12.06.2008
Bowl Court Social Centre Days Are Numbered — London
The courting hearing today ruled in favor of the property developers claiming ownership of the derelict warehouse in Bowl Court that has been used as a radical social centre since opening 23rd March. The David vs Goliath case was clearly motivated by Hammersons desire to prevent the new social centre becoming a hub for the local campaigns against their proposed development for the area, the biggest development in London since Docklands in the eighties.
The victorian social centre is located in the Shoreditch Street Conservation area and previous attempts to obtain planning consent for demolition have been refused. The neighboring warehouse was knocked down without planning permission by Gamma City Developments which was purchased by Hammerson, along with vast tracts of lands earmarked to become a forest of glass skyscrapers over the next ten years. Number 6 Bowl Court was left empty for years with a gaping hole cut in the roof and deep excavations dug around it’s external walls, apparently with the aim of speeding up it’s decay to justify future applications for demolition.
Although at least two other squatters occupy nearby properties which Hammerson claim to own, the attempts to evict Bowl Court came about only as it became apparent that the social centre was becoming involved in the local campaigns against the redevelopment plans for the area. The company had been informed of the occupation on the 24th March but only made moves to repossess the property three weeks ago.
In court, the defendants questioned the evidence presented by the claimants regarding ownership. Their land registry title was contradicted by titles known to be held by other companies. There was also issue over whether the notice of the proceedings had been correctly served as residential property requires five days clear notice but only three had been given. With no professional representation, the defendants were unable to put together a robust defense and also found themselves threatened with over £21,000 in costs. However, the judge also considered the costs to be outrageously inflated an choose to award just £2,500 in costs.
The future of the social centre is now obviously in doubt but in the meantime events continue as normal. See http://www.bowlcourt.co.nr for details.
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Mill Road Social Centre May Stay For Flippin’ Ages — Cambridge
A possession order was granted to Tesco today in court, yet representatives of the Mill Road Social Centre had apparent confirmation of indefinite leave to remain from Tesco’s solicitors.
About 20 social centre groupies went to court today dressed in all our wet finery and had a friendly bit of banter with the Tesco legal representative and the judge. The judge decided that, although we pointed out in our defense that their claim wasn’t accurate and so should be thrown out, she was happy to quickly amend it in court. This meant that we no longer had a defense as that was the only way our legal assistance had found for rejecting the claim. So, the judge awarded Tesco the possession order, as we thought they might.
We raised the issue of Tesco stating that they didn’t want to apply the possession order immediately, they just wanted hold of it. The solicitor again confirmed that this was the case.
SO, net result, as far as we know, we can remain in there doing fun things until Tesco want to get the builders in, hopefully sometime never. Obviously it’d be useful to keep open some kind of dialogue with Tesco about when they’re going to move in and we’ll look into that, however the early hope is that we actually have the space for a number of weeks and can get cracking in earnest to make it even more lovely and useful.
The solicitor said in court that “Tesco has no use today for the premises.” to which the judge replied “So they are in no position to commence redevelopment at this moment?”, and the solicitor answered “No.”. So if that’s right, and if they do want to wait on the planning process before trying to evict us, it could be a long long time. Hurrah! 🙂 It also means they were fibbing when they said they could open a store “tomorrow” in the evening news. Cheeky blighters.
millroadsocialcentre@lists.riseup.net
http://millroadsocialcentre.wordpress.com
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social centre attacked (again)
15.06.2008
At about half 1 this morning the mill rd social centre was attacked for the second time in a week. Thugs armed with an iron bar smashed windows and damaged vehicles in attempt to intimidate the occupants, then drove off. No Pasaran.
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New autonomous and creative social space in South London
The Chapel project is an autonomous and creative social space situated in the heart of Nunhead. The space is used for all kinds of creative and socially minded workshops and events. Our main aim is to provide affordable cultural activities to people, promoting creative interaction and therefore social change.
Come and get involved. Whatever ideas, materials or positive energies you can share would be great whether its running a workshop, showing your art work, or just spreading the word. We hope to see you soon.