Ravensbourne Arms

Above photo, 2012.

Above photo 2016.

Above photo 2016, by The Greenwich Wire.

Above photo, circa 2022, by Sister Midnight.

Above Google image, March 2023.

From the https://londonist.com 25 January 2022, By Will Noble.

This South London Pub Urgently Needs You To Save Its Future.

The future of a currently disused Lewisham pub hangs in the balance, after a collective hoping to turn it into a community-owned live music venue say they've been gazumped by a private bidder.

The Ravensbourne Arms in Ladywell closed in 2016, but last year, Sister Midnight — a community collective championing the south London music scene — spearheaded a £500k crowdfunding project to lease the pub by April 2022, transforming it into a hub for lovers of live music.

£225k has been raised to date, with Blackheath resident and Hootenanny master of ceremonies, Jools Holland, among the shareholders.

A sketch by steering group member @alastairjhoward giving an idea of what the new Ravensbourne Arms might look like as a community pub. Image: Sister Midnight.

Now though, Sister Midnight — which is led by Sophie Farrell, Lenny Watson and Verity Hobbs, and started out in 2018 as a grassroots music venue in Deptford — says a private buyer has suddenly stepped in, offering £700k to the building's owners. That offer has apparently been accepted.

It's now all hands on deck, as Sister Midnight aims to ramp up crowdfunding and hit a target of at least £350k within two weeks, showing the fight for this venue isn't yet over.

Donations from £25 upwards are being accepted, as well as the opportunity to buy shares in the pub, starting at £100.

Sophie Farrell, Lenny Watson and Verity Hobbs of Sister Collective, who are trying to turn the Ravensbourne Arms into a live music community hub.

It's unclear what the redbrick 1930s building would become, should the private investors win the bid.

Says Sister Midnight: "If successful, London would see the pub reopened as a democratic, not-for-profit community space, but if unsuccessful and the pub is sold to private owners there are no guarantees about what the future of the Ravensbourne Arms will hold."

South London post-punk band Goat Girl, added: "Having community run venues is so important, especially now with all the venues that are closing basically because of gentrification. With the model that Sister Midnight are pushing for being community owned, it's not in the hands of big landlords."

London has had some great successes with community-owned pubs before now, with the likes of The Ivy House in Nunhead, and the Antwerp Arms in Tottenham.

From the https://greenwichwire.co.uk 11 March, 2024, By Darryl Chamberlain.

Lewisham’s Ravensbourne Arms pub could be turned into flats.

The Ravensbourne Arms in 2016, days before the pub closed. Credit: The Greenwich Wire.

A closed Lewisham pub that was the subject of a campaign to turn it into a community music venue could be turned into flats if a developer has its way.

The Ravensbourne Arms on Lewisham High Street, which was owned by the pub and property company Antic, was closed in October 2016 after planning permission was given for flats above the bar. The building was sold shortly afterwards.

While the upstairs floors were converted into seven flats, the bar has remained empty and boarded up since then.

Now Ravensbourne Arms Ltd has applied to Lewisham Council to convert the bar space into four flats.

In 2021 a Deptford record shop, Sister Midnight, launched a crowdfunding campaign to buy the space and turn it into a community music venue. Lewisham Council has since offered it the Brookdale Club in Catford, with investors’ cash being used to renovate the dilapidated site.

Planning documents show that the Ravensbourne Arms building had been on offer for £3.2 million; Sister Midnight told its crowdfunding investors in May 2022 that independent valuers had put the price at between £1.6 million and £1.9 million and that it had an offer rejected.

The developer claims that “no offer has been made for the site in the last seven years” and that the pub is unviable.

The Ravensbourne Arms was originally known as the "Coach & Horses" but was taken over by Antic in 2011 and renamed. The “Ravensbourne Arms” title was previously used by a pub in Coldbath Street, which itself was converted into flats in the 1990s.

The planning application can be found on the Lewisham Council website, where comments can be left too.

From the https://greenwichwire.co.uk by Darryl Chamberlain, 1 May, 2026.

Lewisham’s closed Ravensbourne Arms could be turned into ten-room HMO.

The Ravensbourne Arms closed in October 2016.

Image: The Greenwich Wire, 2024.

Update, May 1: The planning application has been withdrawn, Salamander News reports.

A pub in Lewisham that had been at the centre of a campaign to turn it into a community music venue could become a ten-room HMO if a developer is successful.

The Ravensbourne Arms on Lewisham High Street closed in 2016 after the pub company Antic secured permission to turn the top floor into flats and sold the building.

The pub would be turned into a co-living space with ensuite rooms, shared kitchen and a co-working space in the basement, according to planning documents.

Once known as the "George & Dragon," (not to my knowledge, it was the "Coach and Horses" less someone knows differently. Paul Skelton,) the ground floor of the building – which is on Lewisham Council’s local heritage list – has been empty ever since.

Five years ago, Sister Midnight, which ran a record shop in Deptford, began a crowdfunding campaign to buy the pub and turn it into a community-run venue, which was backed by Jools Holland and the Dublin band Fontaines DC.

But the campaigners said the building’s owners refused to entertain the idea and they have since been offered the disused Brookdale social club in Catford by the council.

Two years ago Lewisham Council threw out plans to turn the ground floor of the Ravensbourne Arms into four flats, saying there was no authoritative evidence that the pub could not be reopened, and citing the Sister Midnight campaign as evidence.

Pub covered in flyposters 2024. The pub in 2024: Ten people could be living on the ground floor. Image: The Greenwich Wire.

But now Eastfield Investments, which has agreed to buy the ground floor and basement for £750,000, says no formal offer was made by the group to take on the pub. It says that the pub has been on the market since 2018, with only three offers, including the one from Eastfield.

Owners of 20 existing pubs in an area between Nunhead and Greenwich were also asked in 2019 if they would like to take on the property, the developer says.

“The recorded market response shows weak engagement and poor conversion, with viewings and enquiries generating only a small number of formal offers, none from an existing pub operator seeking to retain the premises as a public house, and (where offers were made) they were conditional on securing a change of use,” a marketing report says.

“Community-led interest is also documented transparently, but did not result in a deliverable transaction at market value.”

Residents can comment on the proposal on Lewisham Council’s planning website.

Sister Midnight has raised £365,000 so far to renovate the Brookdale Club, and until the end of this month anyone who invests in community shares will have their money match-funded by the Music Venue Trust and Co-operatives UK, meaning every £100 becomes £300.