Royal Vauxhall Tavern - news and discussion

[Reno]

Doesn't look too good.

Vauxhall Tavern ‘set to be sold to chain that closed gay cabaret bar’

 

[friendofdorothy]

£30,431raised of £30,000 target by 808 supporters

But hey RVT Future has raised enough for their first target.

Not sure if this is fast enough to organise a rival bid. but fingers crossed x

 

[han]

The latest is that Innovate have pulled out of the sale, I hear.

 

[editor]

The latest is that Innovate have pulled out of the sale, I hear.

Oh I do hope so.

 

[stethoscope]

Off to the RVT this Saturday for the first time in quite a few years, excited

 

[friendofdorothy]

News! just received this email:

Join us on Wednesday 13th September for an update and a Q&A session

Please join us at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern at 8.30pm on Wednesday 13th September for an update on the campaign plus a Q&A session.

Join RVT Future for a drink, an update and news on the upcoming launch of our Community Benefit Society - which will allow YOU to buy a share in the Tavern!

Find out what’s been going on behind the scenes at RVT Future over the last year, including how we’re spending our crowdfunded cash, why we’ve chosen this benefit society model and the next steps towards a community-owned Royal Vauxhall Tavern.

As well as a Q&A with members of the RVT Future team, we’ll be there to chat after the meeting - and we want YOUR views, hopes and ideas for the future of the Tavern. Indeed, it wouldn’t truly be a space for the community without them.

We’re a small team who’ve made a BIG impact since 2014 - but we still need YOUR help to achieve the dream of a community-owned Tavern. We need your money, skills and time more than ever. Investors, fundraisers, PR types, and more - we need your talent now, so don't be backwards in coming forwards!

This autumn, it’s all hands on deck.

 

[friendofdorothy]

I intend to go along - I want to know what is happening. Anyone else want to go?

 

[19sixtysix]

I intend to go along - I want to know what is happening. Anyone else want to go?

Can you report back please. I maybe 400 miles away but I'm still a member and very much interested in help keeping the old girl alive and kicking.

 

[friendofdorothy]

On my way!

 

[friendofdorothy]

Interesting meeting and a good turn out for a chilly wednesday evening with no entertainment on.

Planning conditions that have been hard won, would make it nigh on impossible for the nature of the business to change from being a community venue + pub + entertainment nightclub, so the RVT couldn't easily become just a pub, or just restaurant, or just a night club - not with out Lambeth contacting all 1200 people who submitted evidence to them. This means it's almost impossible for Inovate, the freeholders to find more profitable leaseholder. They are a property development company, they can't demolish it, build on it or change it into flats and they are not in the business of freeholding venues. RVT Future is a thorn in their side. So hopefully their best option is to sell RVT to the community. Least I hope so. Price will be subject to hard negotiation (but I guess will be £ millions)

The idea is for the community to buy the building and to keep the existing leaseholder, who runs the venue, in place. If they are ever to be replaced it will have to be with a similar sort of queer bar.

They are still in the process of registered the Community Benefit Society. It's an arcane type of co-op set up that will allow community owernership. When all the formalities are complete, which should be soon, the society will be able issue legal shares that can't be traded or passed on, so control of the building can never slip away from the community ever again. A share will start at £250. The organisation will be democratically run with elected directors. At the moment youngish gay white men with beards are well represented in RVT Future, so they are keen to get more people of every gender/background/etc involved.

There will be more detailed info/ legal stuff issued by email shortly and I'll post it up.

 

[han]

Thanks for the excellent report, friendofdorothy! I would have gone to the meeting but was in España then.

So the next step is community ownership, clearly, but will Innovate sell the RVT to the community benefit society, and how do we encourage them down that road, I wonder....

Clearly the status quo isn't going to be profitable for them. Hopefully they can see we're never going to give up, and sell. But could someone else buy it or would they have to sell to us? ('Us', meaning the Community Benefit Society, of which I definitely want to be a part).

