Grassroots venue The Piehouse to reopen in 2025

Deptford grassroots music venue The Piehouse, which was forced to close last November, is set to reopen in 2025 after a successful year of community campaigning.

In November 2023, Deptford received the news that the community venue, Matchstick Piehouse, was being forced to close its doors. Despite a largely successful fundraising campaign that raised £30,000 in donations, the venue was unable to pay off the covid rent arrears and were forced to shut down the space, leaving another culture hole within the South East London community. With two grassroots venues closing a week in London, Matchstick Piehouse was another name on a long list of indie spaces put to rest.

However, a group of ex-Matchstick staff, resident artists, and staff from other local grassroots venues have formed a new workers co-op under the name Piehouse Co-op and after a year of negotiation, with help from the Music Venues Trust, have agreed the heads of terms and look set to reopen the venue early 2025.

The 150-capacity venue is one of a handful in London that also offers access for wheelchair accessible users, and access to arts and culture is the thread that hangs together the ideology of Friends of the Piehouse. The workers co-op is committed to making sure the venue represents the diverse community that surrounds it, and aim to prioritise artist development for marginalised groups and hard to reach audiences.

The Piehouse is currently fundraising as the entire venue is unfurnished. The original venue was stripped of all its assets and is in new need of lights, sound, and furniture. A set cost of £15,000 must be raised by February 2025 to secure its grand opening.

The following is a breakdown of what the money is expected to be spent on:

£5K approx to cover worker co-op staff time between Dec-Jan on planning and pre-trading work

£2.5K on professional consultancy to support co-operative development and business planning

£2.5K on venue equipment

£5K on rent (this will cover the initial rent due on the property to give a security buffer in the first few months of trading to ensure healthy cashflow

Stretch target - £5K contingency fund. This would cover additional costs such as insurance, accountancy fees, ongoing business support, utilities, and other costs that might arise

To support, visit www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/the-piehouse-returns-help-us-open-the-doors#start

Staff and local artists have been having their say on what the reopening means for the area.

“As a touring musician trying to survive the current climate in the music Industry, having a place that allows me to work and have an income beside music and art is extremely valuable. Plus, I’d like to be part of a project that creates a safe space for thinkers and artists to gather and create community, especially in south London where creativity is prolific. Seeing all these amazing venues shutting down has been painful in the past years. We need to keep creativity alive, and for that spaces like the Piehouse are needed!” -Rosetta Carr, Staff

“I started to work in the venue after the lockdown. These days were full of joy and it was truly amazing to see communities being able to come together again. I got to know many amazing artists and saw some great shows spinning live music, queer cabarets, art events, refuge mikes or famous folk night. As a person who moved to the UK from abroad, matchstick has quickly become one of my many homes.” - Mia Cordova, staff

“The Piehouse is such an important space for London to have because not only are there already too few venues, but the ones that have been able to hold on have had to make a lot of decisions to survive which mean that it’s a really difficult landscape for artists and musicians to find affordable spaces to put on events. The core ethos of the Piehouse is to create a cultural space that supports the community around it, to help people who are usually underrepresented in the arts see themselves as involved cultural actors, deserving of space to explore their ideas.” - Sonya Woodruff, staff

“I joined Piehouse as a trainee sound engineer and I learned everything about running tech for live venues in it's walls! I got to meet so many musicians and other creatives during my time and the variety of genres that mixed and blossomed there was amazing, Piehouse was a home to many different scenes and upheld itself as an inclusive and safe space for anyone who came through. Spaces like this are so valuable for any individual to come and foster their creativity and strengthen their community!” - Grace O’Malley, Staff

“As an artist who strives to put on accessible parties, it is incredible news that the Piehouse Workers Coop have managed to successfully negotiate a lease on the famous railway arches that housed so much culture and community. Artists need spaces to foster communities, to start out, to try that idea that might not work, and to be able to do that in an accessible community space will be a dream.” - Liv Wynter, Artist

Lead photo: Jazz Noble