Published
Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 17:00
- The collective has raised £260,000 to refurbish a former working men's club, which will reopen at the end of this year.
South London collective Sister Midnight is opening a community-owned live music venue in the London Borough of Lewisham later this year.
Formerly a working men's club, The Brookdale Club in Catford has sat empty since 2016. Speaking to Resident Advisor, Sister Midnight's Lenny Watson said Lewisham Council offered them the 1930s building at a peppercorn rent for ten years "in exchange for bringing it back into use as a community-owned music venue."
She added: "We want this to be an accessible, affordable and inclusive space for our community to champion local talent."
The Catford space is an interim option while Sister Midnight pursues its long-term goal of securing a permanent venue. The collective's original plan to buy The Ravensbourne Arms was delayed after the current owners asked for double the market value.
The former working men's club is owned by Catford Regeneration Partnership Limited–a subsidiary of Lewisham Council–and is earmarked for development sometime after 2030. In the meantime, Sister Midnight has been given the green light to take over.
"I'm delighted we've helped Sister Midnight to secure this space and establish Lewisham's first-ever community-owned live music venue," said Damien Egan, mayor of Lewisham.
Egan said the space will "support our local arts and music scene and help grow our nighttime economy. I hope this will serve as an important stepping stone towards a permanent home for Sister Midnight."
Sister Midnight raised £260,000 of a £515,000 target to refurbish the Catford building, which is scheduled to open at the end of this year. Donations came from fundraisers, the local community and organisations like The Beggars Group, which gave £50,000 and is home to labels including Rough Trade Records and XL Recordings.
At a time when the repercussions of the pandemic have been compounded by the cost-of-living crisis, Watson said community-owned models offer a constructive solution.
"I honestly think not-for-profit, cooperative society models like ours are the future for cultural spaces because there's so much more support and funding enabling venues to stay open," she told RA.
This approach, she added, has been "instrumental" to Sister Midnight's success. "I would encourage all venues and cultural spaces to adopt such a model if they can because it's just a game changer for how these spaces are run."
Watson formed the collective with cofounders Sophie Farrell and Lottie Pendlebury in 2018 in the basement of Deptford shop Sister Midnight Records, where they hosted vinyl listening parties that became open-deck nights. Farrell currently runs vinyl and party collective Social Records Society, which hosts open-deck and club nights across South-East London.
Next month, Sister Midnight will join Birkenhead venue Future Yard to host Collective Futures, a symposium celebrating the value of community spaces. A series of talks, discussions and workshops will take place with organisations including The Music Venues Trust and Arts Council England.
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Update, January 31st: This piece was updated with the name of the new Catford space, The Brookdale Club.