Following the unexpected temporary closure of SET Social, SET has launched a new fundraising campaign with a target of £23,000 to help the venue recover and safeguard the future of our independent arts and community programme in Peckham. Read our full statement and how you can help.

Context and Challenge

On Monday 22nd June, after an unexpected temporary six-week closure, we finally reopened the doors to our beloved arts and social club, SET Social, in Peckham. While we’re incredibly relieved to welcome our members back, the weeks we spent closed have unfortunately dealt a severe financial blow to the venue. Our absence was due to the building transitioning between landlords, requiring us to pause operations while the administrative work for our new lease was finalised. These transitions are inherently slow and full of moving parts, and because we operate on thin margins as a non-profit charity, missing a month of trade while fixed operational costs mounted has left us in a vulnerable position.

Running a multidisciplinary arts venue and community space in the current economic climate is already uniquely challenging. Like many grassroots cultural spaces and charities across the country, we’re navigating a tough landscape defined by soaring energy prices, high inflation, and an ongoing cost-of-living crisis. We’re fully aware these pressures affect everyone, but for an arts- and community-focused space, it means our day-to-day running costs keep going up, just as the financial resources of the people we serve are being stretched to the absolute limit.

This is exactly why the work of SET - the charity SET Social is part of - is so essential. Founded by artists, SET works across London to transform empty buildings into genuinely affordable, artist- and community-focused spaces, ensuring that space for culture remains open, alive and accessible to everyone at a time when so many artists and vital venues are being priced out of the city. SET Social is how that mission lives here in Peckham: an affordable, accessible, fully-inclusive arts and social club, library, cafe, and garden where art and social justice meet under one roof. Our annual membership fees are kept at just £12, and are completely free for our immediate SE15 neighbours. To sustain our venue and subsidise our daily visual arts, music, and community programmes, we rely on a consistent cycle of trade, including the day-to-day running of our bar and café, annual membership fees, and booking fees from artists and community organisers. This model allows us to keep our space accessible, to waive booking fees for the grassroots groups and charities who need us most, and to ensure our calendar remains inclusive and responsive to the needs of the area.

The disruption of temporary closure broke that vital cycle that keeps our operations stable. That’s why we’re launching this appeal to raise £23,000 by the end of September 2026. This goal has been calculated to cover the core overheads and utility costs we accrued while our doors were shut. By clearing these outstanding costs now, we ensure that our future revenue - from our bar, memberships, and bookings - can go exactly where it belongs: back into our arts programming and community initiatives, returning us to the stable footing required to sustain our mission.

To be clear: This campaign is a proactive step to ensure our continued operation and stability. We are not facing any immediate closure threats; rather, we’re acting now to secure the resources needed to keep our space and programming thriving for our community.

If we don’t reach this goal, our recovery will be much slower, and we may be forced to operate at a more limited capacity. This could mean reduced opening hours, a scaled-back arts programme, and fewer subsidised community sessions. By hitting our target, we avoid these compromises and ensure we can continue to grow our support for local artists and community groups rather than simply covering fixed costs.

Every single penny raised through this campaign goes directly into strengthening the foundation and stability of our SET Social venue in Peckham, allowing us to continue to maintain and evolve our programme, while ensuring the communities who need us can rely on us to be around for years to come. We absolutely love our community here, and we are constantly astounded by how supportive and kind you have been over the years, and especially over these last few weeks. It is our community who make SET Social, and by extension, SET, what it is today. We’re reaching out to invite you to help us build this next chapter together, ensuring the space remains safe, open, and at the very heart of the needs of our community.

While we’ve laid out some examples below of what different donation amounts contribute towards, please know that we welcome and deeply appreciate support of any size. Every single contribution truly helps us move forward.

Finally, because SET is a registered charity, every eligible donation made here can qualify for Gift Aid. This adds an extra 25% to your contribution at absolutely no extra cost to you, and it is a simple box you can select at the very end of the donation process.