 

[friendofdorothy]

Thanks for the excellent report, friendofdorothy! I would have gone to the meeting but was in España then.

So the next step is community ownership, clearly, but will Innovate sell the RVT to the community benefit society, and how do we encourage them down that road, I wonder....

Clearly the status quo isn't going to be profitable for them. Hopefully they can see we're never going to give up, and sell. But could someone else buy it or would they have to sell to us? ('Us', meaning the Community Benefit Society, of which I definitely want to be a part).

I'm not sure but as I understand it, it would be difficult to sell to anyone else - without planning permission or the possibility of permission the place isn't as attractive as it was when the current owners bought it.

I'm glad you want to be a part of the community benefit soc. I hope a lot of us do. I'm still waiting to receive the document they would send out to everyone at the meeting.

Best thing to do in the meantime is to spread the word - once shares are issued they will need to sell a lot of them - so tell everyone you know who might be interested.

 

[friendofdorothy]

Have finally heard from RVT future -the latest financial report is online.

Quarterly finance report 2

Hello ,
Your RVT Future update and finance report

Thank you again for your continued support for RVT Future. It means everything to us. On our website you’ll find info on the campaign’s finances from May-October 2017. We’ll normally report every three months, so apologies for the lateness of this update. You’ll be able to find this and all future financial reports on our website rvt.community.

Right now, we’re busy working with Dave Boyle of The Community Shares Company, getting our ducks in a row so that we can launch the community share sale - Britain’s biggest ever community pub buy-out! - early in 2018. Dave, who will be managing the next steps of our campaign, is director of The Community Shares Company, which is the community shares partner of prominent crowdfunding site Crowdfunder. We’re in safe hands.

A community-owned RVT is backed by both Lambeth Council and the Mayor of London. James Lindsay, the CEO of Vauxhall Tavern London Ltd, the company that currently operates the RVT, has also given us his support. We’re working well with him, making sure everything he and his team have brought to the RVT we all love, is protected and has a thriving future.

Our second financial report covering the period 1/5/17 - 31/10/17 is on our website.

You can help!

We'll be running a training session for community fundraisers soon - please get in touch at [email protected] if you'd like to attend.

We're also looking for performers, punters and promoters to appear in a campaign video. If the RVT has played a role in your professional or personal life please get in touch at [email protected]. We're also looking for visual materials that feature the RVT.

And we're always looking for people with time and/or money to help the RVT Future campaign – if you think there’s a way you could help please email us [email protected] and let us know!

You’ll be the first to hear RVT Future news through this website and our mailing list, but don’t forget to follow us on social media – @RVTFuture on Twitter and Facebook.com/RVTFuture – for updates as they happen.




Copyright © 2017 RVT Community, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website.

Our mailing address is:

RVT Community
RVT Community
London, London London
United Kingdom

 

[friendofdorothy]

Did we have another more recent thread on this somewhere? Anyway it had all gone very quiet on the RVT front for ages, with some people thinking it was already saved - but its not. Finally an update:

Spring 2019 update

Hello,

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Read on for the latest news from RVT Future.

RVT FUTURE SO FAR

We’ve achieved a phenomenal amount since Austrian property developers Immovate bought the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in 2014. Though - as we have to remind the press! - the Tavern isn’t ‘saved’ as such, we have fought for and won the following legal protections:

• Grade II listing (the first building to be listed for its LGBTQ+ historical and cultural significance)
• Asset of Community Value
• Sui Generis planning status
• Extension to the Lambeth Conservation Area to include the RVT

These combine to create a powerful web of planning restrictions which, along with the press attention we have garnered, have helped keep the Tavern operating as the unique pub, club, performance venue and home for the LGBTQ+ community we all know and love.

Last November, the Royal Vauxhall Tavern’s existing leaseholder - Vauxhall Tavern London Ltd - signed a new 20-year lease with Immovate. This should lend some stability to the situation, but RVT Future strongly believe that the Tavern is not ‘saved’ until it is owned by the community.

