Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

Empty Ex-Forest Cafe Squatted and Reclaimed for the Community

3 Bristo Place | 01.12.2011 10:22 | Free Spaces | Public sector cuts | Social Struggles | World

A diverse group of autonomous people are currently squatting 3 Bristo Place in central Edinburgh. Although there is no legal squatting right in Scotland, the building has been succesfully occupied. The 3-storey building has stood empty and unused for over 3 months since August 31st 2011. The non-hierarchical group are taking direct action to reclaim this space for use by the community.

The squatting of the building began yesterday afternoon with more than 100 people including families occupying the space, cleaning, organising a kitchen area and discussing how the building could be used for the benefit of the community. Banners were painted including 'The Peoples' Cafe' and displayed in the front windows.

3 Bristo Place has previously been utilised by The Forest Cafe as a volunteer-run, collectively-owned, free arts and events space. After Edinburgh University Settlement the owners of the building went bankrupt, it was appropriated by Price Waterhouse Coopers to administrate and The Forest Cafe were forced to vacate on 31st August 2011 despite a high profile and popular campaign to retain the space. Those currently squatting the building are not directly affiliated with The Forest Cafe but recognise that its closure is part of an ongoing eradication of free, non-corporate spaces in Edinburgh City Centre. Direct action has been taken to ensure that the space is not left unused but can be reopened for the benefit of the local community.

The action deliberately coincided with the November 30th UK-wide strikes over pensions. Amy Douglas, a 32 year old youth worker from Edinburgh who has been in the building since yesterday said, “While massive cuts are being made to public services and workers bear the brunt of these through much diminished pensions, the banks responsible for the financial crisis continue to profit. Cuts to public services also threaten community spaces and the same banking system is responsible for the detrimental impact this has had on communities across the country. By squatting and reopening 3 Bristo Place we resist the banks' continued profiting at the expense of those who are already suffering from the cuts.”

Today there will be meetings to organise a programme of participatory events which will be open to the public. It is hoped that the building can be used as an organising space for community projects.
Come down and Get Involved!

For Access Ring: 07799737995

3 Bristo Place
- e-mail: 3bristoplace@hotmail.co.uk

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. ACE! — bleep

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech