The Ivy House needs urgent help to survive the current COVID-19 crisis.
WHO AND WHAT?
When a group of volunteers raised a million pounds to save the Ivy House on behalf of the community in Peckham Rye, South East London, the pub became London's first co-operatively owned pub. Since then, the Ivy House has been at the heart of our neighbourhood, providing a warm and welcoming hub - for Friday night sessions with friends and family, lazy Sunday afternoons with a roast and big band jazz, yoga classes, vinyl clubs, poetry evenings, weddings, birthdays, Live Band Karaoke... and the rest.
And we couldn’t have done it without you. Whether you’re one of our shareholders, a neighbour, regular at the bar, part of our team of staff, a musician or performer, or just someone who pops in for an occasional pint, the Ivy House is what it is because of you. It's a beautiful and very special place that has already been through a great deal. Together, we can keep it alive through this too.
We need to ask for your help - now more than ever. We want to be able to welcome back all our customers and staff on the other side of this crisis and we need your help to make it happen.
CLOSURE DUE TO COVID-19
The Ivy House shut its doors on 20th March in line with government guidance, to ensure the safety of our team and our community.
All our staff who are eligible have been furloughed under the government's Job Retention Scheme on 80% of their wages - and can also take jobs elsewhere to top up earnings without this affecting their pay with us.
What do we need help with?
We're asking for your help with two things:
- While the pub is unable to trade, we have many, many other costs that are mounting up fast including insurance (£2,500 per month alone), gas and electricity and water, phone and broadband, email and website, pest control, essential maintenance work to our building, kitchen cleaning, security, the list goes on . . . And we don't know when we'll be able to start pulling pints and get the tills ringing again. If we don't manage to bring in some income, we're going to be overwhelmed with costs and the chances of us being able to re-open the pub again after the lockdown get smaller every day.
- The Ivy House also has a few members of staff who are not eligible to be furloughed under the Job Retention Scheme and so will receive no pay while the pub is shut. If we can, we'd like to be able to offer them some financial support during the pub's closure, as well as support other members of our team who may struggle to make ends meet on just 80% of their wages. These are extraordinary circumstances and we want to help if we're able to.
These are tough times for everyone and this is why we're not asking for simple donations; the majority of pledges we've set up enable you to "pay it forward", buying drinks, a meal, or entry to a gig when we're all through this and the pub re-opens in happier times later this year.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Good news! You can help the Ivy House now while getting in a round (or two?!) for later. For example you can buy a bar tab to enjoy in the pub when it's up and running again; we can guarantee a cheer from behind the bar, a massive smile, and a lifetime of good pub karma when you walk up to the bar to redeem on our fab range of food and drink.
And if you need an extra incentive and something to look forward to on the other side of this, we have teamed up with some of our friends and supporters to ensure there are some special treats up for grabs too, including Ivy House pin badges and limited edition Ivy House postcard prints designed by our talented shareholder Gill Day, tickets to some of our most popular gigs, Lindy Hop classes... not to mention a limited number of tickets to our grand re-opening party (please note: the re-opening party will be a separate event to when we resume trading as we would like to keep the pub open to all when we first get back up and running).
HOW MUCH DO WE NEED TO RAISE?
Our target is £8,000. This will enable us to keep the Ivy House afloat for two months and ensure that it’s ship shape and ready to re-open as soon as we get the word that it’s safe to do so. We'll also be able to make some funds available to those staff not covered by the Job Retention Scheme.
We really hope that if you've been a customer of the Ivy House over the last year you'll pledge what you can to ensure that it's still there for you and plenty of others to enjoy when the lockdown is lifted.
It’s a cliché, but every little helps. These are the toughest times for everyone and we know that many people and families are struggling, so even if you just have £10 to spend on a couple of pints in better times, it would mean so much to us right now.
Thank you for your support and please share far and wide!
Please note, we don't know when we'll be able to re-open and this will affect when we can deliver rewards. It's likely that we will have to stagger the delivery of rewards over the first couple of months over the course of the initial few months we're trading again. All rewards to be collected from the Ivy House or emailed.
