Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Pebble Mill Social Centre

IMC Birmingham | 13.07.2012 13:48 | Free Spaces | Social Struggles | Birmingham

The Pebble Mill social centre is the latest squatted social centre project by the Birmingham Social Centre collective. Last year the group made up of local squatters and activists took over the Whit Marley, an unused factory in Stirchley and reclaimed it for the local community.

The Pebble Mill Social Club was part of the BBC Pebble Mill studios site in Edgbaston, Birmingham and has been left empty for 8 years. The building has now been reclaimed and hosts regular events.

Update 14/07/12: Pebble Mill Social Centre Evicted

Newswire: Birmingham Social Centre is back | Brum FnB at the Birmingham Social Centre | Garden day @ Brum Social Centre – This Saturday 12pm onwards | Pebble Mill Social Centre survives flash flooding | Support The Spanish Miners Benefit - Fri 13th July

Previous social centres in Birmingham: Why are we in the Whit Marley? | The Cottage Occupied Social Centre | Birmingham Social Centre Reclaimed for Community

Links: Brum Social Centre

Pebble Mill Social Centre
Pebble Mill Social Centre


Birmingham has Britain’s youngest population, its also the city with the highest youth unemployment , the largest council cuts, most abandoned buildings and the highest rate of homelessness in the country. https://birminghamsocialcentre.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/what-next-for-the-birmingham-social-centre/

The aim of the project originally was to draw from the history of Squatted social centres in places like London and Bristol as places that bring people together and become centres of local and national activism. To reclaim and make use of the abandoned buildings and use the space as a radical place for social empowerment.

The Whit Marley became the centre for a revitalized activist scene in Birmingham, hosting regular parties, music, cinema, talks, debate and workshops. It attracted local activists as well as local residents, many of whom otherwise wouldn’t have met, resulting in many new groups being formed such as the Birmingham Green & Black Cross and Food not Bombs. It was used as a meeting and planning space by existing groups and was used as a convergence and planning space for the protests against the Liberal Democrat party conference in September.

But it was more than just a space for local activists however, the free library resulted in a book club being formed, a skate park being built and used by local youth and a community garden was made in which vegetables were grown and used by anyone who wanted them. The free tea shop was a place where people dropped by for a chat. It also became a hub for local artists and musicians with regular art / graffiti exhibitions and open mic nights being hosted. It resulted in a unique mixture of activists with members of the local community that otherwise wouldn’t normally have happened.

After the Whit Marley was evicted people continued to meet and organise with the people they’d met there with new projects still being created like the Birmingham Free University.

Now that the Birmingham Social centre has a new home at Pebble Mill it has carried on where the Whit Marley left off and has already hosted a graffiti / art day, hosts weekly free meals after the General Assemblies held every Thursday and is used as a base for Food not Bombs. The field at the back has offered a great opportunity and a lot more space to expand on the community garden project at the Whit Marley, with people practicing permacultre and organic gardening techniques.

Two weeks after opening Birmingham experienced serve rain fall, with a months worth of rain falling in an hour which resulted in the river which runs along side the social centre to burst its banks. This caused a flash flood and the building was knee deep in water within half an hour, its residents barley having time to evacuate. Within two days however the building reopened to the public after a clean up operation involving residents of the squat and its supporters who fixed most of the damage caused by the flood and are determined to keep it open.

There are several music events planned, comedy / spoken word events and regular film nights also planned. Like the Whit Marley there is a free shop and free library.

Update: On Friday 13th July, 3 weeks after opening the social centre was evicted by High Court Bailiffs, however the collective have vowed the social centre will return in a new reclaimed space

IMC Birmingham

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All 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
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
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.

Global IMC Network


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