Campaigners to protest two year closure of LGBT East London pub

A demonstration will be held outside the Joiners Arms, Hackney, today (January 21) to mark the two-year anniversary of the closure of East London’s LGBT pub, the Joiners Arms.

Organised by the Friends of the Joiners Arms, a community group founded in 2014 to save the pub, the demo will start at 1.30pm on Hackney Road.

The venue was forced to close in 2015 as the owners planned to bulldoze the venue for luxury flats. However, the pub has remained empty ever since with no plans for new development.

The Friends of the Joiners Arms is hoping to bring the pub into community ownership so it becomes London’s first cooperatively owned LGBT community centre.

Other campaign groups will be joining Friends of the Joiners Arms including Stop The Blocks, We Are The Black Cap as well as members of the LGBT and East London community.

Jon Ward, co-chair of the Friends of the Joiners Arms, said:

“The Joiners was one of the few late night LGBT venues in the east end, and its closure has left a massive hole in queer night scene and in our hearts. The venue closed because of greed and nothing else – why should such an important queer space be left to rot when it could be such an asset to the community?”

The protest will be held outside the Joiners Arms on Hackney Road at 1.30pm today.

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