Livesey Occupiers Re-Open Community Museum

1.3.2010
Fam­i­lies flock to the Livesey Muse­um for the re-open­ing of the for­mer chil­dren’s muse­um to mark two years since South­wark Coun­cil shut the build­ing down

It was a wet Sun­day morn­ing in South Lon­don as com­mu­ni­ty activists scur­ried round the beau­ti­ful Livesey muse­um on the Old Kent Rd, putting the final touch­es to the space for a free fam­i­ly fun­day.

Police had called the occu­piers the day before stat­ing their intent to arrest peo­ple open­ing the build­ing, for bur­glary. After being being told that such arrests would be ille­gal, they rang back to say they would shut the build­ing down on grounds of health and safe­ty, and also take details of any­one going into the build­ing . If details were refused, the indi­vid­ual would be arrest­ed. Again ille­gal police work.

The fire ser­vice arrived at 11, and gave the thumbs up for the build­ing to be used.

And then sud­den­ly the fam­i­ly rush began!

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Two years ago South­wark coun­cil shut the Livesey down as part of a bud­get cut. The cost of run­ning the build­ing was less than mon­ey spent on coun­cil lunch­es. The coun­cil then tried to sell the build­ing only to find that in the deeds George Livesey left the Livesey for the peo­ple of Peck­ham and Cam­ber­well. As a trustee they had no right to sell it.

After a com­mu­ni­ty cam­paign to save the chil­dren’s muse­um by the Friends of Livesey, the coun­cil accept­ed a pro­pos­al from The­atre Peck­ham to use the space for rehearsals. Two years lat­er noth­ing had hap­pened in the build­ing.

And so it was occu­pied six weeks ago by a group who want to see the build­ing used by the com­mu­ni­ty.

A pub­lic meet­ing was held with 40 peo­ple and there was con­sen­sus to hold a re-open­ing for local fam­i­lies.

After two weeks of orga­niz­ing fam­i­lies flocked from all around to attend the day of activ­i­ties: veg­etable grow­ing work­shops, a trea­sure hunt, sto­ry­telling, arts and crafts, a the­atre work­shop and bicy­cle main­te­nance.

Around 80 peo­ple attend­ed, and the kids had a ball espe­cial­ly on the trea­sure island. The muse­um came back to life, and was placed back into use for its orig­i­nal com­mu­ni­ty pur­pose.

Around 2.30pm the fire ser­vice returned to see what we would do if there was a fire. They walked around to see every­thing was fine and then let every­one play on the fire engine. Hoses and sirens went off, and there was a new activ­i­ty for the event.

One police, and a com­mu­ni­ty police­man turned up and hang around at the gate for a while, after being refused entry after ask­ing to see inside for poten­tial crime. So the phone calls the day before seemed to be an attempt at intim­i­da­tion.

So the Livsey Muse­um was shut to the com­mu­ni­ty two years ago, and yes­ter­day the com­mu­ni­ty re-opened it, to have a bril­liant day with the fire ser­vice being co-opt­ed into the fun.

With a court date immi­nent, we will see what hap­pens next at the Livesey but for now it is re-open and in the hands of the com­mu­ni­ty.