tobago × ms.semple

the honor oak × riónce

a three-month partnership to bring more people, ideas + communities into the honor oak; building a thoughtful cultural programme that gives people more reasons to come, stay + return.

oct — dec 2026

i'm oleta; an artist, + cultural producer, founder of riónce and born + based in south east london.
a lot of my work is about helping people bring ideas into real life. through riónce, my studio in ladywell + several years working alongside penda studios, i've built a broad network across music, fashion, photography, food, business, celebrations + community.
people regularly come to me looking for spaces, people + opportunities. someone wants to put on a night, celebrate something, run a workshop, gather a community or try an idea and asks me, “where can i do this?”
the honor oak gives a lot of those ideas somewhere to go.
we put our first event at the honor oak together in under seven days. around 200–300 people came through over the course of the day; eating, playing dominoes + ludi, dancing, talking and spending time together across generations.
afterwards, joe s shared the pub had taken around £5k, which he described as unheard of for a thursday.
what interested me most wasn't simply the size of the event. it was how natural it felt.
it made me think there could be something much bigger in connecting the honor oak with the people, communities + ideas already coming through riónce.
click here to read a little more on what came from that day →

a little of it in real life

the easiest way to understand what i mean is probably to see it. these are a few examples of the kinds of people, energy + experiences already forming around riónce.

[video 01 — event ‘promo’ video]

[120k views across platforms]

video explores the question “why do we only see all generations + funerals”, and invites viewers to cast their minds back to how things were and could be. video ends sharing knowledge of the intergenerational caribbean events we’re be’ll be hosting in south london over 2026, 2027 + hopefully beyond.

jamaican independence at the honor oak
four generations in one pub; put together in under seven days.

view full photo album

the juicy bit

from october to december, i’d like to work alongside the honor oak as its cultural programming + partnerships partner, primarily working remotely.
my role would be to think about the pub as a whole and develop reasons for different people to use it; finding + approaching organisers, communities and partners, bringing opportunities from my existing network, developing recurring concepts and connecting the right ideas with the right spaces.
i’d work closely with the honor oak team on what makes sense, while the team continues to run the pub itself. my value sits in building the programme, audience + relationships around the space rather than becoming its day-to-day venue manager.
by december, i want us to know what brings people through the door, what makes them come back + what generates more revenue for the honor oak.
we should have stronger attendance, increased revenue from the activity we create, 2–3 concepts worth continuing into 2027 + a clear understanding of what is worth investing in next.
with greater investment, we can go further; building the honor oak’s audience, online presence + visibility alongside the programme itself.
the goal throughout is simple: more people coming, more people returning + more revenue.
i’m particularly interested in finding things that deserve to happen more than once.
if something works, we can give it another date + let people build a habit around it; whether that’s a music night, creative gathering, community afternoon, games night, workshop or something we haven’t thought of yet.
that means we’re not constantly starting from zero. people know what’s coming back, organisers can build their audience + the honor oak gets more consistent reasons for people to return.
the new kitchen can be part of that too. i’d first understand what they’re building, then look for ways the programme can support it + bring more people into the pub.
rionce already gives us two communities to build from: rionce arts club + riónce caribbean.
our first event at the honor oak helped become the beginning of riónce caribbean; creating more reasons for caribbean people + families to spend time together outside weddings + funerals.
people who came already associate the pub with that movement + have been asking when we’re doing it again.
[see riónce caribbean →]
rionce arts club brings another community of artists, musicians, designers, photographers, founders + people who simply like making things happen.
neither needs to define the honor oak. i’d much rather they become two of many communities that regularly have a home there, giving us somewhere to start while leaving plenty of room for completely different audiences + ideas.
i know there have been conversations around significant investment into the physical space. there may absolutely be things worth changing in future, but before doing too much, i’d be interested in seeing how much more we can get from what’s already here.
the pub is beautiful. the gardens are a real asset + the different spaces give us plenty to work with. we can clean things up, sort the bits that need attention + make thoughtful improvements as we learn without assuming the first answer needs to be a major transformation.
for me, the bigger opportunity is getting the honor oak into people’s social memory; somewhere they associate with good nights, celebrations, music, community + people they enjoy being around. somewhere that naturally comes to mind when they’re deciding where to go.
before substantially reinventing the building, i’d like to give more people a reason to fall in love with the one that’s already here.
october to december gives us enough time to build properly, test different ideas + see what genuinely brings people through the door, increases bar spend and deserves to continue into 2027.
we’ve already seen what riónce can bring to the honor oak with seven days’ notice. three months gives us the opportunity to do it deliberately + consistently.

