Black Cap supporters launch community buy-out bid

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Following the collapse of plans to sell off the Black Cap, campaign group #WeAreTheBlackCap has launched an official bid to bring the iconic LGBTQ pub and cabaret space into community ownership.

Freeholder Kicking Horse Ltd put the pub back on the market last month.

Now Nigel Harris, director of Camden LGBT Forum, has delivered a letter to Camden council on behalf of #WeAreTheBlackCap, activating a six-month moratorium period during which the community can try to raise funds to buy the pub.

No other sale is permitted during this period. #WeAreTheBlackCap are not obliged to make an offer – and even if they do, Kicking Horse and its partner in the freehold, Vollins Holdings Ltd, are not obliged to accept it.

However, the moratorium allows time for a bid to be assembled and for the campaign to put public pressure on Kicking Horse and Vollins Holdings to return the pub to community use.

The Black Cap – whose history as a gay venue dates back to the 1960s – was closed without notice in April by Kicking Horse and the pub’s operator, Faucet Inn.

The Cap was commercially thriving at the time of its closure, which followed repeated failed attempts by the owners to secure planning permission to turn half the pub into flats.

The owners had planned to divide the building up to sell it to multiple buyers. Café chain the Breakfast Club had been in talks to buy the ground-floor pub space.

However, Kicking Horse and Faucet Inn were apparently surprised by two factors that ultimately scotched their plans for the sale.

First, the pub’s ACV status – secured by Camden LGBT Forum just days before the closure – protected its use as a pub and cabaret space.

And second, the #WeAreTheBlackCap community campaign immediately sprang up after the closure to defend the venue as a hub of LGBTQ culture and community.

Awareness-raising vigils coordinated by Harris and Joe Parslow, who produced shows at the Cap, have continued outside the venue every Saturday afternoon ever since.

And an online petition started by Camden councillor Danny Beales calling for the reopening of the pub has attracted more than 8,250 signatures.

The owners found themselves on the back foot.

In June, the Cap was squatted by a group called Camden Queer Punx 4Eva, who held parties inside celebrating the venue’s heritage.

EXCLUSIVE STORY & PHOTOS: INSIDE THE SQUATTED BLACK CAP

And in July, #WeAreTheBlackCap successfully defended the pub’s ACV status against an appeal by Kicking Horse.

By the end of August, the owners were apparently ready to throw in the towel.

Around September 1, Kicking Horse told the council they intended to sell the Black Cap. Under ACV regulations, this gave #WeAreTheBlackCap six weeks to decide whether to trigger the six-month moratorium on the sale of the property.

The campaign investigated its options. Chris Clark and Michael Peacock met with the group responsible for making the Ivy House in Nunhead the capital’s first community-owned pub, and researched the logistics of a potential buy-out.

Yesterday, October 6, Harris delivered a letter to Camden council officially expressing #WeAreTheBlackCap’s interest in buying the pub.

According to the letter, the group plans “to buy, open, and operate, or after purchase, to employ professional managers working on our behalf to operate The Black Cap in a way broadly similar with how it was being operated until April this year”.

It continues: “it is our intention to approach Camden Community residents, London backers, specialist financing houses, and listing organisations, for their advice, know how, and resources, to assist us value the pub, make an offer, and complete the purchase”.

The campaign also says it will be seeking “advice and financial backing” from groups including: the Ivy House; the Chesham Arms, another community-owned pub; Historic England; English Heritage; the Architectural Fund; nationwide community-organisation network Locality; and pub operators including Fullers, Yummy Pub Co and Antic.

Once the moratorium application is approved, next steps for #WeAreTheBlackCap include seeking a fresh survey and valuation of the site, and holding an open meeting to canvas opinions from the wider community.

Seeking listing from Historic England would also offer an additional layer of protection from the pub, making it less attractive as a commercial redevelopment opportunity.

Following a campaign by RVT Future, the Royal Vauxhall Tavern was made a Grade II listed building last month – the UK’s first building officially recognised for its contribution to LGBTQ community heritage.

The Cap would seem to be a strong candidate to take advantage of this precedent.

Plans are also afoot for celebrity support and fundraising events.

There’s still a long way to go before the Black Cap opens its doors again as an LGBTQ pub and performance venue.

But this move brings that possibility closer than might have been expected even one month ago – and it shows that consistent, concerted community campaigning on behalf of our city’s vital yet vulnerable spaces can make a real difference.

 

The full letter reads as follows:

Dear Sirs,

We are a community interest group and a registered charity (N0.1107855): i.e. a legally constituted organisation such as a charity, a company limited by guarantee that does not distribute profits amongst its members, an Industrial and Provident Society that does not distribute profits amongst its members or a Community Interest Company, working within Camden.

We are involved with, members of, and active supporters of the LGBT Black Cap Campaign known as #WeAreTheBlackCap, who’s goal is to get our pub re-opened for both Camden’s LGBT community and the wider London LGBT community as soon as possible.

Our organisation successfully applied for ACV listing of the pub several weeks ago.

It is our understanding that on or about 1st September 2015, Kicking Horse Ltd/Vollins Holdings Ltd, advised Camden Council of their intention to sell the pub.  We understand we have six weeks to put in an Expression of Interest to buy, open, and operate, or after purchase, to employ professional managers working on our behalf to operate The Black Cap in a way broadly similar with how it was being operated until April this year.

This is therefore our Right to Buy Community Non-Binding Expression of Interest.

We therefore ask that under s95 Localism Act, and the rules applying to protecting an Asset of Community Value, that the council now triggers a full moratorium to give our community time to raise backers, funds, and investment, to buy the pub before it is placed back onto the open market.

When granted, it is our intention to approach Camden Community residents, London backers, specialist financing houses, and listing organisations, for their advice, know how, and resources, to assist us value the pub, make an offer, and complete the purchase.

We will be seeking advice and financial backing for our bid from the backers of The Ivy House, The Chesham Arms, Historic England, English Heritage, The Architectural Fund, Pub Operators including but not limited to Fullers, Yummy Pub Co, Antic and others.  We will organise celebrity contacts, and in London fund raising events.  You’ll be aware that these various groups and these methods have made substantial contributions to re-opening and successfully running other ACV listed pubs for their communities.  We will run our cash raising activities under the Localism Act’s Locality Bid 7 Steps, which is helping us plan our team’s activities.

Our organising and cash-raising activities will be a heavy task and we ask that you might grant a full 6 month moratorium to give us every opportunity to find the right way to return this badly needed community pub to full and profitable operation.

Yours faithfully

Nigel Harris

 

Nigel Harris

Director

Camden LGBT Forum