London is to lose yet another LGBTQ+ venue after plans to turn the The Apple Tree, a “quirky, non-conformist” pub in the heart of Clerkenwell, into an eco-decking firm’s showroom were presented to the council.
The Apple Tree, which failed to return after Covid, offered a safe haven to those living alternative lifestyles and LGBTQ+ communities.
The pub, which opened in 2013, has stood empty since the Covid crisis and documents filed at the Town Hall confirmed it was sold last year, dashing hopes that it could ever return to its queer glory.
Ecoscape, which supplies environment-ally friendly building products including railings and fences, are ready to move in once conversion works have taken place.
“Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and increased running costs, like many pubs in the UK, it was no longer viable for the business to keep operating,” said the applicant’s planning papers published on the council’s website.
“Subsequently, due to financial pressures, the business went into administration and the pub was sold to the applicant in 2024.”
The Apple Tree’s owner Lucy Fenton previously described the pub as a place for “people to go and be who they are, just how they want to”, adding: “If you don’t know where you are on your journey, then come here. You might meet like-minded folk, or we could even point you in the direction of what you’re looking for.
“There are so many things, like cultural reasons, that maybe mean [people] can’t be as open as they’d like to be. We’re a community venue – that’s what pubs are, they’re a community space. Pubs should be about fostering community.”
More than half of London’s LGBTQ+ venues closed between 2006 and 2022, Greater London Authority data has shown.
Numbers fell from 125 to 50, with venues citing the cost-of-living crisis and rising rents as being among the reasons for closing.
Just under a quarter of all London nightclubs shut their doors during the pandemic, according to the Night Time Industries Association.
In 2022 there were 198 nightclubs, a fall of 22% from 256 in 2019.
In January it was announced that the star in LGBTQ+ Lomdon’s crown, G-A-Y, would be sold.
