better than the Odeon on management confidence, meaning inspectors found evidence of pest control plans being acted on. At the Odeon, they did not.
Anders emailed us with his experience: he had been at Cineworld on 16 January when the lights came up and he saw droppings on the floor. “On multiple occasions in the cinema we had heard loud squeaking sounds,” he said. “Someone sitting behind us had also heard squeaks on previous visits and mentioned it to the staff, but to no avail. The council was very good. They promptly visited the venue and downgraded their hygiene rating.”
Anders then switched to the Odeon Putney to escape the problem. The gnawing question was whether things would be better. They were not: he found it had a worse rating than the cinema he had left.
Check before you go
Check the hygiene rating of any food business at the Food Standards Agency website. Full records for Odeon Putney and Cineworld Wandsworth are published there.
To report hygiene concerns at a local food premises, contact the Regulatory Services Partnership, which handles food safety for Wandsworth, at foodandsafety@merton.gov.uk. Anders’ complaint brought inspectors to Cineworld within a week.
This is the third Putney.news investigation into food hygiene ratings in the area. The previous story visited Putney’s only zero-rated business. Businesses can requested a re-inspection when they have resolved any issues. We will report when either cinema is reinspected.
