The identity of Hackney is being challenged by the marginalisation of local populations through gentrification and outrageously incompetent council spending. One of the ways community groups have challenged this process is to reclaim neglected or un-occupied buildings and land for communal use.

The increasing dilapidation of Hackney in the face of the erection of enclosed, guarded private housing complexes highlights the many social and economic questions ignored by the government. In light if this, and in spite of it, local community activsts have addressed their own needs and those lacking in the local community, by forming a collective that opened a community space that functions as a comprehensive and autonomous social center, comprised of people from a wide variety of backgrounds and interests.

Atherden Community Centre is this example - fighting to provide an alternative and inject creativity and energy into a tired urban city-scape. The diverse collective which includes mothers, artists and activists, demonstrates a group on the front lines of alternative strategies for opening up the community zeitgeist. They liberate the imagination of the community by presenting an alternative space and invites them to be part of and even be the key to this process.

Atherden Community Center offers mother and toddler mornings, arts and craft space, a cafe, office space for campaign groups, samba and DJ rehearsals, a cyber-café made from recycled computers, gallery space, library and a wide selection of free weekly workshops offers tuition in anything from shiatsu to ceramics. It provides a huge space and opportunity for local people to get involved, and if given the support, will soon become an even stronger and more important community focus in Hackney.

It is also part of the focus in the fight against the failing Hackney council and hosted get-togethers where ideas and strategies could be discussed and exchanged between the various campaign groups and concerned locals, involved in the Hackney fight back campaign, including the Hackney Heckler bulletin.

Benefit parties are regularly held for various campaign groups, and these proved to be enormously popular, with DJs such as Megabitch and local comedians like Rob Newman and Jeremy Hardy leaving audiences laughing out loud at the audacity and inefficiency of Hackney council. The nights offered far more than your average party and incorporated performance, dance, circus, poetry and independent films and guest speakers, including indigenous people from as far as Colombia, sharing stories of their fights to retain land and autonomous spaces also under threat from developers.

These benefits prove an invaluable additional resource for keeping the building and campaign groups afloat - as well as providing the local community with affordable entertainment and a place to socialise and relax in their locality. Proof indeed that there is a great need for such a place.

Atherden Community Centre also provides a forum and venue for exploring new ways of community orgaisation, such as debates about decision-making models, and the rotation of roles. It facilitates a search for new values, criticise existing social models, fighting prejudice and stereotypes, creates space for original viewpoints and individual perspectives, and a chance to look at things differently. An autonomous social centre is a form of expression – of direct democracy in action not hypocritical distraction.

Lots of ripples will make a tidal wave. Make sure your part of that new wave, offering support, time and action for the assured continuance of this vital local space.
Contact Atherden center: 020 8525 0247 email:  atherden@gmx.net
Address: 15 Atherden Road E5, Off Lower Clapton Road