Sister Midnight, on a mission to save the Ravensbourne Arms, has won funding from the Boosting Community Business London Programme to help cover some of the initial costs.
It has also been awarded a bursary by the Plunkett Foundation, a national charity which supports community run businesses.
Sister Midnight aims to turn the pub, which has stood empty on Lewisham High Street since 2016, into a community-owned space for music and creative culture.
Formerly a grassrotes music venue and record shop in Deptford, Sister Midnight Records has now registered as a community benefit society, Sister Midnight Community Venues Ltd.
Lenny, the driving force behind the group, says the Ravensbourne should be surveyed in early May. “All being well we’re hoping to progress from there to launch our community share offer at some point in the summer.”
“We’ve also got a community discussion group running on facebook which people can join here (https://www.facebook.com/groups/ravensbournediscussiongroup), to stay up to date with our progress and contribute ideas.”
“The community support has been amazing, we’ve formed a working group of local people who are volunteering their time and skills to push the project forward and we have nearly 300 people participating in our online discussion group.,” says Lenny.
“We’ve been very lucky to be awarded funding from the Boosting Community Business London programme and from Plunkett Foundation, which has helped us to cover some of our initial costs such as survey of the building which is taking place in the next couple of weeks.
“With all the plans coming together we’re hoping to be able to launch our community share offer over the summer!”
Sister Midnight hopes the community share offer will help it raise the funds needed to buy the disused pub and transform it into a thriving community-owned space where it can provide an accessible, affordable and inclusive platform for music and creative culture in South East London.