Open The Joiners Heart Community-Run LGBTQIA+ Pub

Aim

FOTJA needs your support to open The Joiners Heart - London's newest community-run, wheelchair-accessible LGBTQIA+ pub and performance venue

After a decade-long campaign to protect and create LGBTQIA+ community spaces, we are now on the verge of opening the Joiners Heart, a landmark venue at Arch 18, Bohemia Place, Hackney Central. The space will provide much needed opportunities for socialising, community building, performance, employment, and most importantly celebrating queer joy!

We are so grateful that the project has already secured incredible support from our community, and from major funders including the Greater London Authority, Foundation for Future London, Co-operatives UK, Clothworkers Foundation and City Bridge Foundation. 

However, unexpected construction challenges, including significant water ingress and associated remedial works, have created budget pressures during the final stages of delivery. While we are working on ways to recoup some of these unexpected costs, this is an ongoing struggle.

Which is why we are now asking you folks to help us open our amazing accessible queer space.

The gap between our remaining funds and our projected costs is projected at £14,068 - adding on expected Crowdfunder fees means we need to raise a minimum of £14,506 to open our doors.

The work to be completed before we can open includes: final work on electrics, emergency lighting, plumbing, fire alarms, our HVAC system, seating and furniture, installing and programming ambient lighting, fridges and bar kit, power-assisted door and handrail, and installing a roller-shutter. 

Your support would help ensure that this vital community venue can open - providing an inclusive, accessible space for some of London's most marginalised LGBTQIA+ communities.

Friends of the Joiners Arms is a Community Benefit Society (FCA Mutual Register Number 7735), owned by more than 2,000 community shareholders and governed by an elected Management Committee.

Founded in 2014 in response to the closure of the historic Joiners Arms pub on Hackney Road, we have become an award-winning community organisation dedicated to protecting, creating and sustaining LGBTQIA+ spaces in London.

Our work centres those who are often excluded from mainstream venues, including disabled LGBTQIA+ people, trans and non-binary communities, queer people of colour and those experiencing economic hardship.

Over the past decade, we have demonstrated the power of community ownership as a tool for social impact, preserving cultural infrastructure while creating safer, more inclusive spaces for future generations.

Friends of the Joiners Arms intend to run a second share sale in the near future, to allow an expansion in the number of share-holders for our Community Benefit Society. Contributing to this Crowdfunder will not make you a shareholder/member of Friends of the Joiners Arms - but rest assured you'll have the chance to become one once we reopen our share sale in the near future.

The Project: The Joiners Heart, Arch 18, Bohemia Place

The Joiners Heart will become Hackney's newest community-run, wheelchair-accessible LGBTQIA+ pub and performance space.

The venue will provide:

• A fully accessible LGBTQIA+ community hub
• A 120-capacity pub and social venue
• A performance and cultural space
• Community workshops and events
• Opportunities for local artists, performers and grassroots organisations
• A welcoming environment designed with accessibility at its core

This project directly addresses the ongoing loss of LGBTQIA+ venues across London while creating a sustainable model of community ownership and stewardship.

Why We Need Support

The project is now almost ready to open. Thanks to successful fundraising through grants and community share offers, construction is substantially complete.

However, unexpected building issues, including significant leaks and associated remedial works, have increased project costs and reduced the contingency available for essential fit-out and accessibility elements.

What will your money buy?!

• £2500: contribution towards ambient lighting - this is great for enabling us to make the space more accessible, while also allowing us to make different kinds of events as fabulous as possible!
• £1000: contribution towards plumbing - everyone needs to use the loo. whether you need a gender-neutral toilet, an accessible toilet, or both, we've got you covered
• £800: contribution towards the handrail for our ramp in the entry way - essential for accessibility
• £500: contribution towards drinks fridge - vital for making sure that all of our drinks are refreshingly chilled
• £300: contribution towards a skip - you know what they say, one enby’s trash, another enby’s treasure - but we do have some hazardous building materials we need to get rid of, and this would help us shift it!     
• £250: contribution towards paying for costs of a quarter of our power assisted door, so that our space is fully wheelchair accessible
• £100: 4 chairs - much needed so you can settle in for a good chat 
• £50: 50 glasses - pints (non-alcoholic and alcoholic) for everyone!
• £20: cocktail/mocktail making kit - if you’re feeling like a fancy drink

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 14th August 2026 at 9:49am