So the situation as it stands is: We don’t trust Immovate with the RVT (they wanted to demolish it and build a hotel!). Immovate have thus far turned down our approaches to buy the Tavern - they are unwilling to engage until we’ve raised enough capital but won’t tell us how much. And even if they would sell to us, our judgement right now is that we’re in need of a big donor or lender to kickstart the campaign, or the full-time leadership and project management capability to run a successful multi-million pound fundraising campaign.


THE SITUATION AS IT STANDS

In March 2017 we raised £30,000 from our incredible community here in London and around the world, to help us launch a buy-out bid for the Tavern.

A proportion of that money has been put to great use; the remainder is still available, to help see this project through to conclusion. You can find the latest financial update on our website here.

So far, as well as the planning restrictions we have secured, we have:

(a) Taken advice on what legal form would best support a community buy-out, and engaged The Community Shares Company Ltd to consult - they are the expert in this field.

(b) Determined that a community benefit society, regulated under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, is the most appropriate vehicle.

(c) Set up a society and drawn up a set of rules for it, and appointed initial directors.

(d) Successfully sought approval of the rules from the relevant regulatory authorities.

The rules and directors of Vauxhall Tavern Community Benefit Society Limited are available via the FCA's website here.

We are proud to say this means that the legal and regulatory groundwork is now in place for a community buy-out.

A bridging loan or a major early investor would move things forward radically. But neither of those things is going to fall into our lap. And so to bring community ownership into reality, RVT Future needs some fresh blood. The skills and energy of our contributors have taken us a long way, but to launch a community buy-out we need to add fundraising, project management and other skills to the mix. If this sounds like you - and most importantly, you share our passion for the future of the Royal Vauxhall Tavern - we want to hear from you!

WHAT’S NEXT AND
HOW YOU CAN HELP

We want to make RVT Future as open, welcoming and transparent as possible. Whether you feel you could join RVT Future in a leadership role, attend an open meeting or just want to share feedback, we’re listening and we can’t wait to hear from you.

The executive committee of RVT Future
Alice Beverton-Palmer
James Cronin
Dicky Eton
Sir Richard Heaton
Rob Holley
Thom Shaw
Ben Walters



Copyright © 2019 RVT Community, All rights reserved.

 

[editor]

I DJd there last night. It's such a brilliant, unique venue.

 

[19sixtysix]

I DJd there last night. It's such a brilliant, unique venue.

Did you play at Duckie?

 

[editor]

Did you play at Duckie?

Yep. What a night! I'll post pics later.

 

[19sixtysix]

Cool.

 

[editor]

The sound & lighting there is bloody fantastic. And they let me loose on the smoke machine

In photos: Brixton Buzz DJs at Duckie, Royal Vauxhall Tavern, south London, Sat 1st June 2019

 

[editor]

Love the RVT

Lambeth grant helps legendary gay pub The Royal Vauxhall Tavern come through the coronavirus crisis

After The Royal Vauxhall Tavern (RVT) was named one of the ‘most at risk’ Lambeth businesses when it closed to help prevent the spread of Covid infection, Lambeth have responded by awarding the ven…

www.brixtonbuzz.com

 

[PR1Berske]

Image and direct tweet below. Having shut down during Eurovision weekend, there appears to have been ongoing narrative resulting in this.

Never a quiet year in the history is the RVT, as the search function of this forum showed me prior to starting this thread.

 

[19sixtysix]

I think they were looking to move on. Last weekend maybe just made the decission easier.
Now comes the uncertainty of the future.

