CONTENTS

CHRISTMAS VIGIL

Ah, Christmas – one of the campest times of the year! Before we start our round-up of this year's work to re-open the Black Cap, we'd like to invite you to our traditional festive gathering outside the Black Cap on Saturday 18 December, 2-4pm, with music from Alex Green and Loud & Queerly and special guests performers. Why not swing by?

A QUICK RE-CAP

The legendary Black Cap has been one of London’s major LGBTQ+ venues for about 60 years and a part of Camden for at least 270 years. In 2015 its owners suddenly closed it down as part of a plan to turn the building into luxury flats. A grassroots campaign began, rallying around the demand that the whole building must remain an LGBTQ+ pub, nightclub, cabaret, and community space named the Black Cap.

Over the years the owners’ repeated attempts to turn the Cap into a café, wine bar, flats, etc. have been defeated and the building has been confirmed by Camden Council as an Asset of Community Value with a ‘sui generis’ planning classification. This means there is no realistic prospect of it becoming anything other than the Black Cap.

This summer the company that owns the building came under new management, and the new directors promised to respect the building’s legal protections and engage with the Council and the community. But the story doesn’t end there…

REAL PROGRESS

Two crucial things are needed for the Black Cap to re-open. The owners must be willing to sell or lease the building. And there has to be someone with a solid business plan and the skills and money to make it happen. This year we’ve made real progress towards both of those things.

The owners have said that they’re open to offers. And they've enabled us to access the Cap so we can gather vital information through expert surveys – more than was possible under the old management.

Meanwhile, we’ve completely revised and updated our own illustrative business plan, which shows in detail one way (though not the only way) a re-opened Black Cap could operate as a successful LGBTQ+ pub, club, cabaret, and community space. We’re also working with multiple potential partners who are interested in buying or leasing the Black Cap, exploring how this interest could be turned into a strong offer.

There's also been welcome coverage of campaign progress in the Camden New Journal (here, here, and here) and of the Cap's community legacy in the Metro.

THE WAY FORWARD

The next step is to work with our partners and the community to finalise a really comprehensive and robust offer – perhaps several versions! Detailed surveys and reports are under way, estimated costings will have to be checked and double-checked, forecasts and project plans will be revised and refined. This will take time and money (more on this below under ‘Pink pounds and pennies’).

We’ll also need to have detailed discussions with our partners and with the community to make sure that whatever plans go forward are ones that we and the community can support, with enough accountability and long-term security. As plans and options become more detailed, we’ll give more information and arrange consultations and community discussions.

BEHIND THE SCENES

BACK INSIDE THE BLACK CAP

We were thrilled to set foot inside our beloved pub once more in October, when the owners gave Alex and Ben, along with engineer Dean Rodgers, access for a site visit. Mother Black Cap’s spirit is still there for sure, alive and kicking, and eager to fling those doors open again.

As the pictures show, the basics are still in place and seem to be in reasonable condition – the bar, the stage, the upstairs seating, even the lights and disco ball. Of course a lot is unseen, like plumbing and electrics, and we have scheduled in-depth surveys to get more details on these. But from our superficial inspection we think the refurbishment and repair costs are likely to be significantly below the estimate of £900,000 that the owners have quoted in the past.

BACK OUTSIDE THE BLACK CAP TOO

This summer we restarted our weekly ‘vigils’ on the pavement outside the Black Cap. These have been an important feature of the campaign since the beginning, and took place almost every Saturday from the first one after the Cap was closed until the beginning of the first pandemic lockdown.

It’s been great to be back, making sure the Black Cap stays an LGBTQ+ space even during its closure, and showing Camden that we’re still fighting to get it open again. Join us outside the Cap between 2 and 4pm every Saturday!

This round-up features some favourite pictures taken at vigils since they started again in June.

HOW CAN YOU HELP? – DIVERSIFY OUR TEAM

As we described above, a lot of current campaign activity is about discussions with the owners, local government, potential operators, and other professional bodies. This means there isn’t currently a big, clear action that we’re calling on all campaign supporters to do – this is not a ‘give us money’ phase or a ‘sign a petition’ phase. But if you do want to help get the Black Cap open again, there may be some things you can do.

We think it’s very important for the Black Cap to welcome and embrace all parts of the LGBTQ+ community including those that tend to get under-served or pushed to the edges, like women, trans people, people of colour, disabled people, and migrants. The Black Cap was always one of London’s most inclusive and diverse LGBTQ+ venues and that must continue when it re-opens.