SET Social’s Impact

At the very heart of SET Social is an evolving visual arts, music, and community programme designed to remain entirely responsive to the needs of local artists, community groups and residents in South East London, particularly those within Peckham. Because of our foundational commitment to affordability, accessibility, and self-expression, we experience a constant, high demand from independent artists and organisers looking for a stable space to host workshops, film screenings, talks, reading groups, and various other events. Since opening in 2023, this commitment has allowed the venue to become a trusted, regular home for grassroots cultural activities, hosting dedicated writing and poetry initiatives such as the Page of Wands and Resonance Poetry, workshops like Analogue Animation, drawing classes from Peckham Life Drawing, Wednesday clubs night including Peckham Chess Club and Mahjong Club, Open Decks for local and upcoming DJs, and much more.

We work closely with artists and community groups through transparent open calls and collaborative opportunities, ensuring our programming is shaped directly by the people who inhabit the space and its surrounding communities. The creation of the SET Stage Gallery is an example of this growth. Founded by Elizabeth Alster, and run entirely by volunteers, this dedicated space inside the venue provides a non-profit platform for underrepresented contemporary artists who face systemic barriers or otherwise have limited access to creative venues in London, ensuring that all proceeds from exhibitions go directly back to the artists themselves.

Our support for filmmakers and other moving image practitioners have grown in a similarly significant way since we launched the SET Film Festival in 2023. Now preparing for its fourth edition this coming November 2026, the festival has become a major cultural anchor for the venue. Over the years, our open calls for the festival have attracted thousands of submissions from emerging and established filmmakers alike. This incredible volume of interest highlights just how vital low-cost platforms are in the current landscape, allowing us to showcase a vast range of contemporary, artist-led, and archival cinema while keeping ticket prices strictly affordable for the public. Across our festival, regular evening screenings, and volunteer-run exhibitions, we’ve been privileged to support and platform well over 100 independent artists and filmmakers.

Alongside the visual arts calendar, our community engagement remains focused on providing direct vital space for local charities, advocacy groups, and networks of care to conduct their work. We regularly partner with organisations such as Arts for Dementia and KeyRing to help them run sessions to their cohort, with members from KeyRing even becoming a vital addition to our weekly community garden sessions, where volunteers grow vegetables and cook communal meals. We’ve collaborated with mental health collectives, such as Misery, and have established a revolving library corner in the venue’s hall. This space has hosted previous initiatives, including the Think Big Read Library (2023-24, led by writer and organiser Oisín Roberts, which lent hundreds of books and hosted an evolving programme of readings, screenings, workshops, and markets, all centered around the ethos of care, accessibility, and collective learning. This year, the space will feature a new project led by ESEA Green Lions.

By completely waiving venue booking fees for local grassroots campaigns, mutual aid groups, and charities, we ensure that those doing vital social justice work in Southeast London can focus their limited resources entirely on their causes rather than their overheads. This ethos of open access extends to our monthly Community Days and Markets, which provide an affordable platform for local makers, independent traders, and charities to showcase their work, sell their goods, and reach wider audiences. This market has quickly become a local favourite, drawing in large crowds to support independent talent and strengthen neighbourhood communities.

How You Can Support Us

We understand that financial times are incredibly difficult for individuals right now, and we only ask for what you can reasonably spare us. While we welcome and deeply appreciate support of any size, we understand it can be helpful to see how different contributions can practically sustain the day-to-day realities of SET Social.

What Happens If We Don’t Reach the Target?

Because transparency is incredibly important to us, we want to be completely open about our financial outlook. If we don’t reach our full £23,000 target by the end of September 2026, SET Social will not close its doors. However, failing to bridge this gap will mean we have to manage our recovery more slowly, which could force us to operate at a more limited capacity.

This could mean reduced opening hours, a scaled-back arts programme, and fewer subsidised community sessions for local groups. If this funding gap remains, our limited resources will be forced toward covering essential building overheads, rather than the creative initiatives that make this space vital. Reaching our goal allows us to avoid these compromises and continue growing our support for local artists and community groups rather than simply covering fixed costs.

Furthermore, should our long-term venue situation change, every contribution raised through this appeal remains bound to supporting the mission, ethos, and survival of SET Social in Peckham. Your support will go solely toward keeping this community space alive and thriving.

Alternative Ways You Can Support Us

We know that making a financial contribution isn’t possible for everyone right now. If you’re not in a position to donate today, you can still play a massive part in protecting our future through your daily actions over the next few months: