The squatters resisted eviction attempts and negotiated with the owner (a bank), forming a housing co-operative which then bought the building for £19,000 in 1997.

[4] The original name, Kebele, was based on the Amharic word used by Rastafarians in the Grenada Revolution of 1973 to refer to the community centres that were the focus of resistance.

The reason given for the name change was that "it no longer felt appropriate to be called Kebele" because no-one involved in the project at that time "had links to Ethiopia", and "to make it clearer that we are an anarchist social centre".

[6] BASE is organised by collectives which take responsibility for certain activities, such as the bicycle workshop, cafe, infoshop, finance and radical library.

[2][7] BASE is part of a network of self-managed social centres in the United Kingdom which includes The 1 in 12 Club in Bradford, the Cowley Club in Brighton and the Sumac Centre in Nottingham.