Social Centre Plus move into the main Job Centre Plus

This in from the folks at the Job Centre....

SOCIAL CENTRE PLUS MOVE NEXT DOOR AND ANNOUNCE NEW OPEN DAY!

Social Centre Plus – who occupied the old Job Centre on Deptford High Street in order to create “an anti-cuts space for the community” – celebrated completing their brief move next door by announcing a new programme of events and another Open Day for this Wednesday (20th).

“Following last Tuesday’s failed eviction attempt by bailiffs and builders sent by landlord Paul Jackson,” Jenny Wilshere said, “the SCP Collective decided to move out of number 122 into number 124 next door. You can currently find us by knocking on the door underneath the ‘Christ Life’ sign.”

The move was undertaken in order to maintain a safe space open to the community, Wilshere said on behalf of the anti-cuts group. “Despite the fantastic showing from almost 100 local residents in order to prevent the bailiffs from entering last Tuesday,” she continued, “we can’t be sure that the Locks Bury Services thugs won’t return with heavy tools and violent intentions. So we felt that the best way of keeping open a genuinely community-led space against the cuts was by moving into a new site which had no legal eviction order hanging over it.”

Wilshere emphasised that the space was once again open to the community, and that Wednesday’s Open Day – which will include food, drinks, a film and even a barbecue (“weather-permitting!”) – would be the first of many. “We have loads of events planned, but we want members of the local community to continue to make use of the space, so we once again invite everyone to come and pay us a visit for a quick cuppa and a nice chat.”

Hello and goodbye...

HELLO TO THE WAITING ROOM

Kids Love Ink, Deptford's own very stylish Tattoo parlour (and fabulous sign-writers!), have just opened a new coffee shop next door but one to their premises (which has also had a make-over) just north of the railway. The ever epicurial Deptford Dame has the initial low-down...

 

HELLO ALSO TO CREEKSIDE CAFE

Nearer home, a light and airy new cafe has opened at the front of Faircharm Trading Estate, offering coffee, tea, soups, sandwiches and paninis, cakes and...breakfast. Open Monday-Friday 8am-4pm and Saturdays 10am-4pm, it will serve the businesses in Faircharm, and, well, anyone else who finds themselves on Creekside in need of sustenance.

MEANWHILE, AT THE TRAIN CAFE...

The Deptford Project train cafe is undergoing some alterations both to its exterior (a living grass roof has been mooted) and its opening hours, which have been extended to 5.30pm. They will also be trying out table service next week, to combat the often overlong waits at busy times between ordering and getting your food and coffee. We look forward to seeing the new look and improved service at this highly popular venue (and to getting a new picture to replace this older one!).

AND DEPTFORD DELI...

If you didn't know already, the Deptford Deli has been opening in the evenings for dinner since early March. There are new opening hours (Wed-Fri 12-4pm and 6pm-10pm, Saturdays 10am-10pm, Sundays 12-5pm, and it is licensed. Over again to the Deptford Dame for more details...


BUT...GOODBYE TO EAST WEST SUPERMARKET

Thanks to new reader Simon for alerting us to the news that East West Supermarket on New Cross Road (opposite Addey & Stanhope school) has now closed, after what must be twenty years of service to the Deptford community supplying Eastern and Oriental food ingredients and kitchen accoutrements.We wish the family a happy retirement.

IT MAY ALSO BE GOODBYE TO SOCIAL CENTRE PLUS

....who are having to leave the old Job Centre offices next Tuesday 12th April...(unless they decide to put up a fight to stay)...Events and open days will continue until then...


FINALLY, A LESS ENTHUSIASTIC HELLO...

Less imaginative new businesses are currently preparing to open for business. Just a few doors down from Codfathers, it's goodbye to Balloons For London, and Hello ANOTHER WET FISH SHOP...

And two doors down from the old Job Centre, a refit has been going on for awhile. Rumour has it was going to be a Chinese Travel Agents, but latest speculation has it as a Chinese Money Shop...We had a look inside recently when the Chinese/Vietnamese builders were in – the floor has been beautifully tiled, the walls freshly painted, but suspicions were aroused by the large window at the back of the premises behind which was an office-like room – usually a sign of some sort of financial trading...

 

Postscript (12/4/11): A new sign has gone up, and this shop is going to be a Vietnamese & Chinese supermarket with Money Transfer facilities...

Deptford Job Centre occupation

This afternoon some anti-cuts activists entered and occupied the offices of the old Job Centre (next door to the main job centre plus). Banners went up in the windows and a notice was put up of a public meeting to be held at 6pm.

We went along for the meeting and joined around 40 or so others who sat on the floor in a circle to hear everyone introduce themselves and to discuss the intentions of the occupation and put forward ideas of how they would use the space. Much of the first part of the meeting was taken up with discussing what to do about the fact that the owner of the building had already invited Rebecca Molina (who runs the Deptford Project) to occupy the space for a year as a pop-up community space with a programme of events and activities, something she had been working on for a couple of months. Rebecca attended the meeting to explain her position. The squatters decided, however, to continue the occupation and establish the building as a base for political activism against the cuts.

When one of the group stated they were looking for other unused buildings to squat we suggested the Halifax (where Betfred hope to open the eighth betting shop on the high street). The Chair was rather dismissive: "if you want something done, do it yourself" was his answer. * Unfortunately we had to leave the meeting as the group began to discuss ideas for how they would use the building and engage the local community. This obstensibly was what Rebecca had been planning, but with the owner's consent and without the politics. The occupiers plan to live in the two floors above the main space.

They have set up a website where they state:  "We have occupied the disused Deptford Job Centre as a response to the brutal cuts to public services being carried out at both a local and national level. We aim to clean the place up and convert it into Social Centre Plus: a new public space for members of the local community here in Deptford and the surrounding area, that we can share, contribute to, and create a truly social building and a hub of local opposition to the cuts programme.

"This is a self-organised space, run by people from a variety of backgrounds and we are not in any political parties.

"We have taken the space in order to also demonstrate our resistance to the cuts Mayor Steve Bullock and his Labour cronies, under the orders of the Tories in Westminster, are promising us. The Council aims to slash £88 million off of its budget within the next four years. Libraries, day care centres and early years centres will all be closed while we have to suffer from pay cuts and price rises.

"...we want this to be a free space for the community to use and we invite everyone inside with their ideas for the building and the wider world, or even just to chat over a cuppa. We plan cafés, film nights, workshops, and a million other things on which we’d love to hear your ideas!"

More info at:  socialcentreplus.wordpress.com
Email: socialcentreplus@gmail.com   Twitter: @deptfordplus

* Postscript: Subsequent contact has been made and support offered for the anti-betting shop campaign.
 
One of the group is staging a play-reading performance at The Albany next Saturday 19th March at 7pm. Mandy Destroys World Capitalism by Bill Jefferies "reflects perfectly the current zeitgeist with its tale of seedy bankers, corporate corruption, vicious workplace sexism and different ways of fighting back from street protests to individual acts of vengeance." Staged with professional actors and direction, the evening has been organised by Artists of Resistance in partnership with Lewisham Anti-Cuts Alliance and Manchester's White Circle Theatre Company.  Entry is via £5 donation to the Anti-cuts movement.

At the event, there will also be an auction of the Deptford Says No To Tidemill Academy poster. An edition of 50 A1 (bloody big) posters have been specially screen printed to raise funds to pay legal costs incurred in challenging the legality of the school's bid for academy status.  For more details of how to get hold of one of these iconic posters go to academies.sayingno.org