the piggy-bank bit

there are three ways i can see us approaching october–december. the core idea stays the same; what changes is how much responsibility riónce takes for building the audience, visibility + cultural identity around the programme.
[£12,000 + 10% of attributable bar sales]
————
a focused three-month cultural programming + partnerships project.
✓ cultural programme + calendar development
✓ organiser, community + partner sourcing
✓ introductions through my existing network
✓ event residencies + recurring concepts
✓ relationship management
✓ primarily remote delivery
✓ performance tracking + december review
✓ rionce will promote relevant honor oak events across our own instagram + tiktok pages when appropriate. the honor oak team continues to run its own social media pages.
————
target: £20,000+ attributable bar sales across the three months.
[£25,000 + 10% of attributable bar sales]
————
everything in option one, with a deliberate focus on growing the honor oak’s visibility + audience.
✓ planned photography + video coverage
✓ short-form social content around agreed activity
✓ campaigns around key moments
✓ collaborations + creator partnerships
✓ stronger christmas programming + promotion
✓ building recognition of the honor oak itself, not just individual events
✓ i will take over the day-to-day running of the honor oak’s instagram + tiktok for the three months;
planning what we post, filming + creating content, writing + publishing posts, promoting upcoming events, covering agreed events and keeping the pages active between them.
relevant events will also be promoted across riónce’s own pages.
————
the aim: more people coming through the doors + more of them remembering, talking about + returning to the pub.
[£45,000 + 10% of attributable bar sales]
————
the full october–december push; programming, audience, content + cultural positioning working together.
✓ everything above
✓ larger cultural moments + activations
✓ increased professional content production
✓ wider partnership + exposure opportunities
✓ proactive community + audience development
✓ a deliberate christmas campaign
✓ review of how the rooms + garden are being used
✓ recommendations for simple improvements before major physical investment
✓ end-of-project commercial + audience findings for 2027
✓ i will run the honor oak’s instagram + tiktok throughout the three months, with more frequent content + coverage.
this includes planning, filming, editing + posting content; covering agreed events; showing the food, garden, spaces, staff + people using the pub; working with relevant creators; promoting the christmas programme; and using riónce’s pages to help introduce the honor oak to new audiences.
✓ we will also start building an honor oak mailing list, giving people who attend events + discover the pub online a simple way to hear about what’s happening next, so the audience we build can be reached again without relying entirely on instagram + tiktok.
—————
the aim: properly test what the honor oak can become using the asset that’s already here.
✓ the honor oak continues to run the venue, bar, staffing, licensing, security + operations
✓ the 10% applies only to agreed riónce-originated activity
✓ riónce-produced events retain their own ticketing, sponsorship + relevant vendor income
✓ substantial third-party production costs are agreed separately
✓ riónce retains its brands, concepts + independently developed communities
the project fee pays for the work. the 10% means when the programming performs, we both benefit.
i know there have been conversations around significant investment into the physical space. there may absolutely be things worth changing in future, but before doing too much, i’d be interested in seeing how much more we can get from what’s already here.
the pub is beautiful. the garden is a real asset + the different spaces give us plenty to work with. we can clean things up, sort the bits that need attention + make thoughtful improvements as we learn without assuming the first answer needs to be a major transformation.
for me, the bigger opportunity is getting the honor oak into people’s social memory; somewhere they associate with good nights, celebrations, music, community + people they enjoy being around. somewhere that naturally comes to mind when they’re deciding where to go.
before substantially reinventing the building, i’d like to give more people a reason to fall in love with the one that’s already here.
i don't think we need to pretend we know exactly what will work before we start.
october to december gives us enough time to try things, pay attention to attendance + bar performance, see what people want again and learn which ideas deserve to grow.
i love the idea of the honor oak becoming even more of a second home for people in south east london; somewhere you can come for a drink, hear something, celebrate something, meet somebody, make something happen or simply spend time.
the honor oak already has the place. riónce already has people looking for places. i'd love to see what happens when we connect the two properly.
then in december, we look at what we've built + the numbers behind it and decide what makes sense for 2027.

ultimately, i really want to see the honor oak thrive.

i genuinely love the pub. the people i’ve brought there love it too + it’s already started to feel connected to what we’re building through riónce caribbean.

everything i do is rooted in south east london, and spaces like this matter. the rooms, the garden + the fact that people can simply come and spend time together give us something increasingly difficult to find: somewhere for community to actually happen.

i’m building two communities through riónce now; arts + caribbean. both need places to gather, grow + make things happen.

we’ve already planted some seeds here. i’d much rather help grow them at the honor oak + contribute to making the pub commercially worth keeping for the long term.

the honor oak has the space, i have the people, ideas + relationships + i’m ready to put the two together properly.

oleta semple
artist + cultural producer
founder, riónce
@ms.semple

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