Always on
This project successfully funded on 3rd March 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
Pulse & Pickle - A Community Space Like No Other
London, Greater London, United Kingdom
Crowdfunder is secure
Your payment details are protected
Aim
Help us keep our community-led vegan restaurant and hub open, creating space for connection, belonging, and collective care in east London.
We are a not-for-profit vegan restaurant, cultural centre, a safe space and community hub in east London. A place where people come together to eat, learn, dream, and create.
In our first few months, we’ve opened our doors to artists, creatives, scientists, and neighbours who needed space to host events, workshops, and exhibitions that align with our values, especially those who can’t afford commercial venues or who don’t feel at home in mainstream spaces.
From music nights to art shows, from community dinners to skill-sharing workshops, our place has already become a home for ideas, friendship, and change, also regularly hosting over 15 diverse local (and international) groups.
But this project is about more than keeping a restaurant/café open. It’s about creating a foundation from which people can build, collaborate, and grow.
We know our project can become financially sustainable; we’ve learned how to run it, and we’ve seen the impact it already has. Yet, as with any grassroots start, there are costs we couldn’t predict. This moment is a short-term investment for a long-term gain for the community.
Every pound we make goes back into the project: shared with local growers, small and cooperative businesses, and our members who make this place possible. Your contribution helps us stand on our feet and continue offering space, food, and opportunities that belong to everyone.
As our idea is a little different from other projects in London, we decided to explore the question, would it be possible to create a space that is based on solidity and care rather than on charity and volunteering. We are “not for profit”, but we still pay ourselves a minimum living wage, and buy our produce from local organic farms.
This means that our costs are much higher, but it's the only sustainable future we can envision and we don’t compromise on those values. We want local and passionate farmers to be able to survive in dignity, and build a community, just like us.
And the same goes for the amazing people who bring themselves, their expertise, experience and talent and share them with us, either musicians, researchers, artists or workshop facilitators - we always make it clear we need to agree on a way that respects their time and work.
And still, we keep our prices affordable, while we serve slow vegan organic food that is made with care and thought, that respects us and the people who come to eat. Same goes for the workshops and events we charge for.
We offer a sliding scale of prices, and also make the effort to balance between the costs of the event and the price that people can pay, because we always want to make them as accommodating, accessible and inclusive as possible.
That’s where our belief in the need for a “free space”, one that isn’t a charity, is tested every day. Can a place like ours be made sustainable and survive the current economic and social pressures? We might not have the answers, but that doesn’t stop us from trying.
What makes P&P a place like no other
* This distinctive and complex project, unlike anything else in the city, responds to a critical need for a multifaceted safe space that offers practical solutions, hosts events, and supports collaborative projects. Our space acts as a hub that nurtures the growth of ideas, relationships, and alternative projects that challenge existing systems.
* An intergenerational, interfaith, migrant and queer represented project, cultivating networks with underrepresented craftspeople, cooperatives, climate activists, housing and anti-racism advocates, and other local groups working towards social change.
* By celebrating the simplicity and richness of plant-based cuisine, we highlight the potential of urban food growing and conscious sourcing, while addressing critical issues such as food security, land sovereignty, and the environmental impact of food production.
* A home for fostering connections across art, thought, culture, food, activism, and community, at a time when places like ours are disappearing.
* Encouraging artists to use our space for work, rehearsals, exhibitions, jams, performances, and workshops.
* Serving as a cornerstone in Walthamstow, contributing to a wider ecosystem of community-focused initiatives by connecting with established local networks across the city.
* Advocating for solidarity rather than charity. Paying fair wages to our members instead of expecting unpaid labour. Purchasing produce and equipment from cooperatives and businesses that do not exploit their workers.
Why are we crowdfunding now?
For the first year of the project, we relied entirely on our own personal funding. We didn’t want to depend on grants from the outset, nor did we want to crowdfund for an idea before putting it into practice and building it from the ground up.
That is exactly what we did this year. Despite many challenges along the way, we built the space with the help and creativity of the local community, opened our doors to thousands of people, and hosted dozens of events.
However, because we are committed to keeping our food prices as affordable as possible and subsidising many events ourselves, while our bills, rent, taxes, and business rates have risen, we have now exhausted our initial personal investment and can no longer cover the financial gap.
This is why we need your support now.
What are we planning for 2026?
* Curating many more themed events, including exhibitions, musical evenings, communal dinners, talks, film screenings, and workshops.
* Expanding our networks with local community gardens and grassroots initiatives.
* Hosting regular events that explore the links between food, politics, climate, and sustainable urban living, fostering shared learning within the community.
* Continuing to accommodate the groups who regularly use our space - including a queer chess club, writers’ sessions, international and local musicians (who rehearse in our back room), knitters, photography workshop, neurodivergent adults’ groups, community yoga, and dance.
* Supporting the relaunch of Cooperation Walthamstow food co-op.
* Transforming the flat roof of our back room into a functional and sustainable green roof, demonstrating the potential for this model to be scaled.
* Creating site-specific event in the shared public space outside P&P, in collaboration with neighbouring independent businesses, celebrating the diversity and creativity of our communities.
What will your money go to?
Covering our monthly shortfall, the gap between rising expenses (including business rates, rent, and bills) and our income from food and drink sales and events, allowing us to stay on our feet and continue paying ourselves and our partners fairly.
Finalising our green roof design and application process.
Allowing us to continue offering our space free of charge to grassroots groups.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made