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3 March 2025

Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club launches crowdfunder to save venue from developers

The community group Friends of BGWMC hope to raise £12,000 to support an attempt to purchase the building and reopen the LGBTQ+ space's doors

By Gary Grimes

Iconic London venue the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club has launched a crowdfunder to raise £12,000 by April in order to try to save it from developers.

The crowdfunder is the next step taken by the Friends of Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club (FoBGWMC) – a community group comprised of locals, performers, punters, programmers, and trade union members – in its bid to persuade Tower Hamlets Council to save the East London club which has served as a popular cabaret and LGBTQ+ venue for years.

Last year, an investigation by the London Centric journalist Jim Waterson included allegations that the Smorthit family, who look after registration of new members to the club, had “packed out the membership” with their associates in order to pass a vote to sell the building. If the building is sold, members “stand to receive as much as £80,000 each,” Waterson claims.

The money the crowdfunder seeks to raise would pay for a full chartered survey and valuation of the building, as well as the planning application costs to put vital protections on the building. This follows the building being listed as an Asset of Community Value by Tower Hamlets Council in August 2024, ensuring that should the club’s membership push ahead with a sale of the club they would have to give community groups six months to try and match the open market price offered by a developer.

“A community purchase on this scale will be no small task,” said Nick Keegan, variety organiser of Equity, the union for performers which has assisted the FoBGWMC’s efforts to save the club.

“We believe it is essential  to save this unique cultural facility” – Nick Keegan

The groups’ ultimate goal is for either for Tower Hamlets council to purchase the building, hold it as an asset and lease it back to the community, or for FoBGWMC to succeed in a community purchase and attain the lease or freehold of the building.

“We are trying to be absolutely realistic about this. We believe a partnership between the community of BGWMC and Tower Hamlets Council does have the ability to achieve this,” Keegan said in a statement. “We believe it is essential  to save this unique cultural facility and give it a chance to continue serving the local community of Tower Hamlets, the LGBTQ+ community, and the wider cultural tapestry of London for future generations.”

“We are determined to build that case, and make sure that the cultural and societal value of BGWMC is clear for all to see,” he went on.

“BGWMC is a crucial and irreplaceable fixture of London’s cultural heritage. It has been a catalyst for the development of new artists and cultural workers in the city, a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community, and it is a building with more than 100 years of history as a community owned space. It is vital that we protect BGWMC for future generations and allow its legacy to live on.”

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