Campaign to save popular London LGBTQ+ venue raises thousands in 24 hours
More than a hundred people showed up to a rally to save Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club in July 2024 (Jack Witek Photography)
A fundraiser launched to save Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club (BGWMC) from closure has raised more than £4,000 ($5,000) in less than 24 hours.
The LGBTQ+ venue in East London has been at risk since a two-month eviction notice was issued against it last June. Although that was successfully resisted, the threat of closure remains, and organisers are aiming to save the site with a community purchase of the building.
A fundraiser was launched on Tuesday (25 February) to finance the next stage of the campaign. It has six weeks to reach its target of £12,000 ($15,000), which, organisers say, will pay for a planning bid to “persuade Tower Hamlets Council to save the club”.
Campaign group Friends of Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, comprising locals, performers, programmers and trade union members, will reportedly use the money to “do a chartered valuation of the building, a robust business plan, and financial projections in order to develop their bid for the purchase”.
The group says it wants either Tower Hamlets to purchase the club and lease it back to the community group, or the council to allow Friends of Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club to purchase it themselves.
More than 100 campaigners attended a rally in a bid to save the club in July, and some 13,000 people signed a petition to prevent the loss of the venue.
Calling the potential closure an absolute tragedy, London Assembly member Elly Baker said: “For the LGBT+ community, too many venues have been lost and we’re watching London becoming homogenised and sanitised, and made expensive and exclusive for performers, and just for Londoners, and that’s not what London should be.”
Nick Keegan, a variety organiser for performing arts trade union Equity, which launched the petition to keep the venue open, described the club as a “crucial and irreplaceable fixture of London’s cultural heritage”, adding that it was “vital” to save the venue.
“A community purchase on this scale will be no small task,” Keegan said. “We are trying to be realistic about this. We believe a partnership between the community of BGWMC and Tower Hamlets Council does have the ability to achieve this.
“We believe it is essential to save this unique cultural facility and give it a chance to continue serving the local community, the LGBTQ+ community and the wider cultural tapestry of London for future generations.”
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