Bowl Court was evcited during climate camp week by high court bailiffs. More details soon.

A week long London FreeSchool event will be taking place between the 1st and 7th of September at Bowl Court Social Centre with workshops, discussions and skill-sharing. Themes will include Food, Creative Arts, Permaculture, Gender, Science and Languages. The event will be completely free and open to all people willing to respect the ideals of the free school and each other.

London FreeSchool aims to confront the hierarchy and inequality which dominates learning. It stems from a belief that the control and institutionalisation of education is wrong and as communities we need to reclaim knowledge in order to develop self reliance. The free in free school refers to the freedom of learning as well as learning outside of the monetary system. It directly challenges the elitism of the expert and ‘doctor knows best’ attitude understanding that we are all equal and can learn from one another.

In order to make this event a success we need help! If you are able to facilitate a workshop, discussion or skill-share then please drop us a line detailing what exactly you would like to do, how long it would take (e.g. one hour session or 3 sessions on different days), if there are any specific tools, equipment or materials needed and your availability between the 1st and 7th September.

contact: deschooling_society@lists.riseup.net
website: http://londonfreeschool.wordpress.com

One of Europe’s biggest property firms is fighting squatters over a derelict Victorian workshop in a swathe of land it plans to redevelop in east London.

The seven full-time squatters, who say they want to protect the historic building, have won the support of conservation groups. But Hammerson, which has a portfolio worth £7.3 billion, is determined to force them out.

Today the squatters told how they are running a programme of community events including film nights and debates at 6 Bowl Court.

Jim Hubbard, 27, a gardener who moved in at Easter, said: “This was once a really nice historic street but No 6 is all that’s left. It’s been here for more than 150 years and is an important part of London’s history. It would be a tragedy if it was replaced with glass and steel blocks, which you can see all over the world.

“We can’t beat the developers but we want to persuade them to let the community use this place. If we are booted out it will sit here for years just decaying.”

Bowl Court is in a parcel of land east of Shoreditch High Street. Hammerson plans to redevelop the area in a scheme named Bishop’s Place, including a 51-storey tower, shops, offices, flats and a hotel.

It has planning permission to redevelop Bowl Court into offices, as long as it preserves the workshop. Its application for the wider Bishop’s Place scheme is expected to come before planners later this year.

Conservationists fear the building may not survive the redevelopment. “It’s isolation makes it look very vulnerable”, said Heloise Brown, an adviser to the Victorian Society, adding: “Buildings like this are a physical record of the development of the East End. To destroy them is to strip London of its past.

“The building next door was demolished without conservation area consent some years ago and there is a lot of pressure on this site.”

Bill Parry-Davies, from campaign group Open Shoreditch, said some local people were concerned at the spread of the City eastwards: “Bishop’s Place is the first of several steps by powerful commercial interests to redefine the City’s northern boundary, but in a crude and very destructive fashion,” he said.

Councillor Guy Nicholson, Hackney’s cabinet member for regeneration, said the area’s history as a furniture-making district in the 1850s had left Shoreditch with buildings full of character.

He added: “It is essential that development is managed in a way that encourages continuing economic activity in the City fringe while protecting the architectural legacy that makes the area so successful.”

Hammerson owns Brent Cross and a series of developments in Bishopsgate and the Docklands, and is drawing up a redevelopment around Victoria station.

Project director Joanna Axon said it had a possession order against the squatters. It is not known when it plans to evict them. She added: “We have taken the measure to remove the squatters from the building as it is not suitable for occupation. We are securing the building as a precautionary measure, while we consider our proposals for the site.”

A visit from the Victorian Society has resulted in a press release in which they express their fear for the future of 6 Bowl Court, left it to fall apart in recent years by its owners. The Victorian Society came to inspect the building and look at the damage already caused by years of deliberate neglect. Hammerson, the owners, would clearly like to be able to clear the entire site for their massive skyscrapers but planning consent has already been refused. Were the building to be left derelict and rotting for long enough they might then be able to justify demolition.

Growing fears for Shoreditch’s industrial heritage -17 June 2008

http://www.victorian-society.org.uk/news/69525/growing_fears_for_shoreditchs_industrial_heritage.html

News that a Victorian workshop in the Shoreditch High Street Conservation Area may soon be boarded up and left to rot has been met with alarm by the Victorian Society, which fears that the move could lead to the building’s demolition.

One of a fast-decreasing number of nineteenth century buildings linked to Shoreditch’s furniture-making past, 6 Bowl Court retains much of its original character and features, including paired taking-in doors on the second floor and a simple beam hoist. Although thought to be late-Victorian, evidence suggests that the building may contain parts of an earlier structure. Its neighbour, 5 Bowl Court, was demolished without conservation area consent some time between 2004 and 2006. Now campaigners fear that the eviction of squatters from the building could mark the first stage in the eventual destruction of 6 Bowl Court and herald the erasure of yet more of the East End’s industrial heritage.

‘We’re very worried about 6 Bowl Court,’ said Heloise Brown, Conservation Adviser of the Victorian Society. ‘An intriguing building which adds a great deal of character to Shoreditch, the workshop is a valuable part of the High Street Conservation Area. Buildings like this are a physical record of the development of the East End. To destroy them is to strip London of its past.’

Predictably, Hammersons goons have been awarded possession of 6 Bowl Court in todays court hearing and costs awarded against the defendants. More details to follow. Look out for meetings to discuss what we’ll do next.

