The Future of the Sydenham Beer Rebellion

[BeerRebellion]

Hello wonderful Sydenham Rebellion locals!

It's Matthew here, your friendly Rebellion bar person.

To briefly recap for those who haven't recently been in for a drink - Late Knights Brewery is no more (due to a split with the partners), and the 3 Beer Rebellions are now in the hands of the former Operations Manager for Late Knights. However, he has stated that he is prepared for the Sydenham lease to be offered to a group of locals.So I have said that I will take on the lease temporarily with my company until we can decide the best way to proceed. I would love to see the bar turned into a community-owned venture, taking some of the pressure off aggressive profitability and securing a long term future for what I believe is a damn cool little bar.

There are many ways for us to proceed, but as I've always said, I'd like to involve you all from day one. I may have mentioned in an earlier post that I'd like to hold a 'Town Meeting' where I could sit down with you all, run through the financial requirements of the business, discuss what investment is needed and talk through the opportunities for moving forward.

So as a starting point, I'm thinking this coming Tuesday (25 October) at 7pm might be a good time to have a meeting at the Bar. Please RSVP as a reply if you can - It would be good to know who is interested in getting involved.

Cheers

Matthew and Martine

[monkeyarms]

will do my best. no plans for Tues night, although kid-wrangling is always a known unknown...

[JonT]

Sounds interesting, I'll be there

[SirFoxworth]

My wife and I would be interested in coming along.

[Timbo79]

Will try to make it

[monkeyarms]

I attended this meeting last night.
Interesting stuff.

There were around 25 people there. The long and short of it is that if we want Beer Rebellion to become a community-run bar, we need to raise £10,000. This will secure an 8-year lease.

Matt (the originator of this thread) will be testing the waters by sending out an email today to all the people (60 or 70 of them) who put their names down on a list in Beer Rebellion, and asking how much they would be prepared to donate. This should tell us whether it's worth proceeding on to a fully-fledged crowdfunding campaign to raise the total amount.
(Obviously if not even these initial names - regular patrons of the bar - aren't prepared to stump up much, then we might well be on a hiding to nothing!)

During the meeting, some of the benefits of having the place as a community-run space became clear. It could be open during the day for family-oriented events, as a gallery space, and as space for workshops/tuition relevant to the needs of Sydenham residents. (From a bar/beer point of view, keeping it community-owned means cheaper and more interesting beer!)

I missed the start of the meeting. So I'm not 100% clear what that £10,000 literally buys (in terms of deposit and rent).
And I missed any discussions of what the bar's monthly overheads are – how much money it needs to clear to be profitable. I'd suggest strongly to Matt, if he reads this, that he includes a few FAQs covering all the salient points at the bottom of any emails he sends out to us interested parties – it'll save him having to constantly answer the same questions again and again from people like me!

In theory, £10,000 should be achievable, given that the Ivy House in Nunhead managed to raise £800,000 to buy their pub. It strikes me that the fact it is a lease rather than a bricks-and-mortar purchase is both a minus and a plus: the sum of money is much more achievable; but there could be slightly less incentive to donate from people. However, there was plenty of enthusiasm, goodwill and energy in the room last night: I think that if we go ahead with a fundraising campaign, there'll be no shortage of commitment and determination from those involved.

[paultreacy]

I've not been down to Beer Rebellion yet, believe it or not. I must visit.

If you need help with visuals, stills and / or video in a fundraising endeavour, I'd be delighted to help.

http://www.paultreacy.com

I'm still waiting to see what happens with the Greyhound which is probably an exercise in futility.

Good luck Beer Rebellion. Heard the chat on the Robert Elms BBC Radio London program. It whetted my appetite for sure.

- Paul.

[topofthehill]

I hope those 60 or 70 people and others have voted for Beer Rebellion in the Time Out Love London awards. For those who haven't yet voted but would like to there are still a few days left.
Winning such an award can only contribute to Beer Rebellion''s cause.

[Whiftoff]

Is there a link?

[Whiftoff]

Voted

http://www.timeout.com/london/things-to ... n-awards-3

[monkeyarms]

Next meeting is tomorrow night - MONDAY 31 October, 7.30pm
(at Beer Rebellion, obviously)
All welcome