Wilberforce Chambers features twice in The Lawyer’s Top 10 Appeals of 2026

London Trocadero v Picturehouse Cinemas and others

This appeal concerns a significant commercial landlord and tenant dispute arising from Picturehouse’s successful challenge to insurance rent payments made between 2015 and 2022 at the Trocadero Centre in Piccadilly Circus. In a May 2025 judgment, Mr Justice Richards held that insurance commission received by the landlords from their brokers should not have been included within the “premium” recoverable from the tenant, entitling Picturehouse to approximately £700,000 in repayments. The landlords now appeal that decision.

The case is of wide importance to the commercial property sector. The Court of Appeal is expected to consider the proper construction of insurance rent clauses, in particular whether “premium” excludes landlord commissions, as well as the availability of restitutionary remedies for unjust enrichment during the currency of a lease. The outcome may have far-reaching consequences for landlords who have historically recovered insurance costs on a similar basis, with potentially substantial retrospective liability at stake.

Jonathan Seitler KC, Benjamin Faulkner and Naomi Kilcoyne are appearing on behalf of the respondent, Picturehouse Cinemas and others, instructed by CMS partner Julie Gattegno and associate Jim Pang.