 

[editor]

Here's a thoroughly depressing update from the people behind the wonderful Duckie nights:

After running every Saturday night for 27 years, Duckie left the Royal Vauxhall Tavern two years ago, after being constantly browbeaten by owner James Lindsay to make more money on the bar. Do you remember Duckie at the RVT? You couldn’t move in there

James Lindsay sold the pub to property developers ten years ago and made a packet. He now wants to ‘sell the lease’. It is eye-wateringly expensive – he wants to be paid £1.75 million as an upfront premium to vacate the property plus there’s an annual rent of £130,000 to the real owners.

This cost plus business rates, energy, stock, staff, talent, PRS, promotion, security, etc, makes the business model unsustainable. What mug is going to take this on in the current climate? Young people don’t drink like they used to when Duckie was in its heyday, they can’t afford to

The only way the Royal Vauxhall Tavern can survive is to be taken over by a community trust. It’s a wonderful building with a wonderful history and its soul doesn’t belong to the asset stripping James Lindsey. What kind of pub has a CEO FFS? Like London, the RVT is an old whore being used, abused and f*@**d over by the capitalist class

Here’s an alternative plan:
1. Form a community trust
2. Don’t pay James Lindsay any more money – he has had his share
3. Raise money to buy the freehold - part government funding from Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council plus thousands of community shares from ordinary queers
Ideas for a new life for the old gaff:

Put on high quality experimental popular performance, and wild cutting-edge animal nightlife. Honour the tradition of drag that’s important in this space but develop new modes that develop the form. Stage manage the trans revolution and put on classy contemporary dance, it’s always better in a pub.

Attract brands like Club Kali, Pussy Palace, Queer Bruk, GGI and Fluid to bring their dynamic club nights to the venue, share the space with progressive Black and brown and ESEA artists, activists and promoters and make it a genuinely anti-racist gaff. Invest in artistic production, devising and rehearsing, mentoring young artists (and old knackered ones) like they do at other important cultural landmarks. Start a sex night with a chamber orchestra.

Appoint a Poet Laureate of Vauxhall and give them a butt of the sack. Honour the ballroom community. Bring back beauty contests. Dare DJs to creatively collaborate with playwrights. Put in an accessible toilet for f**ks sake. Be a catalyst for political conspiring and serve interesting beers, zero alcohol drinks and nice coffee

Make a terrace outside with tables and chairs and blankets like they do in Europe and ask the council to let the pub blend into the park. Have a writer in residence, have a choreographer in residence, have fancy cocktail hours and sober raves. Serve breakfast, serve lunch and serve the community. Be pro-poor people and the working classes – not only serving middle-class urban professional wage slaves who can afford £7 a pint on a weeknight.

Have a board that is accountable to the community. Ignore RPDR. Be a proper world famous tourist attraction. Never be respectable. Stage the illegitimate. Fly queer and trans performance trendsetting talent in from around the world, especially the global south. Make David Hoyle an honorary licensee and give him a small pension
Open the first and second floors as a community hub, put in a grand Shirley Bassey staircase and an accessible lift. After the hedonism and excesses downstairs, balance it up with some wellbeing upstairs and have community yoga, meditation and addicts’ recovery meetings.

Mix personal development with community organising and art brut and underground culture because queers can’t live on a diet of Vodka alone. Stage a lowlife heritage exhibition, display archives, bake bread and serve tarts. Host Open Barbers and grow herbs and vegetables on the roof. Start a youth theatre, commission an older queer people’s dance and social group, run costume making workshops for the public. Staple-gun red velvet to every wall, provide a safe welcoming space for new queer migrants, launch a queer book club, show films, stage talks about independent politics and culture, and of course reserve a small room as a glamorous but tawdry whore-house for resident blowzabellas like they did in the old music hall dans le vieux Londres

Have a collective joy ride. Not just get pissed and make money. But do that too
There are so many possibilities with this building
Don’t let the capitalist pr**ks screw us over
They did it with the Black Cap, they did it with the Joiners Arms and now they are doing it with the RVT
Vive La Revolution à Vauxhall!
Simon, Promoter, Duckie

 

[editor]

*threads merged