G-A-Y owner Jeremy Joseph offers London’s Heaven nightclub as a vaccination centre
Heaven, one of London’s most well-known LGBT+ nightclub. (PinkNews)
London’s G-A-Y nightclub wants to become a COVID-19 vaccination centre, its owner Jeremy Joseph has revealed.
Writing on Twitter on Wednesday (6 January), Joseph said vaccinations were “the answer” to the coronavirus pandemic, and offered up his venue to public health officials as a vaccination centre.
“Like other hospitality venues, on Sunday, we wrote to Westminister Council offering heaven Nightclub as a vaccination centre, it’s an empty venue already split into booths,” he wrote
“It would be an honour if it was used while closed to help vaccinate people.”
Vaccination Is The Answer
Like other Hospitality venues, On Sunday, We wrote to Westminister Council Offering Heaven Nightclub As a vaccination centre, its an empty venue already split into booths, it would be an honour if it was used while closed to help vaccinate people. ?
— Jeremy Joseph G-A-Y (@JeremyJoseph) January 6, 2021
The Royal Vauxhall Tavern was also offered up as a vaccination centre on 31 December by CEO James Lindsay, who said the club had “ample space for NHS staff and volunteers”.
“We want to help,” he pleaded.
James Lindsay, RVT CEO
Hi @BorisJohnson, @MattHancock
Following @BrewDogJames tweet we’d like to offer up our venue to assist with the vaccination rollout.
The RVT has ample space for NHS staff and volunteers, over two floors.
We want to help. pic.twitter.com/WLzl3KQKIU— Royal Vauxhall Tavern (@thervt) December 31, 2020
Bars and clubs across the UK have been shut in an effort to bring down rapidly rising coronavirus case numbers – leaving thousands of venues empty.
And some bar and club owners have taken it upon themselves to offer their properties up as potential vaccination hubs in an effort to get COVID-19 vaccines rolled out as quickly as possible.
The Royal Vauxhall Tavern has not yet received a response from the government after it offered its venue up as a vaccination centre on 31 December.
Meanwhile, Joseph and the other hospitality venues who wrote to Westminster City Council on Sunday (3 January) have not yet reported a response.
G-A-Y owner Jeremy Joseph previously took legal action against coronavirus restrictions
G-A-Y owner Jeremy Joseph’s plea comes after he launched a legal challenge against government coronavirus restrictions on bars and clubs in October.
At that time, bars and clubs were required to close by 10pm – a measure which Joseph blasted as being “detrimental to the hospitality sector” – and he promised to take action.
He launched a legal challenge on 5 October, 2020, but at the end of the month, he revealed that the courts had refused to hear his case.
Jeremy Joseph, who also runs G-A-Y in Manchester, claimed at the time that there was “no good reason” for the 10pm curfew and said it would only serve to put hospitality “out of business”.
Since then, coronavirus cases have spiralled out of control in the UK, with a new variant detected that is thought to be up to 70 per cent more transmissible than the original strain.
Boris Johnson announced on Monday that England would be following Scotland into the UK’s most stringent lockdown since March 2020 in a bid to stem surging infection rates and hospitalisations.
“It is clear that we need to do more to bring this new variant under control,” Johnson said in a televised address.
“That means the government is once again instruction you to stay at home.”
