Leeds’s Common Place Social Centre To Close

On 21st March 2011, Leeds’ radical, autonomous social centre The Common Place announced that it would be closing after a final party weekend on 22nd-24th April. This will be felt by many as a great loss.

The reasons given in this statement from The Common Place are familiar to many social centres; the work to keep the place running ended up falling on too few people, working on a rented building was hard work, and it was not making enough money to pay the bills.  There are also less familiar reasons; the local police had a vendetta against the Common Place and one of the orginal members was an undercover police officer (more on this).

Here we tell the story behind the closure, which resulted from events some three years ago.

Click on a thumbnail for a slideshow view

On the 27th of April 2008 the ‘Smash EDO’ film On The Verge was shown at the Common Place. The council invoked the small print to request a viewing to give the film a BBFC certificate before the Common Place showing with supposed pressure being applied by Sussex Police (via an email from Chicester council). The decision to bow to the council pressure or not was not an easy one to make.

After a well attended film showing, West Yorkshire constabulary decided to pay the Common Place a surprise visit. This took place on an EF! fund-raising night. The police forced their way past the door staff, accompanied by a videographer who filmed everyone in the building and requested to see everyone’s membership cards, under threat of revoking the license if people didn’t comply.

Following that visit, the council started looking more closely at the Common Place rules to check it was obeying the licensing laws and following terms in its Members’ Club rules. The Common Place had its entertainment & alcohol licence - the main income stream - revoked on a technicality which they later sought to challenge in court.

This seemed a death-like blow, with rent of £1200 a month with not much other income. Unsatisfied with this, the Common Place stuck it to the man and fought in court to have the licence returned. With a very helpful pro bono legal representative and volunteers in court, up against a barrister costing the council £15,234.70 was always going to be an uphill struggle and it ended in defeat: the decision to revoke the licence was upheld. During this time the Common Place also developed a difficult relationship with some members of AntiFa.

To keep afloat through these troubled times, some members produced a CD to raise funds. The tracks were all donated by artists who had performed at the Common Place. All graphical and audio production was done by a volunteer using Free Software. See the attached sleeve for track listing.

With debts rising the end seemed in sight but then, in a strange twist, the Common Place applied for a licence and on September 7th 2009 it was duly granted. The place was alive with packed out nights and discussions for the whole of about 3 weeks until the full court’s decision that the Common Place was liable for the legal costs awarded in appealing the licensing decision. Fifteen thousand pounds is an unreasonable amount to raise and would have required substantial extra time commitments from volunteers to help pay, as the Common Place has never run at a profit.

At a well attended special AGM in January 2010 the negative feelings about the building were clear; it was described as a dark, unfriendly space. It was agreed to keep everything running so Common Conversation and other groups could have stability, but the time has finally run out. The Common Place aims to finish on a high with a DIY queer night, Common Conversation then a final party to show that there is energy for a social centre, reason to use one and that it will be sorely missed.

There is to be a “what's next” discussion for people who want to be involved in creating a future space in Leeds, but this is the end of the Common Place. The idea is to put people in contact with each other so groups can go off and start planning whatever they are interested in, be it a bookshop, a café, a gig venue or something else entirely.

 

Attached Files

CD - Thanks to all these artists and many others