Recent Squatted Social Centres in Hackney

Open and autonomous squatted spaces in Hackney

In the beginning of August 2011, a fairly recent but successful squatted space in Hackney, called OffMarket, was evicted by owners, bailiffs and police. The space had been an open resource for people running it an its neighbors. It was holding various projects: InfoLibrary with books and zines, a very busy FreeShop, info about squatting, regular skill-sharing, cafes, meetings etc…

 

These kind of spaces, that I will call squatted social centres in this article, have always been a vital part of the infrastructure of radical social movements. They usually try to be self-managed spaces, a means whereby people can come together to create, conspire, communicate, experiment new ways of relating to each other and offer a collective challenge against capitalism.‚ Millionaires in government are explaining us that we have to tighten our belts while shareholders and tax avoiders pockets are still getting full. We’re being told again and again that there is no alternative, nothing we can do, and we all end up trapped in this belief. Social centres project ARE about trying to create alternatives, to counteract gentrification and speculation, and having fun along the way!

 

A lot of these projects show some common features. Most of them have strong emphasis on sharing skills and facilitating workshops, trying to learn from each other, for free. Trying to break with the culture of “experts” that is so disempowering to us and simply recognising that we all have various skills and that it is great when we share them with people around us! This is a big part of the DIY (Do It Yourself) culture that can usually be found in these spaces and is exemplified by the London FreeSchool project (nothing like your Tories FreeSchool!!) that organised many events in these squats. Providing space for groups to meet and people to get together is also an important role fulfilled by squatted social centres, mostly because there are very few open, safe and free/cheap spaces in London for people to organise.

Hackney has seen many of these social centres coming and going. The following is a tentative account of some of these spaces over the last few years, limited obviously by my very restricted knowledge and awareness as someone who only recently moved to London and is part of the small squatting/activisty scene.

 

The first example that comes to my mind is the Everything4Everyoneproject, the squatted Dalston theatre on Dalston lane. It started being occupied in february 2006 and got evicted in november 2006, and hosted Food Not Bombs events (where food is given out for free to passers by) guerrilla screenings at the square opposite, samba band sessions on the streets, community film screenings, cafe/open mic sessions etc. These buildings have now been demolished to build the Dalston overground station even though they were among the earliest ever built in the Lane and were listed by the Hackney Council as having special character and interest…

Next was a social centre opened on lower clapton road, near the big roundabout. I think the place was simply called Hackney social centre. It had a lot of troubles with owners/police who tried to kick people out illegally right after the opening in january 2008 but residents succesfully resisted, especially with the help and support of other squatters living in the area. Until its eviction in may 2008 I recall the building being used for numerous events, parties, workshops, movies, cafes, gatherings and skill-sharing week ends.

 

Around the same time, spring 2008, the London Anarka Feminist Kollective (LAFK, a group of anarcha-feminist self identified women) occupied a building around bethnal green, and called it the Womyn space. In only few months of existence, people there managed to pull off a considerable amount of activities: cafe, kidspace, feminist singing, welding, yoga, herbalism, parties… The same collective organised some very inspiring women-only weekends of skill-sharing around Feminist health, squatting etc. in Hackney.

 

This account wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the Bowl Court social centre, in Shoreditch. It opened in march 2008 as part of the “April2008 International Days of Action for squats and autonomous spaces” and was sneakily evicted in August 2008 while most of the residents were at the Camp for Climate Action in Kingsnorth! The collective did a lot of effort to link with local groups working around the gentrification of the area, as well as facilitating the use of the space for cafes, movies, benefit parties, radio project, reading groups, workshops and for generally being a lovely place to hang out!

 

Late 2008, a big warehouse type space was open on Belgrade road, near Dalston. The space got known under several names: Hundred flowers, The culture centre, Belgrade road social centre… It had a very nice ground floor space that witnessed parties, gigs, cafes, workshops etc. and a very cosy first floor with kitchen facilities, books, zines, flyers, comfy space to hang out, have meetings and discussions. I remember the space being quite vibrant and very often packed. The first eviction attempt in winter 2009 was resisted by the residents and a big turn out of supporters. But a month after, another attempt, this time with the help of numerous police, succeeded and the space was lost.

 

Another example is the building on 195 Mare st. Also known as the New Lansdowne club, or the Elizabeth fry building. Opened at the end of 2009, it got evicted in August 2010. In the meanwhile, it hosted a considerable amount of weekly workshops and skill-sharing, but also theatre plays, gigs, movies, benefit parties, meetings, art exhibitions and performances, gardening and even a pantomime! The building is one of the oldest house in Hackney, its front part is the oldest (grade II listed) and there is a more recent back part that includes a stage. At the time squatters moved in, it was owned by some developers company who simply wanted to demolish part of it and build flats. But the developers got bankrupt and their bank, Dunbar Bank, took over. They evicted the squatters, redone the facade and nothing else, and are now selling it out…

The last and most recent example of open and autonomous squatted space I can think of in hackney is Well Furnished. It has unfortunately been evicted very recently (26th of August 2011). It is located in Well street, Homerton, a vibrant area where locals seem to have established strong links with each other. The St John Hackney Joint Charities Trust owns a lot of properties on this street and have decided to increase the rents by up to 300%, forcing people to leave their buildings. The WellFurnished collective occupied some of these buildings in early summer 2011, and organised lots of events: benefit cafes/dinners/gigs, exhibitions, painting/dancing/yoga workshops, meetings etc.

Sometimes, these squatted social centres might not seem very “open” to the outside. Some spaces are more directed towards activists, anarchists or squatters, some are making more efforts to try and be open to a diversity of people. All of these are valid aims and ways of doing, there are needs to get together for each single one of the infinite number of communities living in Hackney! One thing for sure is that people organising and using these spaces can be very diverse: coming from all different parts of the world, all sorts of sexualitites and genders, all kinds of daily occupation/waged job, various life histories… So keep your eyes and mind open for squatted social centres when you walk around hackney, and whenever you see such a space, it might looks a bit scruffy and bodged but do not hesitate to push the door, come inside and have a cuppa!

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Social Centres websites:

http://hackneysocialcentre.blogspot.com
http://womynspace.blogspot.com/
http://bowlcourt.wordpress.com
http://belgraderoad.wordpress.com/
http://london.indymedia.org/groups/offmarket
http://wellfurnished.wordpress.com

General links:

http://londonscn.wordpress.com/
https://london.indymedia.org