Image from Immovate’s website
The new owners of iconic queer performance venue the Royal Vauxhall Tavern include an Austrian property development company that specialises in luxury flat developments in areas of historic interest, according to a post on a Facebook page maintained by fans of the venue.
The post, which was published last night (October 29 2014) to the Future of the Royal Vauxhall Tavern Facebook page, named Viennese company Immovate. No source was given for the information.
According to its website, Immovate focuses on “investments in prime real estate projects”. Many of their past projects appear to be structurally intensive residential and commercial developments involving historic buildings. Its website doesn’t mention any projects in which sites have retained their pre-purchase use.
The company’s developments include penthouse and loft conversions in a former monastery, a nineteenth-century telegraph headquarters and early twentieth-century orphanage in Vienna. The only project outside Austria detailed on its site is a luxury villa project in Crete.
In a video on the company’s website, its chairman and president Martin Kurschel says: “Historic buildings have a history, and from a present-day vantage point they really deserve to see a purpose in line with their life cycle so far, and to receive such a life cycle again. Many buildings have had many uses throughout their history.”
Kurschel also speaks of “valuing their history” and says that “art and culture in buildings are things that define us each and every day”.
Elsewhere, the company’s website states: “investments in prime real estate projects are made by Immovate alone or in equity partnerships with other investors as well as known private foundations and industrialists”.
James Lindsay, co-owner of the RVT with Paul Oxley since 2005, announced last month that the pair were selling the venue, sparking concern from patrons about its future. One of London’s oldest gay pubs, the RVT has hosted groundbreaking queer and drag performance since the 1950s or earlier.
Regular performers have included Regina Fong, Adrella, Lily Savage, the DE Experience and David Hoyle. Current weekly residencies include Duckie, Bar Wotever and Timberlina’s Big Bingo Show. The pub was built in 1863, four years after the closure of the Vauxhall pleasure gardens that had stood on the site since the mid-seventeeth century.
Lindsay told me earlier this month that he would remain in operational charge of the RVT under a five-year agreement with its new owners. The venue’s future as a queer performance venue, he said, would depend on its commercial performance during this period.
Last night’s post on the Future of the Royal Vauxhall Tavern Facebook page said: “There is no statement yet from James and Paul on who they are selling to, or what the new owners’ long-term plans for the site are. But we understand that the new owners include an Austrian development company called Immovate who specialise in restoring heritage buildings in city centres.” It also gave a link to the company’s website.
The Facebook page is maintained by a group of RVT fans who were instrumental in getting the venue listed by Lambeth council as a community asset earlier this month. Last night’s post clarified some of the implications of this listing, which include an obligation for its owners to consider bids from community groups in the event of a future sale.
The post continued: “So far as we know, the listing does not prevent completion of the current sale.”
There has previously been no public suggestion that sale has not yet been completed. In a statement posted to the RVT’s own Facebook page on September 30, Lindsay said that “RVT has been sold”.
The post to the Future of the Royal Vauxhall Tavern Facebook page also raised the possibility of a community buy-out of the venue, while noting that the current owners would be under no obligation to consider such a bid.
It continued: “If there is an appetite to do so, we would like to formalise the ‘Friends of the RVT’ group that made the successful application to Lambeth. We envisage this being a democratic, open group that champions the RVT as a very special LGBT pub and performance space. We hope that the owners and managers would always find us constructive, loyal to the spirit of the Vauxhall Tavern, and independent.”
Immovate, James Lindsay and Paul Oxley have not so far responded to requests for comment.
UPDATE: a representative of Immovate has contacted me and said he will respond to my questions if possible.
