The Outside Project LGBTIQ+ Centre, Unit 1, 52 Lant Street, London, SE1 1RB
The LGBTIQ+ Centre is The Outside Project main HQ. We hold open and private meetings, groups and activities throughout the week. It is home to multiple LGBTIQ+ and Homelessness grassroots groups that we work alongside or support to develop. Please see our timetable below for regular weekly groups and check our pinned post on our Instagram page for any additional events or sessions.
Accessibility: Intercom door entry system. Wheelchair accessible entry and bathroom. Quiet space with weighted blanket, sensory toys and lights. Communication cards available. Travel refund available to those on low / no income.
WRITE TO US if you would like more information on access to our LGBTIQ+ Centre.
LGBTIQ+ CENTRE TIMETABLE
MONDAY
Every Monday African Rainbow Family takeover the LGBTIQ+ Centre from 9-5pm. African Rainbow Family are a ‘by and for’ grassroots charity working in solidarity with LGBTIQ+ people seeking asylum across the UK.
Contact Aisha to find out more about support and events: 07748758103
Find out more about African Rainbow Family across the UK here
Our partner organisation The Black Cap Community Hub takes place at Castlehaven Community Centre in Camden every Monday.
Black Cap LGBTQ+ Community HubWeekly Hang-out space. Snacks, soft drinks and activities available. 6-9pm, every Monday, 23 Castlehaven Road, NW1 8RU
More info on the Camden hub here
BOOK 28 LIBRARY Monday 5.30pm – 8.30pm, Saturday 2pm-5pm
Book 28 is an LGBTIQ+ library based at our LGBTIQ+ Centre. Drop in to browse, read and borrow queer books for free!
Check out the Book 28 Library website for information on events and to access their digital library – https://book28.weebly.com/
Email book28.library@gmail.com for more information.
How to access: Drop in Monday 5.30pm – 8.30pm, Saturday 2pm – 5pm
TUESDAY
CAFE QUEERO TUESDAYS 10am – 2pm
FREE QUEER SOBER SPACE every Tuesday for LGBTIQ+ people who are destitute, homeless, in recovery or feel isolated. Come and have coffee and breakfast with @cafequeero at our LGBTIQ+ Centre.
We have a friendly bunch of Cafe Queero regulars now. They make a decent coffee and can boil an egg. Crafts, puzzles, showers, library, quiet space and instruments to play with.
How to access: Drop in 10am – 2pm. Travel refund available.
You can purchase coffee to support Cafe Queero from https://www.hejcoffee.co.uk/product/cafe-queero/
QI GONG WITH MIQX 2.30pm – 3pm
Gentle Movement with Miqx every Tuesday. Free to attend and always welcoming to beginners.
WEDNESDAY
OUTSIDERS UNITED FOOTBALL PRACTICE 11am – 12pm
A non gendered, non competitive football team for LGBTIQ+ people. Strong ‘FUCK PE’ vibes due to being discouraged from joining teams at school. Beginners and newcomers welcome. Venue: Castlehaven Football Pitches, 21 Castlehaven Road, NW1 8RU.
QUEER HOMELESSNESS RECOVERY GROUP 1.30pm – 4pm
Find out more about our LGBTIQ+ Centre and how we can support you if you are worried about your housing. Get help and advice with practical and peer support following a period of homelessness. Get help with bills, housing search, ‘home making’ and settling into a new environment.
PRIDE LOUNGE 4pm – 7pm (dinner / last entry at 6pm)
Weekly peer support get together for our community who have at any time experienced LGBTIQ+ targeted hate or who have been affected by discriminatory micro-aggressions.
Come and join us, be yourself, feel welcomed and heard by your LGBTIQ+ peers. Our aim is to support each other to feel stronger.
We invite you to share a little about yourself and what you take pride and joy in, to tell us what you have found that has helped you to feel more resilient.
We invite you to also share your achievements big or small.
Let’s share something radical: our kindness.
How to access: open to anyone who has attended any of the other groups at the centre – speak to your group facilitator to RSVP.
THURSDAY
STAR LOUNGE 10.30am – 4pm
When we opened STAR Refuge in July 2020 we created a calm lounge area for guests to find resources, literature by and for survivors, sensory toys, comfort and a sense of safety and solidarity with other refuge residents. STAR Lounge is bringing that space into our LGBTIQ+ Centre in Borough, inviting past and present guests and the wider community to come together to support each other.
Grey from Open Barbers joins us once a month, and Sammy attends once a month to offer Reiki and massage treatments. Please email Maari@lgbtiqoutside.org to RSVP.
Twice a month the LGBTIQ+ Centre hosts ‘Fruit Loops’ – an important space for young survivors of domestic abuse in partnership with Women and Girls Network.
Repost WGN: Fruit Loops as named by our wonderful young people is a LGBTQIA+ social space. The group is open to all young women, non-binary and gender queer young people that identify as LGBTQIA+, aged 15-22.
We welcome ‘questioning’ young people. So if you’re unsure of, or have yet to decide your sexuality and/or gender, know this is a space for you. It’s fun, warm, creative and inclusive space that celebrates all kinds of queer people and centres the experience of trans, disabled and young people of colour.
Sign up here: Fruit Loops Sign-Up
FRIDAY
Weekly Creative Group led by Outreach Lead and Artist Holly Buckle.
Drop-in from 1-4pm where we will have chilled chat about different creative processes, make art together or work on your own projects or things you have been working on throughout the week at our other sessions and groups. All materials provided.
Contact Holly for more information about this session at: Holly@lgbtiqoutside.org
SATURDAY
OPEN HOUSE 2pm – 5pm
In collaboration with Book 28 Library and GenderSwap. Drop-in sober space every Saturday afternoon at our LGBTIQ+ Centre. Pick up a free binder, become a member of the library, relax in our sensory space.
Check out the Book 28 Library website for information on events and to access their digital library – https://book28.weebly.com/
SUNDAY
CLOSED
COMMUNITY CENTRE HISTORY
Laik Ecola, Co-Founder Director, in our LGBTIQ+ Centre at Clerkenwell Fire Station
Our Community Centre initially opened in April 2019 in the former Clerkenwell Fire Station, Central London. Alongside the Outside Projects weekly social, support and recovery groups the Community Centre quickly became a busy creative and meeting space home to many activist, community groups and creative projects:
Creme Anglaise Collective, Queerseum, African Rainbow Family, Black Cap Foundation, Friends of the Joiners Arms, Museum of Homelessness, Streets Kitchen, Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants , Stonewall‘s Trans Staff Network, Stonewall Housing‘s Reflective Practise and the London Intersex and Trans Community Healthcare Hub (LITCH).
The LGBTIQ+ Centre supported LGBTIQ+ projects to develop such as Cancer Support and Advocacy Group – Live Through This, Queer Youth Art Collective, Book 28 Library, Virtual Community Centre free/accessible party – Queer House Party, A London faction of the global Voices4 direct action group Voices 4 London, and the Trans Board Game Group.
The Centre closed to the wider community in March 2020 due to COVID19. The Centre and drill yard was used throughout the day by residents of our shelter and refuge services throughout lockdown. The Centre was also the base of the COVID19 Homeless Taskforce in partnership with Museum of Homelessness, Streets Kitchen and The Simon Community until we relocated and reopened at Lant Street in June 2021.