Two and a half years into running The Divine on Stoke Newington Road, co-founder John Sizzle (alongside longtime business partner Jonny Woo) is characteristically undaunted - even as the hospitality industry faces what he frankly describes as "a perfect storm for closure."
Catching up with me over the phone one rushed lunchtime, sounds of the bar being resuscitated in the background, I get the gossip. The Divine opened on 2 February 2024, conceived as what John calls "the naughty little sister of The Glory", the beloved Hackney queer pub the pair ran for a decade before it.
Built on the same founding ethos of platforming queer performance artists and keeping an open-door policy for anyone wanting to cause a spectacle, The Divine represents a continuation rather than a reinvention. The bigger, more solid stage has been one of its most celebrated upgrades, giving performers a proper platform to grow and shine.
And grow they have. One of his most cherished highlights from the past two years has been watching individuals arrive, tentatively perhaps, nervously performing a single drag number in a competition - and transmogrifying, within months, into confident, “fantastic creatures” running their own nights and managing the bar.
"People grow up in these spaces," he says warmly. "They come in a little bit shy and awkward, and then they turn into massive witches." *enter cackle here*. It's this nurturing of community, confidence and creative identity that sits at the heart of what The Divine does, “giving people the armour to deal with the real world out there”. What sparkling protection it is too!
The challenges, of course, are looming and inclement. Business rates at the venue have ballooned from £8,000 to £28,000 in just two years. Corporation tax has risen, national insurance contributions have increased, and the ripple effects of war in Ukraine/Iran and ongoing global instability continue to push up supplier costs.
A cost-of-living crisis means younger audiences - the very people these spaces exist to serve - have less disposable income to spend on a night out. John is clear-eyed about all of it, noting that the closure of high-profile venues like Soho’s GAY/GAY Late speaks to a fundamental financial problem, not a failure of vision. A drop in VAT from a governmental level would be the “main quickest way to help independent venues” says John.
Yet the mood remains defiantly, infectiously hopeful. "Queers are tenacious," Sizzle says simply. "We don't get handouts. We work really hard." Rather than contracting, The Divine is expanding its ambitions.
This summer sees the launch of the Divine Fringe Festival, running from 15 - 30 June, a programme designed to platform more queer performance artists than ever before, and made as financially accessible as possible (taking applications currently).
Later in the year, their competition Lipsync 1000 will culminate in a grand finale at the Clapham Grand, taking the brand firmly beyond their four walls and into the wider city. Is anywhere safe from the duo?
In answer to my 11 o'clock number, whether queer spaces will always exist? John is classically unequivocal. As London sees a blossoming renaissance of new queer venues opening across East and Northeast London, especially in Dalston, the “queer strip”, he dismisses doom-mongering with a grin.
"John Sizzle (says), fuck yeah, there's your line”.
The Divine
33 Stoke Newington Road
N16 8BJ
