Campaigners have confirmed a location by which they’re set to open Lewisham’s first community-owned dwell music venue.
Sister Midnight kickstarted a marketing campaign, which was supported by Fontaines D.C., Porridge Radio, Goat Lady, London Night time Czar and DJ Amy Lame and Jools Holland in 2021, to save lots of the London pub The Ravensbourne Arms and convert it right into a community-owned dwell music venue for all ages.
The Lewisham pub had been boarded up since 2016, however the collective launched a bid to lift £500,000 – providing followers in the neighborhood the chance to carry a stake in what could be a not-for-profit grassroots dwell music pub.
Regardless of elevating £260,000 via group funding and donations and garnering 800+ buyers, the homeowners of the Ravensbourne Arms had been unwilling to promote, based on Sister Midnight.
Todays the day that we’re capable of announce our plans for a group owned music venue in Lewisham
We met with the Mayor @damienegan this morning to debate the location which is located within the coronary heart of Catford, all the small print will probably be revealed tonight at our group assembly 🧡 pic.twitter.com/NastwOJpf4
— Sister Midnight (@sistermidnightt) January 25, 2023
However the collective, who beforehand ran a venue in Deptford, have now secured plans on the derelict former working males’s membership, The Brookdale Membership within the Catford Centre.
“We’ve confronted some fairly enormous challenges with this venture, however we’re decided to see this via. Securing an area was at all times set to be the largest impediment, however with Lewisham Council’s help we’ve managed to attain above and past what we anticipated; securing a 7 yr hire free lease on an area that meets all of our wants and extra,” the collective’s Lenny Watson stated through a press launch.
“The brand new website has a lot potential to turn out to be a transformational cultural house for our area people. We will’t wait to get caught into bringing this constructing again into use once more,” added Sister Midnight’s Sophie Farrell.
Based on the collective, the brand new website has its personal personal out of doors yard, a 250 capability grassroots dwell music venue, a group cafe house and house for rehearsal, recording and artist studios on the higher flooring
It is going to additionally provide “multidisciplinary music and humanities programming that champions native expertise, inexpensive rehearsal and studio house, group occasions and a group cafe stocked with native produce, from beer to baked items.
Earnings may also be reinvested into the venue, based on Sister Midnight.
The collective beforehand defined how the pandemic-enforced closure of venues proved a “catalyst for realising that we would have liked to create a brand new house that was going to be sustainable within the long-term” with out the strain of getting to pay personal rents.
“Our mission is to create an area for dwell music that may be accessible, inexpensive and inclusive – and an area that may be extra sustainable towards the threats that may be posed to venues,” Watson advised NME on the time. “The pandemic was an enormous one. Individuals may argue that it’s not the very best time to be doing it, however I’d argue that there’s actually not a greater time to be securing the way forward for our grassroots music venues towards these sorts of threats.”
Watson defined how one of many largest threats to grassroots venues, even lengthy earlier than the pandemic, was personal possession.
“The truth that [venues] don’t personal their buildings doesn’t give them the extent of management that they want over them,” she stated. “We’re eager to have a venue that’s not owned by us, however by the group. This can be certain that the way forward for the venue is secure and within the fingers of the group for them to make use of and profit from.”