UK Indymedia | Photo Essay - Londons Secret Social Centre

Photo Essay - Londons Secret Social Centre

Londons Secret Social Centre...

When a possession order was granted to the owners of the squatted block of properties in rampart street which houses the rampART social centre, a scurry of activity began to secure a new building to act as a backup venue during the uncertain period prior to eviction. A suitable property was found and entered for the first time on new years eve and occupied a couple of days later.

Only a short walk from the rampART, the new building was also a commercial premises with three floors. While the area of each floor was only about two thirds of that enjoyed at the rampART, the new building benefited from the addition of a basement which looked like it could make a great gig space. The ground floor had a tiny kitchen but with a bit of work it would clearly make a good space for a cafe and free shop. The first floor was mostly open plan, a good place for large meeting. Meanwhile the upper floor had been subdivided into offices and planned to use it for residential accommodation. The most exciting thing about the new space however was the yard which gave us potential to do things we could never do a rampART.

Despite all it's potential, the place was a mess. The owners had completely trashed every floor. Wiring had been cut, light switches smashed, false ceiling and lights pulled down, partition walls torn down or holed. Additionally, the only two toilets in the building had been smashed to pieces. However, we didn't think it would take long to put in shape. We took over a load of bedding and cushions, fold up table and chairs, water, wind up torches, candles, smoke alarms and fire extinguishers and settled in. Now split between occupying two spaces we put a call out for help occupying both buildings and preparing the new building to become a social centre...

Owners seemed to want to make the building uninhabitable

Who needs flushing toilets anyway?

Ground floor piled high with trashed materials

False ceiling supports and lights hang down all around the building

Walls holed, windows smashed - utter waste

More mindless destruction. Ground floor kitchen walls.

Fire extinguishers torn from walls

We'll make light work of clearing up this lot

Tangled wires hang from the ceiling

Radiators detached from walls and pipework

Owner ripped down partition walls on top floor

The destoyed remains of top floor offices

Owners destruction reveals hidden passage

Unwelcoming sight entering the ground floor.

Initial 'base camp' in the basement

Filing cabinet table, three beds and candle light

Temporary field kitchen during first week

All images copyright Real2Reel, 2008. Some right reserved.
Non commercial reuse granted under Creative Commons Non-commercial, Attribution, Share-alike License

pt2

Additions

Occupation = Renovation

29.02.2008 13:16

Cafe area

New toilet and wash basin await connection to rainwater harvesting system

Newly created doorway provides fire exit to yard and outbuilding

Previously a fly tip, resources in the yard are now sorted for reuse

New kitchen area is greatly expanded and more practical than the original

One bright and comfy corner bedroom

New partition walls for bedrooms await completion

Off grid electricity from battery and invertor

Solar panels make most of unseasonal winter sunshine

Plasterboard and timber awaiting reuse as renovation continues

Corridor replaces toilet cubicle providin access to new door out to yard

Our priorities included sorting out toilet facilities and this led us to consider the use of dry compost toilets and ultimately to deciding that we'd try to implement stuff we'd only talked about doing with the rampART, making the place as eco-friendly and sustainable as possible. As well as setting up dry composting toilets we also planned to do rain water harvesting and install wood burning stoves. More ambitious, we aimed to generate our own electricity using wind, solar and a waste vegetable oil fueled combined heat and power system.

Deep cycle batteries and invertors provided power for our lights and radio while we worked and a white board contained our plans and to do lists. We'd soon expanded the kitchen area massively and replaced one of the smashed flushing toilets. Three 200 litre plastic water butts were obtained and one was prepared for use as a rain water harvesting tank that would provide water for the flush. The basement was opened right up by taking down the partition walls and all the materials taken to the top floor where the first of four bedrooms was constructed. A hidden stairwell was discovered behind a partition wall and a bricked up doorway was reopened to provide access to the outbuilding and yard.

It all seemed to be going great apart from problems maintaining permanent occupation of the rampart street properties and some of us expressed concern that it had been a mistake to commit to work in the new space before we knew when the appeal for the rampART would take place. It was fairly easy to find people to commit to the occupation rota at the new placed but not for rampart street and already people were asking about doing events in the new space as the excitement drew energy away from rampART. This was not what we intended, the new space was simply meant to be a backup to allow things to continue as normal at rampART without the worry that resources and events there would suddenly be left with nowhere to go.

The work that had been done at the new place in the first ten days or so meant that we could open it up as a social centre very quickly when we lost the rampART. It seemed like the pressure was off but then we stumbled across some bad news. Our original research had indicated that there was no planning consent granted and application pending. There had been an application last year but it had been withdrawn. However, whoever did the original research had been unaware that the withdrawn application had been resubmitted and granted in October 2007. The owners had full permission to knock down the building and build a six story block of apartments in it's place!

Discussing the bad news we decided we might as well contact the owners and ask when they planned to start work and attempt to negotiate a stay but we never got round to it and later decided not to open negotiation till we were sure the owners knew we were in occupation. Instead, work progressed as before as if nothing had changed. A couple of leaks discovered in the roof were fixed and the damaged ceiling plaster replaced. All the doors and radiators that had been taken off by the owners were refitted and new doors fitted at the bottom of the hidden basement stairwell and out to the outbuilding. In the basement, the waste pipe from the toilet was been boxed up so drunk idiots didn't try to swing on it.

the rota crew

To be continued.... monday / tuesday

29.02.2008 14:19

Windmills Not Yuppies - soon to be replaced with 6 storey appartment block

Powered by the wind and sun.

