Black Cap activist reflects on 10-year fight as legendary LGBTQ+ venue finally reopens (EXCLUSIVE)

After more than a decade of protests, planning battles and tireless community campaigning, London’s iconic LGBTQ+ pub the Black Cap is finally preparing to reopen its doors. Once a cornerstone of Camden nightlife and a historic home for drag, cabaret and queer performance, the venue closed in 2015 – sparking a grassroots movement determined to protect its legacy and secure its future.

Now, with a confirmed relaunch date on the horizon and a newly-restored space ready to welcome audiences again, campaigners say the moment feels both emotional and hard-won.

Attitude speaks to campaign representative Alex Green about what the reopening means for the community, the challenges faced behind the scenes, and why LGBTQ+ venues like the Black Cap still matter in 2026.

Attitude: After such a long road, what does it feel like knowing the Black Cap finally has a confirmed reopening date?

Alex: It’s wonderful. It has been a hard slog that, at times, felt hopeless. But despite some people telling us we were crazy and that it would never happen – we stood firm, did the hard work, argued the case and it paid off. 

I will say though while The Black Cap Community and #WeAreTheBlackCap campaign may have saved the Black Cap – the LT Management team, led by Mark Lewis (who will run the Cap) have rescued and restored it beautifully celebrating its historic importance and importantly for our community shown respect for the Cap’s LGBTQ+ legendary landmark status.   

Why does the Black Cap still matter so much to London’s LGBTQ+ community?

For me there are spaces and there are places – the Cap has is both. We have very few ‘places’ left that hold LGBTQ+ history in their bones. The Black Cap, The Royal Vauxhall Tavern, The City of Quebec among a few others stand as places that offered our community a safe haven long before Homosexuality was made partially legal in 1967 and have (despite many challenges and changes) continued to do so.  

Our community is brilliant, entrepreneurial, and creative – we can pop up anywhere and be fabulous.  But there is a huge difference in creating and being in ‘any bar’ than creating and being in one of our own safe places. The issue of safety and freedom to be yourself is at the heart of our LGBTQ+ important places – but imagine a world without drag or LGBTQ+ presence in our lives, media, culture!  LGBTQ+ places provide some level of security, where we can feel safe enough to let go and be ourselves, and create our own unique take on live, love and the world.  I see our places as an investment by the wider community – let us be – and we then feed our joy back into the wider world as we always have done – and you are welcome. 

There have been a few delays over the years – what’s different this time that makes the reopening feel real?

LT Management. The new management team, who the owners KH3, have given the job to restore and relaunch the Black Cap as an LGBTQ+ pub, performance venue, and now B&B. Mark Lewis and the LTM team have asked questions, listen to the answers, adapted their plans to reflect what the LGBTQ+ community have said.  I think people will be surprised at the level of care they have taken to restore some of the important artefacts, images, look and feel of the Cap.  

That level of financial investment that has been put into the renovation coupled with the engagement and commitment to respect the LGBTQ+ history gives me confidence that it will now happen. Making sure the Cap can work as a successful and sustainable business is essential.  What they have create now should, as the Cap always, allow it to adapt to offer a safe and exciting place for the LGBTQ+ community and our friends going forward. But now our community has to re-embrace our beloved Black Cap and make it home again.    They have re-built it so!

What were some of the biggest challenges the campaign faced behind the scenes?

I have been involved in many campaigns over my many years and by their nature are a challenge. But the one thing anyone who has done any campaigning will tell you is that keeping people engaged and active, for even a short time, is tough. The #WeAreTheBlackCap campaign has been no different.  

Dealing with the very difficult original owner who closed the Cap and his team was a battle of wills. A scrap between downright anger and common sense against total blinkered egomania. 
We have to thank so many people at Camden Council here for their mediation and ongoing support to safe the Black Cap – using all the levers available to them. 

I think, to be totally honest, the thing that we have found most challenging is the people from the LGBTQ+ community who have who, shall we be kind and say, have not been supportive of the campaign.  It has gotten pretty ugly and distressing at times. To stand alongside amazing people who have put themselves out there, given time, skills and talents to fight for our community – to them see them get insulted and disrespected by the very people they are standing up is heartbreaking. 

I could not be prouder of the Black Cap Community team and all those who came and stood at the front line every Saturday for over a decade. The level of commitment and resilience of the Black Cap Community team has been incredible.   

For readers who never experienced the original venue, how would you describe a classic night at the Black Cap?

Unpretentious, fabulous madness. I loved it because we knew it was our pub, our drag, our safe space – but where everyone was welcome.  Long before other venues embraced the wider LGBTQ+ family the Cap welcomed all and everyone dancing side by side, responding to the call and response madness of the legend HRH Regina Fong, right through to the Meth’s (ME) brilliant, eclectic club nights before it sadly closed in 2015. 

What do you hope people feel when they walk through the doors again?

Excited and proud – we didn’t let her go. We protected her the way she protected us and hopefully will again. 

Our hope is that a whole new generation of LGBTQ+ people find the joy and happiness we all felt – that they can find their chosen families and have fabulous nights and wonderful lives knowing they have her, the Cap, to there as a safe and welcoming place. 

What should people expect from this new era of the venue?

Drag. The best and most fabulous hopefully. New talent and established pushing the boundaries. Brilliant club nights and a place for community to gather.  
The place is back – it’s ours for the taking – but we have to go and be and do. 

Do you think this reopening says something bigger about the future of LGBTQ+ nightlife in the UK?

I hope so. We’ve had a blow torch to our spaces and places over the past two decades. The world has changed, our community has changed, what we need and want from our spaces and places has changed. 

Sadly, we don’t own many of our spaces and places, so those who do, and are willing as the new Cap team are, to provide those spaces and places, need us to tell them what we need and want. We have to go and be and do brilliant work in these spaces and places to keep them.