Legendary London nightclub Heaven could be forced to close

Another day, another nightclub at risk in London. And LGBTQ+ venues are particularly suffering at the moment, with the capital losing The Glory and G-A-Y Late in the last couple of months alone. Now, the future of Heaven is in jeopardy.  

Heaven owner Jeremy Joseph has said the landlord wants to raise the club’s rent by £320,000, meaning that London’s most famous gay club might have to close. Joseph said he has entered a legal battle with the building’s landlord, The Arch Company. 

‘The last five months have been extremely stressful,’ Joseph wrote in an Instagram post. ‘Last September, Heaven had an automatic rent increase of £80,000 but that wasn’t enough for Arch Co who are wanting another £240,000 on top. That’s a total of increase of an extra £320,000 a year.

‘We have been fighting them for five months and they aren’t willing to back down so it’s going to go to arbitration and has cost us already nearly £10K in legal fees.’

‘The fight has just begun as it’s time to put public pressure on landlords,’ Joseph added. ‘This isn't just about Heaven, this is about every hospitality venue because if our rent goes up, it will increase the rent of other venues, because at arbitration, they use other comparable rents to value yours.

‘Please support, because we are not the only venue that is at risk because of landlords, it’s time to fight back and protect hospitality, too many venues have closed, including G-A-Y Late.’

The Arch Company told the BBC that Heaven was ‘a long-term and valued customer’.

‘We have been working closely with them to reach an agreement on the market rent for their premises,’ it said in a statement.

‘Unfortunately, we have not been able to agree this between ourselves and so an independent third party has now been appointed to help resolve [it].’

Here’s our list of the best gay clubs in London. 

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