LGBTQ+ Community Center Organizes Fun Festive Yuletide Feast Thanks to Local Charity

The newly launched London LGBTQ+ Community Center has organized a festive yuletide feast with Fam Vegan on Christmas Eve.

It’s a great opportunity “to make some new friends and make the yuletide super gay,” said the organizers. "The only tickets that are now available have already been paid for by the kindness of our community. So please come along for free, eat with your new friends and enjoy your Christmas (Eve) dinner – a vegan feast of curry, rice, and peas, and salad, with apple crumble and custard for dessert.”

The feast will be especially welcomed by people who face homelessness this year; many of who identify with the LGBTQ+ community. The need for a space like the London LGBTQ+ Community Center has never been greater, especially given that around 60% LGBTQ+ venues in London have closed in the decade leading up to 2017; 24% of homeless young people identifying as LGBTQ+; LGBTQ+ people being more at risk of poor mental health; and with hate crimes related to sexual orientation and gender identity increasing year on year since 2015.

The London LGBTQ+ Community Center opened earlier this month, on Bankside, close to the Tate Modern and Blackfriars station, as a temporary pop-up space for six months. Modelled on similar centers in New York, LA, Birmingham, and Manchester, the space will be a safe, inclusive, sober, intergenerational, and intersectional space run by the LGBTQ+ community for the community. The center is being set up with generous support from Southwark Council, who have helped the team in sourcing the pop-up location.

Councilor Alice Macdonald, Cabinet Member for Equalities, Neighborhoods, and Leisure, said she hope that “this safe space where LGBTQ+ residents in Southwark and beyond can meet and access support, will help provide the blueprint for a permanent community space at the nearby Bankside Yards development.”

Funded through a 2018 crowd funder, as well as recently acquired support from the National Lottery, the pop-up center aims to provide a useful, accessible, and safe space for all members of the LGBTQ+ community in London, which is genuinely rooted in their needs. The project also received huge support from Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who pledged to support the creation of an LGBTQ+ community center in London in his election manifesto.

“We know LGBTQ+ Londoners have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and the loss of so many of our LGBTQ+ venues means that it has never been more important to have a safe, inclusive, all-day space for all LGBTQ+ communities to be themselves, reduce isolation, and improve well-being,” stated the Mayor. “London will always be a beacon of inclusiveness, acceptance, and diversity, and I’m really proud to support the creation of this LGBTQ+ community center in the heart of our city and will do all I can to transform it into a permanent space.”

The cafe, meeting space, and events will provide a tonic to London’s huge LGBTQ+ population, which has been disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. During 2020, the organization provided mutual aid through online services. The new physical space will help LGBTQ+ Londoners reduce isolation, improve well-being, and connections to the community, as well as provide a safe space to many who may have been forced to live with homophobic, transphobic, or biphobic family members or housemates, navigated financial uncertainties, or struggled with mental health. In fact, affordability, sustainability, and accessibility are at the heart of the project.

“It is incredibly exciting to be opening the space after 4 years of hard work by countless volunteers,” stated Sarah Moore, Volunteer Director of the London LGBTQ+ community center. “We are extremely grateful to all the center supporters and partners to get us to this moment. When our communities are recovering from the impact of the pandemic, and continue to be disproportionately affected by mental health issues, addiction, poverty, homelessness, and in particular the recent attacks on the trans community, the importance of sober, safe, intersectional spaces cannot be overstated.”

Among the groups making the most of the center during its six-month opening are the trans charities Mermaids and Gendered Intelligence, older LGBTQ+ people’s charities Opening Doors and Tonic Housing. “Mermaids is proud to support the London LGBTQ+ Community Center Pop-up,” said Carrie Lyall, Mermaids’ Digital Engagement Manager. “This vital project will provide a much-needed positive, affirming space for trans, non-binary, and gender diverse young people to connect with others in our community, and we look forward to working with our friends at London LGBTQ+ Community Center Project and others on filling this space with trans joy.”

Matthew Riley, Tonic Housing’s Communications and Marketing Manager, agreed: “From experience, we know how crucial LGBTQ+ affirming spaces are to our community's safety and quality of life. We're super excited to see the London LGBTQ+ Community Center pop-up open, and can’t wait to see how this much-needed project grows.”

The six-month pilot will serve as a proof of concept for a permanent Center. It will be a place where LGBTQ+ Londoners and visitors can relax, be themselves, feel safe, build connections, and access services. The pop-up offers a café and meeting space open to the public from Wednesdays to Sundays (11 a.m.-8 p.m.). Mondays and Tuesdays are reserved for closed event bookings by LGBTQ+ groups to ensure privacy.

The space has been transformed into its current form and fitted out by an all-LGBTQ+ building crew under the direction of queer architect Martha Summers. She has worked in the UK and Switzerland on a range of projects from design to construction, including schools, exhibitions, and workplaces. In her own practice, she donates time to community projects that require non-normative ways of making buildings. Between 2017-2020 she was heavily involved in the creation of the Feminist Library’s new space in Peckham.

The project has also unveiled new branding to coincide with the opening of the pop-up, created pro-bono by multidisciplinary studio Here Design. The space will offer comprehensive holistic and LGBTQ+ specific services, signposting and information provision under one roof, including mental health, sexual health, services supporting trans, youth, and older LGBTQ+ people.

​​The opening of the center coincided with World AIDS Day, an important day in the LGBTQ+ calendar when the community remembers those lost to HIV/AIDS, and pledges to never stop fighting for a world with zero new HIV transmissions and a world that's free from shame and stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS. During the opening event, visitors also got an opportunity to donate to the National AIDS Trust.

Some of the upcoming events at the center include: an LGBTQ+ Winter Market with offerings from independent, local queer artists; a Polari workshop; a queer book club; free regular yoga and meditation classes, and more. To champion intersectionality and inclusion and combat poverty and classism, all of the center’s offerings will be genuinely affordable. Visitors can also pre-pay for cafe offerings for someone else, and anyone is able to redeem these “pay it forward” vouchers at the center.

The center is encouraging community groups, individuals, charities, and organizations to get involved and be part of its programming through contacting [email protected].