On 4th June at Gee Street Magistrates Court, property giant Hammerson via their front company RT Group Property Investments Ltd, will seek possession of not just our lovely squatted victorian warehouse in Bowl Court but also over half a dozen other neighbouring properties, many of which have existing occupiers with long term leases or other title. This crazy situation sees us, squatters, defending those neighbours against the possibility of eviction.

Bowl Court is a non-commercial squatted space run as a collectively managed grassroots activism project to enable some independence from a system predominated by commodity and capital. Together we aim to facilitate DIY culture and horizontal organising for individuals, campaign groups and artists working on social justice and environmental issues.

This is a participatory project moving towards bringing about radical social change and creating positive alternatives while seeking to address issues of ecological sustainability in temporary urban spaces (such as squats).

Some of the ways these goals may be realised is through such projects as ; giveaway store, film festivals, art exhibitions, benefit concerts, permaculture, political discussions, public meetings, cafe and free school – either organised by us, or by you.

We meet as an open collective every monday evening from 7pm to discuss use of the space and hear proposals.

Email us at bowlcourt(@)riseup.net or phone 0208 8192596

You can find us off Plough Yard (near the Drunken Monkey) at the junction of Shoreditch Hight St and Great Eastern Street (http://tinyurl.com/4xeq2q). The closest tube Liverpool Street.

The building is a victorian warehouse set in a cobbled street but in the shadow of construction site and vast class and steel skyscrapers. The project is already under threat of eviction despite the owners have no immediate plans for use of the building and ultimately want to knock it down.

If you would like to receive SMS alerts about London’s autonomous spaces text ‘follow londonscn’ to 07624801423 then reply with a name as instructed.

(Taken from http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/04/396084.html)

Ken Livingstone’s ‘London Plan’ sets out an image of Shoreditch taken over by a forest of towers comprising nearly two million sq ft of new City offices. Control of 13 acres of land has been handed over to private developers Hammerson and Ballymore.

Already planned for the area directly behind the squatted warehouse:
* one 11 storey block
* one 16-32 storey block
* one 51 storey block
* one 14 storey block
* one 6 storey block providing 11 token ‘affordable’ rental units.

The image shows an artists impression of just the first stages of this expansion of the city into the East End. The red circle shows the location of the squatted warehouse within the image and ironically it also shows the adjacent building which was demolished without planning consent a couple of years ago.

The proposed developments don’t end there and ultimately threaten not just the little squatted warehouse but the whole terrace of buildings along the high street frontage.

There are strong feelings against the plans among the local community which is likely to be almost totally wiped out by the expansion of the city. Hundreds of local residents and businesses, the long-established local artistic community and English Heritage strongly objected to the proposals which pave the way for further soulless development.

For more info see…

The new STOP THE CITY campaign portal site, featuring:

Open Shoreditch Campaign http://www.openshoreditch.net/

Campaign to ’stop the block’ http://www.saveshoreditch.com/ and their campaign video on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeQU22OTq0w

The historic Light Pub also has a campaign to save it from being demolished to make way for a new gigantic office block http://www.savethelight.co.uk/

Also see press coverage:

An article in the Evening Standard here http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23430365-details/Campaign+to+save+bar+on+historic+site+from+developer%27s+bulldozers/article.do

Property Week article http://www.propertyweek.com/story.asp?sectioncode=39&storycode=3104486&featurecode=12137

More press here http://www.savethelight.co.uk/Press.aspx

Galloway adds voice to the fight http://respectuk.blogspot.com/2008/04/george-galloway-steps-up-to-save-light.html

Planning application details on Hackney Website http://www.hackney.gov.uk/servapps/MVM/Online/Generic/StdDetails.aspx?PT=Planning%20Applications%20On-Line&TYPE=PL/PlanningTechAppraisalPK.xml&PARAM0=75864&XSLT=/servapps/MVM/SiteFiles/Skins/hackney/xslt/PL/PLTechAppraisalDetails.xslt&FT=Planning%20Application%20Details&PUBLIC=Y&XMLSIDE=/servapps/MVM/SiteFiles/Skins/hackney/Menus/PL.xml&DAURI=PLANNING

The area has already changed massively with the old railway lines and bridges demolished to make way for the expansion of the city. Below is a photo of Bowl Court when the railway arches were still there directly opposite the warehouses.

(taken from http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/04/396666.html)

Warning: your home is at risk if you do not keep up your occupation at all times and replace any existing locks secured on it.

For information and advice visit the Advisory Service for Squatters. 84b, Whitechapel High St, 020 3216 0099 http://squatter.org.uk/

The four storey building had been deliberately left empty for years even though the planning authorities won’t allow it to be demolished. Instead of using using/renting or selling the building, the owners have instead totally gutted the inside to deter squatters, stairs removed, floorboards pulled up, pipework yanked out and toilets smashed. As if that wasn’t bad enough they have left the building open to the elements with smashed windows and a bloody great hole torn out of the roof. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the developers are waiting for the building to fall into disrepair enough to justify its demolition.

Despite all the damage it was considered worth squatting anyway, partly due to the symbolic value of occupying and renovating a building that the owners are leaving empty while they wait for it to fall apart, but also because it has most of the attributes we wanted and is very conveniently located.

Right on the edge of the city of London, the squat is overshadowed by a massive new 700 million pound development site pushing out into Shoreditch. A huge glistening glass tower block is the first of many that will be built here, transforming the area completely. The warehouse stands alone with earth movers parked in the open area between it and the construction trains and tower blocks, an almost exact real life replica of the image used on the April2008 website.

The squat is located in Bowl Court which is up Plough Court next to the junction of Great Eastern Street and Shoreditch High Street.

Find out about other events taking place over the days of action in London, here http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/04/395938.html