To make sure we achieve that, we want the campaign team to have more expertise and experience from those different parts of the community, and to build more relationships with them. If you can help us strengthen our team's diversity and connections with under-represented parts of the community, or you'd like to put us in touch with someone who can, please drop us a line at enquiries@wearetheblackcap.com

HOW CAN YOU HELP? – FINANCE & ENGAGEMENT

Two other big areas where we'd like to strengthen our team are finance and engagement. We currently manage these okay but as the campaign moves into its next phases we'd like to have more team members with expertise in:

• finance, fundraising, grants, and capital-building – especially for arts and entertainment venues and community projects;

• social media, communications, publicity, newsletters, press releases, public engagement events, etc.

If this is you, please drop us a line at enquiries@wearetheblackcap.com

HOW CAN YOU HELP? – GRASSROOTS COLLABORATIONS

We’d also like to hear from grassroots LGBTQ+ community groups and campaigns, community groups based in or near Camden, and people and groups working in cabaret and the performing arts. We may be able to help each other – with publicity, with activities, with contacts and networks, with events. 

Over the years we’ve had many fruitful collaborations including with:

• the Friends Of The Joiners Arms (supporting each other at public protests and in the planning committees of Camden and Tower Hamlets),

• the Outside Project (helping out with their shelter and community centre and jointly running weekly socials in Camden),

• Castlehaven Community Association (hosting the Black Cap Community Hub – see below – among other things),

• the Arts Project (organizing and hosting a performance for the launch of their Loudest Whispers 2019 exhibition),

• forum+ (working together on planning hearings for the Black Cap and arranging events as part of their LGBT History Month programmes),

• Lesbians & Gays Support The Migrants (providing meeting space),

• Museum Of Homelessness (contributing to their Truths Of The Last Ten Years exhibition),

• the Cocoa Butter Club (providing rehearsal space),

• and staging performances with many wonderful artists and collectives including Loud & Queerly, Dave Lynn, Miss Krystal Ball, Ebony Rose Dark, Doctor Woof, Zayn Phallic, Lenard Pink, Chloe Wing, Evie Lake, and others.

If you’d like to discuss how we might collaborate, please get in touch! enquiries@wearetheblackcap.com

HOW CAN YOU HELP? – LEG-WORK AND ELBOW-GREASE

We can always use the help of a few more energetic and committed people to give a general helping hand.

The campaign involves a lot of miscellaneous tasks, from attending meetings to answering press questions to fact-checking to looking for funding sources to carrying and storing things to writing and checking documents. A lot of the time it’s simply a case of ‘quick, xyz needs doing, who’s free to do it?’

If you’re someone who’s willing and able to turn your hand to various different things and jump in to help when help is needed, you could be a great addition to our team and a great help to the campaign, so we’d like to hear from you at enquiries@wearetheblackcap.com

BLACK CAP COMMUNITY HUB IS BACK AT CASTLEHAVEN

The Black​ Cap Community Hub is a free weekly community space in Camden for LGBTQ+ people and friends. It happens at Castlehaven Community Centre on Monday evenings between 6 and 9pm. Every week there’s an optional activity and there are always snacks, hot and cold soft drinks, and friendly company.

After a long time holding sessions online throughout various lockdowns, we finally returned to Castlehaven at the beginning of October. We've been happy to see some familiar faces from before lockdown come back again, and some new people dropping in too. Activities so far have included making bat-shaped bunting and carving turnips for Halloween, dipping into the BFI's free LGBT film archive, lino printing, an informal community justice workshop, and free haircuts. 

You can find out more about the Hub, including accessibility information, at cutt.ly/bcch

PINK POUNDS AND PENNIES

People sometimes ask us about how the campaign is funded, whether we need donations, why we aren’t doing crowdfunding.

For the past six years the campaign has been running largely on a ‘fighting fund’ of money donated early in the campaign, plus a few ongoing regular donors. Thanks to these generous gifts, and the fact that our campaign team all give our time and work for free, we’ve been able to keep going without any major fundraising. We don’t ask the community for money unless we need it and have a clear plan for using it. 

Our fighting fund is now beginning to run low, so contributions to support the development of our plans would be welcome. This will help us cover routine expenses like printing and web hosting, and could also pay for specialist expertise to strengthen our business plans and help us seek larger scale funding in preparation for freehold/leasehold bids. If you feel like throwing us a few pounds, you can do so at https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=Q3K79D33ASSA6

Depending on what happens with the plans for re-opening, we may well need to do some major fundraising in the next year or two. This could be to cover some of the costs of putting together a leasehold or freehold offer. Or it could be to actually raise some or all of the money to buy or lease the building, either on our own or as part of a consortium. Raising big money would mean applying for grants and tapping potential ‘high value’ donors, but it might also mean calling for donations, big and small, from everyone who wants to help the Black Cap re-open. So – watch this space!

THANKS AND GLAD TIDINGS

Don't forget our festive vigil outside the Black Cap on Saturday 18 December, 2-4pm. And finally, a huge thank you for your ongoing support and best wishes for a restful, hopeful festive period. See you in 2022!