Fingers
From Tuscany SE22
The Sound Lounge
10 November at 22:37 · London ·
It is with deep regret and the most unimaginable sadness that we have to announce our imminent closure.
This Wednesday 15th November, The Sound Lounge on Upper Tooting Road will close its doors for the last time and Barrowfen Properties (the owner and developer) will take possession of our beloved venue.
Wandsworth Council have sat back and watched this unfold. They have to date failed to enter into any form of dialogue with us over any aspect of the take over of our building.
We have, until now, avoided directing any public frustration or anger towards the developer (focussing instead on the failures of our local council) in the hope that negotiations could take place for a potential collaboration.
However, this week, Barrowfen Properties, in a bold rebuffal of our attempt to co-operate with them, sent us a final demand such that they would only allow us to remain in the building until 7th January 2018 (and not a day beyond) if we fulfill a set of non-negotiable criteria including: 1) sign a new lease (more costly + additional service charges & legal fees) in one lump sum 2) write to the council to express our support for the development 3) publish a public statement to express our support for the development and to say that we took occupation of the site unlawfully without landlord permission 4) write to all those who objected to the planning application to say that we do not agree with their objections and make that public 5) remove all evidence, both in our venue and online, of the #SaveTheSoundLounge campaign.
We have desperately tried to negotiate the proposed terms via our solicitors but the developers are not budging. We remain resolutely committed to the artistic and community ethos of The Sound Lounge. Even if we had been able to raise the money in such a short space of time to pay for the new lease, we are not prepared to lie to anyone or to betray our community: the people who contributed to our crowdfunding campaign, who helped to create The Sound Lounge, and those who stood by us when things became really hard.
We are incredibly grateful to the most wonderful community around us who have shown support, benevolence, and kindness beyond thinking! Particularly, at this time, to the Grosvenor Arms in Earlsfield, who have opened their doors to us and offered to house us until further notice without hesitation
<3
On Tuesday 14th November, Americana duo Fifth Floor, will be launching their album with us (with full band), The Sound Lounge. They have worked so hard promoting this show and we are so sorry to them for the disruption to such an important event. The launch WILL take place at The Grosvenor Arms, 204 Garratt Ln, London SW18 4ED. We are waiting on conformation from Angel Snow, the incredible artist who has written for Alison Krauss and whose song ‘Something I Want You To Know (Coming Out)’ amassed over 16 million hits on YouTube, and who has travelled all the way from Nashville, due to perform on Thursday. We understand and respect all artists’ decisions and we are thankful to anyone who comes along to The Grosvenor Arms to support the artists and us going forward.
We are profoundly grateful to every single person who has helped to build The Sound Lounge, who bought coffee from us in the early days when nobody knew about us, who waited patiently to pay whilst all our till systems stopped working, who ordered food from us and waited significantly longer than expected whilst we worked out how to deliver it as beautifully and efficiently (!!) as possible. Most of all, we are grateful to everyone who participated in our events. To all the performers; and to all those who came along to be affected by the performance; thank you.
The future now is uncertain, but no matter how utterly devastated we are right now, we are a resilient, and we will re-emerge.
We are the music makers, We are the dreamers of dreams
10 November at 22:37 · London ·
It is with deep regret and the most unimaginable sadness that we have to announce our imminent closure.
This Wednesday 15th November, The Sound Lounge on Upper Tooting Road will close its doors for the last time and Barrowfen Properties (the owner and developer) will take possession of our beloved venue.
Wandsworth Council have sat back and watched this unfold. They have to date failed to enter into any form of dialogue with us over any aspect of the take over of our building.
We have, until now, avoided directing any public frustration or anger towards the developer (focussing instead on the failures of our local council) in the hope that negotiations could take place for a potential collaboration.
However, this week, Barrowfen Properties, in a bold rebuffal of our attempt to co-operate with them, sent us a final demand such that they would only allow us to remain in the building until 7th January 2018 (and not a day beyond) if we fulfill a set of non-negotiable criteria including: 1) sign a new lease (more costly + additional service charges & legal fees) in one lump sum 2) write to the council to express our support for the development 3) publish a public statement to express our support for the development and to say that we took occupation of the site unlawfully without landlord permission 4) write to all those who objected to the planning application to say that we do not agree with their objections and make that public 5) remove all evidence, both in our venue and online, of the #SaveTheSoundLounge campaign.
We have desperately tried to negotiate the proposed terms via our solicitors but the developers are not budging. We remain resolutely committed to the artistic and community ethos of The Sound Lounge. Even if we had been able to raise the money in such a short space of time to pay for the new lease, we are not prepared to lie to anyone or to betray our community: the people who contributed to our crowdfunding campaign, who helped to create The Sound Lounge, and those who stood by us when things became really hard.
We are incredibly grateful to the most wonderful community around us who have shown support, benevolence, and kindness beyond thinking! Particularly, at this time, to the Grosvenor Arms in Earlsfield, who have opened their doors to us and offered to house us until further notice without hesitation
On Tuesday 14th November, Americana duo Fifth Floor, will be launching their album with us (with full band), The Sound Lounge. They have worked so hard promoting this show and we are so sorry to them for the disruption to such an important event. The launch WILL take place at The Grosvenor Arms, 204 Garratt Ln, London SW18 4ED. We are waiting on conformation from Angel Snow, the incredible artist who has written for Alison Krauss and whose song ‘Something I Want You To Know (Coming Out)’ amassed over 16 million hits on YouTube, and who has travelled all the way from Nashville, due to perform on Thursday. We understand and respect all artists’ decisions and we are thankful to anyone who comes along to The Grosvenor Arms to support the artists and us going forward.
We are profoundly grateful to every single person who has helped to build The Sound Lounge, who bought coffee from us in the early days when nobody knew about us, who waited patiently to pay whilst all our till systems stopped working, who ordered food from us and waited significantly longer than expected whilst we worked out how to deliver it as beautifully and efficiently (!!) as possible. Most of all, we are grateful to everyone who participated in our events. To all the performers; and to all those who came along to be affected by the performance; thank you.
The future now is uncertain, but no matter how utterly devastated we are right now, we are a resilient, and we will re-emerge.
We are the music makers, We are the dreamers of dreams
