Who’s behind RVT Future?

Alice Beverton-Palmer

Alice has worked in digital content and comms for a decade, in the magazine industry and at start-ups, and is currently a partnerships manager at Twitter UK. She also hosts an occasional Mariah Carey-inspired drag brunch cinema club at the RVT. A Push The Button regular, Alice walked into the RVT for the first time in late 2014 and has never looked back.

James Cronin

James is a parallel entrepreneur having started, grown, managed and sometimes sold multiple businesses and social enterprises across a range of sectors including digital, retail, food, government, education, the arts and charity. A regular at Duckie, Push the Button, and many other RVT favourites, James is passionate about queer culture, arts, and fun.

Dicky Eton

Dicky is a producer and runs Duckie with Simon. He sorts things out and has a big calculator. When he isn’t with Duckie, he flits between Manchester and London and works with other outfits like Blast Theory and Carnesky Productions. Give him a spare 10 minutes and he will be off on his barge meandering along the River Lee.

Richard Heaton

Richard Heaton has been a regular visitor to the Tavern for many years. He is a lawyer and a senior civil servant. Richard also chairs the trustee board of a charity which owns retail, residential and commercial property (including three pubs) in south London.

Rob Holley

Rob started Push The Button with his pal Darren at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern five years ago. He holds a Personal Licence (issued by the London Borough of Lambeth) and managed The Vauxhall Griffin for a couple of years in the late noughties. During the day he works in the charity sector and has recently moved across from Terrence Higgins Trust to Prostate Cancer UK to look after their celebrity relationships. He’s also the Eurovision correspondent for Gay Times magazine, and lives in Walworth with his cat Jarvis Cocker.

Amy Lamé

Amy Lamé started Duckie with her pal Simon 20 years ago; she’s been hosting every Saturday night since then. Amy has a clause in her will that states upon her death her ashes are to be kept under the stage of the Royal Vauxhall Tavern.

Thom Shaw

Thom Shaw is a performer and makeup artist, and former editor of Dance Theatre Journal. Thom continues to work extensively with performance art high priestess David Hoyle (formerly the Divine David), especially on his popular six week runs at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. As well as on stage larks, he has been a Tavern punter for almost 20 years and doesn’t know whether to be pleased or worried that several bar staff know his usual drink.

Ben Walters

Ben Walters is a critic and journalist who blogs at NotTelevision.net and is researching a PhD in queer fun with Queen Mary University of London. Ben has been going to the RVT since 1996 and got to know it intimately as Time Out London’s cabaret editor (from 2009 to 2013). With many people’s support, Ben wrote the 30,000-word application to Historic England that resulted in the RVT becoming a listed building.