"Culture Not Concrete"

---

Supporters gather to save the Ginglik nightclub  

A crowd of protesters gathered at the eastern tip of Shepherd’s Bush Green on Saturday evening in a show of support for the Ginglik nightclub, which faces closure.

The club, which is located in a converted public toilet underneath the Green, has been told by Hammersmith and Fulham Council that it will not be offered a new lease due to the planned £3.3million redevelopment of the common. The Council says the building needs £300,000 worth of repairs – money that the taxpayer cannot afford to pay.

Ginglik founders Colin Welsh and Tammi Willis say 2,000 people have signed an online petition to save the club.

“We are are stunned by the turnout today,” said Wells on Saturday evening. “When we see all these people here, it feels like all the hard work has been worth it,” she said.

She said negotiations with the Council to save the club were ongoing: “Things are starting to look a bit more positive,” she said. “They (the Council) do want to help us reach some sort of solution but we’ll wait and see.”

Welsh said he and Willis were pround of the club they had created under Shepherd’s Bush Green: “Ginglik has become more than just a nighclub – it is a community. The Council owe it to us to save Ginglik.”

Enjoying a free bar and barbecue, as well as live acts, Saturday evening’s Ginglik supporters carried banners reading: “Culture not concrete”, “Use my Council Tax to save Ginglik” and “Local musicians need Ginglik”.

Ginglik hosts comedy acts and live music and has been the launchpad for the careers of many new artists.

Club member Jessie Mangold had come all the way from her home in Brighton to attend the event. She said she had been a member of Ginglik ever since it started: “There’s nothing like it in this whole area and the clubs in town are too expensive,” she said. “They have really good acts on here and Tammi and Colin have worked really hard. They’ve turned it into a place everyone can use. It’s an example of what you can do if you put your mind to it.”

Local performer Earl Okin, who sang at Saturday’s rally, said if H&F did not save Ginglik, he was sure his own borough, Kensington and Chelsea, would take it. But he said he would prefer to see the club stay where it was: “I want it to be here for years so that when I do my final gig, I can say my career ended in a toilet,” he joked. 

Ginglik’s owners question the Council’s claim that it cannot afford to pay for the necessary repairs, and say they want to get an independent quote for the work, as soon as the Council releases a copy of their survey to them. 

They say the Council has now told them that if they come up with the money for the repairs themselves, they will be granted a new lease, but they object to this: “If we managed to come up with the amount needed, essentially all we would be doing is paying the Council to repair their property to allow them to continue charging us rent and rates. We do not think this is fair.”

They also say the public consultation on the plans for the regeneration of the Green was not clear: “At no point was it made evident that these plans would mean an end to Ginglik. We do not believe the public have been given a fair say.”

The Council says it is looking at a range of solutions to help save the club. “We support local traders and are particularly keen to see Ginglik remain in the borough. But the reality is taxpayers cannot afford the £300,000 it would cost to make this building safe,” Council Leader Stephen Greenhalgh said.

Yasmine Estaphanos

September 23, 2008