The logo for RVT Future, the campaign to ensure a thriving future for the UK’s oldest LGBTQ pub and iconic performance space.
Today sees the launch of a new campaign, RVT Future, that aims to ensure a thriving future for the UK’s oldest LGBTQ pub and iconic performance space.
This week, we’ve seen heartbreaking proof of the vulnerability of even the most venerable of London’s queer spaces.
You couldn’t ask for a clearer demonstration of that than the shocking closure without notice of the Black Cap in Camden.
The Palladium of Drag – an institution in our community since the days when gay sex was illegal – shuttered and sold off without those who love it even having the chance to say goodbye.
The only London LGBTQ venue older than the Cap is the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, whose queer history dates back to the 1940s.
That history has persisted though the decriminalisation of homosexuality, through the AIDS crisis, through attempts to turn the venue into a backpacker hostel or a shopping centre.
When the police raided the Tavern wearing rubber gloves because they were afraid of catching HIV, Lily Savage started a riot. When Freddie Mercury and Kenny Everett took Princess Diana out for the night – dressed as a boy – it was the RVT they came to.
Last year, the Tavern was bought by a property developer based in Austria called Immovate.
So far, it’s been business as usual – perhaps better than usual in some ways, with the management team making improvements to the venue and seeking to forge links with local charities.
These are very welcome moves for those who love the Tavern, which can only expect to see a thriving future if it remains engaged with the community and commercially viable.
But there’s a difference between a site being commercially viable and its owners seeking the most profitable possible use for it.
And with the London property market the way it is, not least in Vauxhall, that probably wouldn’t mean a gay pub and cabaret venue – however well managed and supported by the community.
It’s possible that the new owners, Immovate, value the RVT’s unique history and culture and intend to safeguard it for the future. But they’ve been asked that multiple times and have never responded. Nor have they answered questions about their longterm plans for the site.
Rather than waiting to find those answers out, possibly the hard way, a group of people who love the Royal Vauxhall Tavern have decided to be proactive and formed a group called RVT Future. The group includes many who create the shows and club nights for which the Tavern is loved, as well as devoted regulars. I’m a member myself.
RVT Future has already secured asset of community value or ACV status for the Tavern. This means the council recognises its importance as an LGBTQ community pub and performance venue and would be unlikely to allow a change of use.
It also means that, if the venue is put up for sale again, the community will get six months to put together a bid at market value – although the owner wouldn’t have to accept it.
RVT Future has also made an application to English Heritage to make the Tavern a listed building – it would be the first in the nation to be designated in recognition of its importance to the LGBTQ community and its history.
I researched and wrote the 15,000-word application, and was deeply moved by the history and community lineage I discovered.
We should get the results of this application some time over the summer. (The process doesn’t take account of public lobbying.) If it’s granted, a listing would only limit changes to the fabric of the building, not its use.
But it would be a great way to raise awareness of the Tavern’s importance. And it would drive down the site’s value as commercial real estate, making it less attractive to developers – although it wouldn’t be an obstacle to changes necessary to keep the building economically viable in line with its heritage.
If it does get listed and Immovate decide to sell it, we’ll look into options for a community buy-out to ensure the Tavern’s future.
These moves shouldn’t alarm anyone who cherishes the culture and community that make the Royal Vauxhall Tavern such a proud part of London life.
Our hope is to work in partnership with Immovate – and indeed the venue’s management, who have our full support – to ensure a commercially viable future for the venue fully in keeping with its heritage. But we won’t sit on our hands if that heritage is put in jeopardy.
RVT Future isn’t about looking for a fight. It’s just about saying that, if need be, we’ll stick up for a place that makes our city a better place to live.
The Royal Vauxhall Tavern is an institution in the very best sense – a rich network of individuals, communities, knowledge and experience built up over 70 years to meet the emotional, cultural and recreational needs of thousands of people whose lives remain outside the mainstream in many ways.
As well as being a place for a pint, a laugh, a dance or a snog, the Tavern is a sophisticated machine for generating culture, community and wellbeing – things that can’t be left to market forces, things whose absence would be bad for all of society. Alienation and unhappiness are bad for the economy as well as the soul.
We all know times change. But some things stay the same. Like our need for safety, friendship, art and joy – for the freedom to be ourselves and express ourselves.
We need places like the Tavern now more than ever. That’s why we need RVT Future.
For more information about RVT Future, see the campaign website, join the Facebook page and follow @RVTfuture on Twitter.
RVT Future will hold a free launch event on Sunday April 26, including a screening of the documentary Save The Tavern, recently screened at BFI Flare. Details to come.
