Cambridge Free Spaces Feature Archive
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Mill Road Social Centre - the story so far...
Update:The Mill Road Social Centre was evicted the night after Tesco were rejected again.
Most of know what happened since, but let’s start in the beginning. On Tuesday night 20 May 2008, the building that formerly housed Wilco's automotive parts, and that had been standing empty for over a year, was squatted. This is the selfsame building where Tesco plans to open a controversial Express store. More about that later.
The aim of the squat was to turn the building into a much needed social centre, a focal point for the local Romsey (and Cambridge) community. It should be pointed out that the social centre is not connected to the No Mill Road Tesco campaign.
Since it opened, the centre has hosted numerous events, from women's roller derby to tango lessons, graffiti workshops, an art exhibition, open mic nights and acoustic gigs.
Mill Road Social Centre website
Struggle and Repression for Social Centres and Autonomous Spaces
Mill Road, a new squatted social centre in Cambridge, lost against Tescos in court last week but are confident about holding onto the place a while longer yet. They have however been experiencing violent attacks from anonymous cowards. There have been many reports of attacks on autonomous spaces recently. In Greece there have been heavy police repression and fascist arson attacks against autonomous space [more]. In Amsterdam, the Citex squat was attacked and illegally evicted by Police. Just a few days ago in Rome, fascists were caught planting a bomb in the front yard of Loa Acrobax. The tide turned briefly when hundreds of people from Berlin and elsewhere went on the offensive and instigated six days of diverse and often militant action in Berlin. In a city which has one of the harshest anti-squatting policies in Europe people showed they were undaunted and defiant [more].
London has seen the eviction of two squatted social centres recently (1, 2) but last week there was a report of a new space opening in Nunhead. Also in south London, the Spike is raising its profile as a community resource as part of a strategy to hang onto the site. At the heart of London's city fringe expansion, Bowl Court social centre lost a courtroom battle against property giant Hammerson and is now considering next moves [background]. Meanwhile, the long running rampART social centre in East London marked it's 4th anniversary but is considering voluntary closure as it has been suffering from neglect, theft and lack of energy since the owners were granted a possession order way back in January.
Gutter press followed the Tory party in inciting hatred towards squatters while squatters in Brighton enjoyed somewhat better press coverage relating to the occupation of a church on London Road in Brighton. In an attempt to promote autonomous spaces, a booklet called 'What's this Place' [PDF] has been produced by the UK Social Centres Network which will probably be having it's next gathering at the newly refurbished Kebele in Bristol, 14th Sept. Also being planned for late summer is a follow up to last months international 'interspace' gathering near Berlin which followed the April2008 mobilisations [more].
Websites of mentioned spaces: Bowl Court, rampART, Nunhead Chapel, The Spike, Mill Road,88 London Road, Kebele, Loa Acrobax
Portal sites : Squat.net | UK Social Centres Network website | Autonomous London
Community use for the Howard Mallett centre?
Aiming at making effective community use of the soon to be empty Howard Mallett centre, a group has been set up to put forward proposals for the space.
The centre, in Cambridge’s densely populated Petersfield ward on Sturton Street, has a long history of community usage and features a gym, radio recording room, café area and further office and community rooms. However, it is soon to be vacated by current lease-holders Dawe Media and the new tenants, charity Citylife, will take a long time to carry through their plans of knocking the building down to construct a ‘social innovation incubation centre’.
The new group is connecting with people with ideas for how the space should be used, which so far include a range of community media, arts, youth, sport and soup kitchen proposals.
New group list: hmcwg@wereallneighbours.co.uk
and their website
Indymedia articles on the Howard Mallet Centre: [ 1 | 2 | 3 ]
Radical Summer in Cambridge
Things seem to have slowed down in town, but not for those who want to change the world! Lots of traveller support, free spaces and cycle power activities are taking place over the next month.
Part of the Essex traveller community, Dale Farm, housing 1000 people, is under constant threat of eviction. A public meeting, and training session will be taking place on the weekend of August 13th for those who want to support the traveller community. There is a special need for human rights monitors and people with recording equipment (since an eviction is quite an ugly business, often unseen by most people). The Hoverfield community just got evicted [report, another report].
Meanwhile in Cambridge a group of people have decided to put empty buildings to use, and have opened a Social Centre in Fitzwilliam road [open letter]. A film screening of "The Mark Thomas Comedy Show" will take place there on the Sunday 7th, but much more is promised in the next few weeks.
Finally a Critical Mass, a spontaneous convergence of cyclists, skateboarders and skaters to celebrate life without cars took place in Cambridge. This is to become a regular event, with people meeting the last Friday of every month, 6pm, beneath Elizabeth Way Bridge.
[Looking for a radical holiday? : Earth First! summer gathering 17-21 August 2005]
CamBoater's campaign continues with open day
On Sunday August 22 the CamBoater association organized an open day to encourage people to visit the river boats and get to know those who live there. A festive atmosphere prevailed, with literally hundreds of people of all ages visiting the 20 specially decorated boats near the Jesus Green Lock. The morning was part of an ongoing series of events which aim to raise the profile of the Cambridge boating community and gain support for their campaigns.The association has been formed in the last few weeks by resident Cam boaters to campaign against new mooring rules recently introduced by the Cam Conservancy. Starting from October 1st boats will not be allowed to moor on Midsummer Common, directly affecting the approximately 22 boats that will have to move, but also causing overcrowding of the entire river. The Campaign has also highlighted other concerns, including the lack of waste disposal facilities and fuel supplies available for boaters, and the presence of just a single water point for tens of boats.
[Photos]
[Previous coverage: Barbecue, Boatpeople revolt!]