Self-managed social centres in the United Kingdom

Self-managed social centres in the United Kingdom can be found in squatted, rented, mortgaged and fully owned buildings.

The largest number have occurred in London from the 1980s onwards, although projects exist in most cities across the UK, linked in a network.

Squatted social centres tend to be quickly evicted and therefore some projects deliberately choose a short-term existence, such as A-Spire in Leeds or the Okasional Café in Manchester.

[5] One view asserted that buying a social centre meant activists got bogged down by mundane activities such as business plans and mortgage applications.

Sociologist Anita Lacey writes that "Actions, plans, ideas, and contacts are circulated via zines, at infoshops and stalls, and in social centres.

"[8] Further, as well as being linked together, the centres provide concrete physical spaces for activists to meet and organise events and campaigns.

Geographers Paul Chatterton and Stuart Hodkinson view social centres as part of the "broader 'autonomous movement,'" playing an "important role in the re-thinking and re-making 'citizenship' by bringing people together in spaces whose very reason for existence is to question and confront the rampant individualism of everyday life.

In Brighton, the Cowley Club was founded in 2002 and has a bar, bookshop, café, infoshop, library, meeting space and music venue.

[8] The still extant Initiative Factory (also known as CASA) was set up in Liverpool following the dockers' strike in order to provide free community services.

[23] The Partisan collective acquired a building on Cheetham Hill Road in Manchester as a social space and concert venue in 2017.

[25][26] The Star and Shadow community cinema began in Stepney Bank in Newcastle in 2006 and since 2018 is based on Warwick Street.

Formed out of a previous project called the Rainbow Centre, the Sumac provides a meeting space for groups and a base for Veggies catering, which is run as a non-profit workers co-operative.

[29] Examples of long-term squatted and now evicted projects include the 491 Gallery, RampART and the Spike Surplus Scheme.

In the 2000s, there was a series of projects squatted by people connected to Reclaim the Streets and the WOMBLES, such as the Radical Dairy, Grand Banks and Institute for Autonomy.

[10][32] The Really Free School occupied four buildings in central London in 2011, including a Fitzrovia mansion owned by Guy Ritchie.

A spokesperson said “We need a friendly landlord and about 2,000 ground-floor square feet, near to accessible transport, which is a tall order given the crazy cost of renting in London.”[34] Currently in 2024, alongside the 56A Infoshop and the London Action Resource Centre, active London projects include Pelican House[35] in Bethnal Green, DeCentre at Freedom in Whitechapel and the Mayday Rooms on Fleet Street.

[23] There are also groups which choose to do short-term squatted events lasting a fixed time so as to mitigate the difficulties of long term occupation.

[39] This sortable list of notable current social centres in the United Kingdom was last updated in November 2023.