Unobstructed view in the direction of prevailing wind

Optimistic graffiti in the yard

Four drawer filing cabinet wood burning stove in the new kitchen area

Plastic glazing illuminates the outbuilding and the work ahead

Raised bed created from rubble, office paperwork and pigeon shit

By Feb 9th we'd had meetings to discuss our permaculture plan and had been doing lots of work in the yard enjoying the unseasonal warm weather. The massive task of clearing the out building began with all the rubble removed from the brick up doorway now removed and piled up in the yard forming the starting point for raised beds. While working in the outbuilding we also removed the boards from the windows to let in some light and re-glazed them with clear plastic sheeting. One of the 200 litre plastic drums had been converted into a rat proof compost tumbler. The raised beds in the yard had progress well and we'd rescued quite a bit of top soil from skips along with plenty of pigeon shit from the outbuilding. Inside, a four drawer filing cabinet had been converted into a wood burning stove and installed. The kitchen had been freshly painted, along with the basement floor and some of the walls.

The mast for the wind generator we'd last put up at the camp for climate action was bought over from rampART and hoisted up onto the roof. Holes were drilled and chains bolted through roof joists to provide mounting points for the guy wires before the generator was assembled and erected. Solar panel followed shortly after.

We purchased a Rayburn wood/oil fired cooking range for just 50 quid off ebay. It had a back boiler so could of been used to heat water/radiators as well. We were going to see if it would run ok off waste veg oil but if not we'd just revert it to a solid fuel burn and use waste wood dumped in local skips. We also won an ebay auction for a Lister CS stationary diesel engine. These classic water cooled diesels make wonderful veg oil powered combined heat and power system and we calculated it would provide all our electricty and most of our heating needs when run for just 4 hours each evening and use only a gallon of waste veg oil each time.

Everything was progressing really well and then came the bomb shell, a set of papers taped to the front door informing us that we'd been served court notice of a intermin possession hearing on the 21st Feb, just one week away. Ironically, that evening the building was hosting a meeting of a radicle bike group, a spin off from bicycology. They were to look at the outbuilding and discuss using it as a space for a free bike workshop but obviously they dropped. A few month before a similar thing had happened at rampART. The Bicycology group were having a weekend long gathering, part of which was planned to be them renovating the bike workshop at rampART but just before the weekend we learned about the planning application to demolish the building so they dropped the idea. Seems like the bike workshop is cursed!

All work on the new place came to a halt and our ebay purchases left uncollected and unpaid. It was clear that all our efforts and plans for the place were going to come to nothing and the place never opened as a social centre. We considered a last minute relocation of a party taking place at rampART so we'd at least have had some events at the new place before we lost it but the logistics quickly made us drop that idea.

We visited the Advisory Service for Squatters who drafted a very slim defense for us but we knew there was very little hope. The best we could hope for if that the a normal possession order would be granted instead of the IPO as otherwise we could have just 24 hours to pack up and leave.

...

pt2

nice one

13.03.2008 13:24

thanks a lot for taking the time and effort to get this online, it is really interesting to read.

the text is now also online in the materials section of the april 2008 wiki at

http://april2008.squat.net:8080/wiki/London%27s_Secret_Social_Centre

april2008
Homepage: http://april2008.squat.net

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

End days

23.03.2008 14:56

Feb 21st, we went to court for a hearing as the owners sought an interim possession order. If we lost we would have been given just 24 hours to pack up and leave. However, as luck would have it, it was only us that turned up to court so the case was adjourned.

It was intended that we'd be having a day of resistance to see off the bailiffs, starting with a vegan cafe and transforming into an all night party to get at least one big event out of the place we've put our blood, sweat and tears into since the new year. However, with no immediate threat of eviction we decided to cellebrate with a 'Not An Eviction Party'.

All very gloomy news from the various parts of the rampART. This morning there was a hearing to decide whether there would be an appeal against the granting of the possession order relating to Rampart Street. The judge decided there would be no appeal.

A few days later a new set of papers were handed over with a hearing date set for the 3rd of March. Everyone was suprised when we succeded on having the case thrown out of court on getting to claiments to admit that they had failed to correctly serve notice on us. The owners had to apply for yet another court date!

The extra weeks proved useful as the space ended up hosting The new building hosting a climate camp direct action training gathering while the rampART was full of Irish activists in town for actions against Shell.

An Interim Possession Order was finally granted on Thursday the 20th March. The project lasted a little shy of three months and was taken to court three times by the owners who intend to knock down the building and erect a six storey block in its place.

We had intended the building to be the successor to the rampART social centre, but despite the huge amount of work put into the place during the first month or so, the building got little use beyond providing free accommodation and a couple of parties.

On the day of the final court hearing the building was given over to local kids for a party. Notice of the interim possession order was served on the building at 4.40pm which gave us till 4.40pm on Good Friday to get vacate before continued occupation would become a criminal offense.

Meanwhile, the rampART itself is still open four months after being served court papers.

the final part

New Space Opened

31.03.2008 08:47

Within a few days of the end of this story, another began. A new squat was opened in nearby Shoreditch during the long bank holiday weekend. The damage the owners have done to this building is far more substantial and less cosmetic than experienced with RAMpart2 but over the last week a great deal of work has been done to get the building into usable shape.

part 2.2

xxx

08.04.2008 03:27

Well done!! More pictures...

nadia otshudi
mail e-mail: naia_59@hotmail.com

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