Image: Catherine Curry
The Women’s Institute is usually all Victoria sponge and spotted dick. But a group of women are “put[ting] the black in blackberry jam” by running the first gothic WI group in the country.
For Holly Peterson, 37, president of the Islington-based Gothic Valley, the descent into darkness had very normal beginnings. “I used to be in the WI in Devon when I lived there a few years ago, and it was a very traditional WI,” she said.
“When I moved to London I was sitting with some of my friends and I said: ‘Wouldn’t it be interesting, we could start a Gothic WI?’
“We thought we could bring together the really supportive connectedness of the Goth community with that of the WI and do something that was about those two interests.”
Now a year old and welcoming women from all over London, Gothic Valley regularly organises events for its members, but with a slightly different theme.
“We tend to run talks that are probably slightly unusual by WI standards,” Peterson says. “We have bat walks and talks about bat conservation, for example. We’ve had a talk on sword fighting and we’re going to have a talk about the Highgate Vampire.
“A lot of our things have a theme which is slightly more on the side of things that would be considered Goth.”
The ideals of the two communities appear to be working surprisingly well.
“It seems on the face of it that they might not come together, actually there’s a huge amount of common interest,” Peterson explains. “In the Gothic community there’s an interest in craft, in things that are retro. That really fits in well with the WI’s traditional crafting and baking.
“There’s also a connection in that most of the people we know in the Goth scene are politically aware and interested in what’s going on in their communities, and the WI’s really big on issues of the day and being involved in what happens in the world around them.”
Starting out with just eight members, 25 women now attend the monthly meetings.
And the girl goths have been welcomed at HQ. They helped out in WI celebrations for the Diamond Jubilee in the last year, and have been feted in the organisation’s national magazine.
“We weren’t sure how the [national WI] federation would receive us,” Peterson says.
“But they have been so amazingly supportive, they love having an alternative WI as part of their group, they’ve really promoted what we do, and they’ve been really engaged.”
“We think it’s because we do slightly different and interesting things – our group opens up being part of the WI to people who might not have normally considered being part of the WI.”
‘Community’ is a word that comes up again and again though. Islington plays a big role in the motivation behind the group, hosting events and talks that are open to Islington residents and raise money for local charities.
“Being part of the local community is really important for us,” says Peterson, who hopes that membership will continue to grow over the coming months as the group become more integrated with Islington’s social networks.
“ We want to encourage people to become active and so far they’ve been absolutely great.”
And Peterson is happy if being involved in the borough means people can see a bit more light in goths.
“[The group] opens people’s minds to knowing more about the goth community and what we do. We’re a really fun group of people who like to do interesting thing; we’re contributing, proud members of the community.”
