Yesterday (Monday July 29), more than 100 people congregated outside east London queer venue Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club to rally against its impending closure. The rally formed in the wake of news that the venue’s owners are planning to sell the club at the earliest opportunity, with the programming team being told to evict the premises by July 29.

After consulting their lawyers, the programming team has not yet left and, instead, with the help of entertainment trade union Equity, have launched a campaign to save the venue. The associated petition has already accumulated over 11,500 signatures. 

Equity are now in conversation with the venue’s owners, seeking to ensure that any future owners of the venue will be committed to continuing its crucial role as an LGBTQ+ performance space. In addition, the union hopes to give Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club’s community of performers and punters the opportunity to fundraise and buy the venue in shared ownership with these future owners.

More widely, this potential closure exists within a worrying trend of LGBTQ+ venues being forced to shut. In the mid-2010s, three iconic queer venues – George & Dragon, The Joiners Arms and The Nelson’s Head – all closed their doors within a year of each other. Yet further venues have been struggling following the coronavirus pandemic, suffering a massive drop in income during the lockdown period and spending still yet to return to pre-pandemic levels. 

“For the LGBTQ+ community, too many venues have been lost and we’re watching London become homogenised and sanitised”, warned London Assembly member Elly Baker, who spoke at Monday’s event. “If we continue to lose small venues, then we’re going to hollow out the eco-system of our nightlife and of our arts system, and it will crumble.”

Also present at the rally was Equity General Secretary Paul W Fleming, drag artist and The Bitten Peach co-founder Shay Shay, and representative of the Friends of the Joiners Arms charity and author of The Gentrification of Queer Activism Olimpia Burchierallo. 

Sign the petition here to help prevent the closure of Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club.