UPDATE 04/08/2021 [Cyril Richert]: This occupation has created a lot of outcry, especially within the Church community. Contrary to what some activists thought, it appears now that the Baptist Church is still the official owner of the lease of the Battersea Chapel. Therefore, our understanding is that Wandsworth Council is refusing to let them occupy the new building on Grant Road and exchange the leases while squatters are occupying their old building.

Some Save York Gardens campaign supporters (who originally supported the idea of “temporary community centre”) are trying to liaise with the occupants (who are not related to XR or SYG groups) to find a quick solution that is not damaging the community.

All updates at the bottom of this article.

Author: Charles Wiseman

The Sunday kitchen is on!

In York Gardens (Wandsworth/Battersea area), although many mature trees are already gone as the Council and building company Taylor Wimpeys are pursuing plans to build towers in the area, the community took an initiative to plant a rose garden, offer food and make community space, with wild-and sunflowers.

The Battersea Chapel Baptist Church building was vacated recently, following their relocation inside a new block built last year with Phase 0. The old structure is planned for demolition for block 6 of the Council’s regeneration plan (phase 1), likely to start in 2 years.

The empty church is now used as a community space, with free meals planned on Sundays there.

Continue reading →

Author: Charlie Wiseman

The saving of the elm trees in 1851: they were included in the Crystal Palace project

Battersea has been woke as long as the Elms that were left to grow inside the Great Exhibition’s Crystal Palace of 1851…In fact it was because of protests about three elm trees at Prince’s Gate Entrance that the shape of the barrel-vaulted transept of the giant glass building was conceived of.

In  Edinburgh, I met Jeremy Weller of Grassmarket Project, who made a new theatre that embraces the best performance we can give: being ourselves. Everyone from the street to those in young offender institutions were given a chance to be themselves.

More recently Thomas McCrudden did this most obviously by telling the story of his life in Doubting Thomas that led to Ken Loach’s scriptwriter describing how he wanted to see “everything Grassmarket has ever produced“. I, Daniel Blake, had been the film that won the highest prize of French film, the Palm D’Ors at Cannes. Now he saw something that astounded him: ordinary people portraying themselves. If life is performance, by contrast you should try being yourself.

Protesting and being oneself

McCrudden experienced being himself by standing on stage, and now like Rachida, Dimitri and Sophie and others in York Gardens, I found I was being myself, by protesting, something I hadn’t conceived of before.

Ros Coward, a Guardian journalist, described how she also had received a deluge of emails, after describing the assault on the countryside, by developers. With so many in a state of disorientation at what climate and disease could inflict, I found myself reflecting on the biblical plagues of insects, which are shown to have human faces and eat only human objects and garments. I could well imagine these locusts or beetles swarming out of the Supreme Courts of Westminster today, or the Hague, as the judges’ wigs or Lords’ and politicians’ robes were eaten and they ran away stark naked! Continue reading →

Author: Cyril Richert

BML security guard using the knee-on-neck technique on protester – Credit: XR video screenshot

This is the story of a large old tree that local people wanted to protect from felling. This is a story of a massive regeneration project lead by a Council with plans in total opposition with the consultation they held 8 years ago. This is the story of violent security guards hired by Wandsworth Council assaulting tree protectors. This is the story of Dmitri, Emma, Ella, Pip, Marcus, Bradley, Tina, Rachida, Glyn, Annie, Phoebe, Rollie and many others who tried their best to defend a large garden, with massive trees and wildlife to be bulldozed without proper dialogue.

This is the story of a local community fighting to preserve the environment that matters to them. Continue reading →

Author: Cyril Richert

Credit: @SW_Londoner

Protesters who occupied York Gardens since February to block Wandsworth Council project to destroy the park have been evicted on Friday and now most of the mature trees have gone. They will make space for three buildings up to 14 storeys, with a mix of shared ownership, social rented and private owned accommodations. Continue reading →