The Africa Centre in Southwark has shut, along with one of London’s best west African restaurants

When the Africa Centre was forced to leave its home in Covent Garden in 2013, there was uproar. The centre was founded in 1961 with the aim of being a cultural, political and social hub for the African diaspora in Britain. It spent 50 glorious years at 38 King Street, supporting the Black British music scene, platforming literary talent, hosting political figures and welcoming the likes of Wole Soyinka, Maya Angelou, Julius Nyerere, Chinua Achebe and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. 

But in 2012, despite a Save the Africa Centre campaign and a £12m restoration project, the building proved too expensive and was sold to property developers. It then took nearly a decade for the Africa Centre to reopen. It found a new home on Great Suffolk Street in Southwark in 2022 and all seemed well again. But now that site’s future is up in the air, too. 

In July, the Africa Centre revealed that it was facing ‘one of the most serious financial crises in its history’. The building has been temporarily closed since, and the organisation says that it’s financially unsustainable due to rising operational costs, reduced grant funding and inflationary pressures. Now, it’s considering a sale. 

The sale of the Great Suffolk Street property is just one of the options that the centre is exploring right now. If a sale does happen, it plans to move to a ‘more appropriate temporary or permanent space’. 

The building is also home to Senegalese restaurant Little Baobab, which is one of the best west African restaurants in the city right now. With the site closed, Little Baobab has had to cancel all of its bookings over the last month, though has been able to host events in other venues in the meantime. Its future is also uncertain.  

There is a way to help, though. The centre has launched a fundraising campaign with a goal of £100,000, which it says would be enough to ‘help reopen the doors, stabilise operations and create breathing space for a more resilient future’.

In the long term, the Africa Centre estimates that it will need to raise £2 million to fully realise its third iteration, which it hopes will be ‘a stronger, more resilient and more representative organisation that learns from the challenges of today while building on the powerful legacy of over 60 years of extraordinary achievement’. 

ICYMI: This North African grill is the best restaurant in Soho right now. 

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