Hi, I’m Matthew Morgan — a queer Black artist and the founder of COVEN, a grassroots queer community space in Hackney.

COVEN was built as a sanctuary: a place where queer people — especially QPOC, trans people, disabled artists, and those who don’t often feel safe in mainstream nightlife — could gather, create, perform, rehearse, learn, and feel held.

Since opening, we’ve welcomed over 6,000 people and supported over 100 artists. We’ve hosted everything from live music and cabaret, to workshops, sober community nights, rehearsals, film screenings, life drawing, and mutual-aid driven community events. COVEN isn’t just a venue — it’s a home.

And now we’re fighting to survive long enough to end our Haggerston chapter with dignity. I know the community has already done so much for us and asking for help this one last time is absolutely a last resort.

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What’s been happening?

Over the past few months, COVEN has been subjected to an ongoing campaign of hostility and false complaints from neighbouring residents who have explicitly expressed that they don’t want us next to them because they think it will affect their house value. They have admitted to reporting us repeatedly to multiple authorities.

As a result, we’ve faced repeated enforcement action and restrictions based on unverified allegations, vexatious complaints and misinformation, despite our consistent good-faith efforts to work with the Council and operate responsibly. We have a formal complaint in with Hackney Council currently and we’re likely to pursue legal action.

This has gone beyond the council, with them even messaging friends of mine on Instagram and even my landlord attempting to mischaracterise myself and this wonderful community that we’ve built. This has never been about noise or any real issues presented by us. It is fully about colonising a part of London which is historically been a safe space for queer people and for POC.

The reality is simple:

We haven’t been able to operate properly for the last 6 weeks.

That includes the entire Christmas / New Year period — the time a venue like ours normally relies upon to survive winter.

But due to the volume and nature of these complaints, we’ve effectively been shut down from trading — even though we’ve repeatedly cooperated and been completely compliant with council regulations. We were in track to earn around £40,000 over the Christmas period which would’ve set us up for the next year.

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Why we need help now

We have a 6-month break clause in our lease which comes to an end in April. We are doing everything possible to reach that point without collapsing financially.

We have also secured a new space for summer and beyond, and we are determined that COVEN will continue — but right now we’re in a brutal in-between: trapped paying costs for a space we’ve been unable to operate.

And the hardest part is this:

We have artists and community events already booked for the coming weeks.

Some performers have been working towards these nights for months — and many depend on these bookings for income and visibility.

We don’t want the story of COVEN to be:

“they were pushed out, and everything was cancelled.”

We want it to be:

“they made it to the finish line, honoured the community, and rose again elsewhere.”

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What your support will cover

Every pound goes towards keeping COVEN alive long enough to:

1. honour our remaining programme, and

2. reach the point where we can legally and financially exit this space.

Funds raised will be used for:

• Rent and fixed bills (we are currently paying overheads while unable to trade)

• Basic staffing costs (so we can run final events safely and responsibly)

• Artist fees & guarantees for booked performers

• Security & stewarding to protect our community and keep events safe

• Legal/admin

• Moving/storage costs as we transition to our new home

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The bigger picture

There are fewer and fewer queer spaces in London every year. Spaces like this don’t disappear because the community stops needing them — they disappear because the system makes it impossible to survive.

COVEN was created to protect the culture.

To protect each other.

To be a haven for people who are constantly told to “go somewhere else”.

But there is nowhere else.

Not unless we build it ourselves — again, and again, and again.

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If you’ve ever danced here, performed here, felt safe here…

Please consider donating, and forging a future of love as an act of resistance.

And if you can’t donate, please share this fundraiser — it genuinely makes a difference.

COVEN has been built through love, labour, and community.

Right now, we need that community to hold us for a moment — so we can finish this chapter with dignity and carry COVEN into its next life.

With love and gratitude,

Matthew Morgan

Founder of COVEN