LGBTQ+ Venue in the East End Saved by Fundraiser
August 2, 2022The Joiners Arms, a gay bar in Shoreditch, closed in 2015 when the site it was on was sold to a developer to be turned into flats. However, the venue is to be replaced after The Friends of the Joiners Arms launched a fundraiser which gathered over £100,000 to open a new venue.
While the developer had originally pledged that the bar, which had been a staple of queer activity in East London, would be replaced with another LGBTQ+ venue in the new development, this has yet to be realized. Having now raised the funds as a community business by selling shares at £25 a piece, the Joiners Arms intends to seek a temporary "pop up" venue in the surrounding area from which to host it's usual activities – drag performances, social nights, and more – as it seeks a permanent venue.
Amy Roberts, chair of Friends of the Joiners Arms, said: "We're ecstatic and we can't wait to see the dream become a reality. The group exceeded its fundraising target by asking people to buy shares in the new venture. It's incredible, we have been so blown away by the support we've received." However, she added while reaching the £100,000 milestone was a massive achievement for the community, "the Joiners didn't need to close in the first place."
When the property was sold for redevelopment, the planning permission was only granted by the local Tower Hamlets council on the grounds that a new LGBTQ+ venue was constructed on the site. When these plans were scrapped and redesigned, so was the requirement to fund a new venue. The developer has blame Covid-19 for the stall in development and stressed that it is keen to work with Friends of the Joiners Arms to try and restore the bar.
The race to save LGBTQ+ venues across London has intensified as record numbers of Queer spaces have been shut in the last decade (estimated at 58% in a pre-Covid study by University College London, although the impact of the pandemic is expected to have pushed the number higher), and Friends of the Joiners Arms has become a figurehead for this effort.
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