Russell Brand’s Hoxton cafe Trew Era donated to prisoners’ and ex-offenders’ charity RAPt

Russell Brand is handing the keys for the Hoxton social enterprise he founded a year ago to an addiction and rehab charity.

The comedian is donating the Trew Era Café in Whitmore Road to RAPt, which provides training and employment to ex-prisoners and those struggling with drug and alcohol addiction.

Trew Era is next to RAPt’s London Recovery Hub and combines the name of the estate it lies on, New Era, with Mr Brand’s web series, The Trews.

Mr Brand said: “I’m donating this café to RAPt, a great charity that helps prisoners stay clean.

“If I ever get sent down I hope this’ll mean I get a cushy job in the library.”

Rapt was the first charity in the UK to develop a drug treatment facility in a prison and helps more than 15,000 people suffering from addiction every year.

Mr Brand is a patron of the charity, and Trew Era will now become one of a network of “recovery enterprises” that the charity supports, enabling education and training through employment at independently managed businesses.

Mike Trace, CEO of RAPt, said he was “delighted” to take on the café.

Chairman of trustees Daniel Bernstein added: “This is a wonderful opportunity for RAPt to further strengthen our employment and enterprise activities for ex-offenders and recovering addicts.

“We’re enormously grateful to Russell for his generosity in donating the café.”