On Tuesday night (20 May), the space was squatted.
On Wednesday afternoon (21 May), the police paid a visit.
The cleanup begins…
Paint is applied
On Friday (23 May), more than fifty people turned up for an Open Meeting.
Security measures are put in place, despite being a little ineffective!
The Romsey Town Rollerbillies have their first training session
Round and round they went!
Mill Road Social Centre 
27 comments
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27 May 2008 at 11:02 am
ila
Nice one !
A social centre in cambridge !
Good luck with it all.
ila -from Roma
27 May 2008 at 12:49 pm
Cari
Wow!
This actually looks completely viable and real. Good luck!
27 May 2008 at 4:22 pm
Jen
I’m coming back to England to live on Mill Road this summer… I want to sing here. 🙂
27 May 2008 at 11:21 pm
Katrina
Nice one looks great, good luck with it x
28 May 2008 at 10:50 am
Shannon Howells
I didunt know this cud be done. fantastic, where do i join in
28 May 2008 at 2:29 pm
Luke
Haha, the first i knew of this were 30 crazy ladies wizzing about on rollerskates as i cycled home in the rain. Gave me a right giggle!
I’m glad to see the place is actually being used after being boarded up for so long, and the fact that it is a community project is the icing on the cake.
Good luck comrades!
28 May 2008 at 6:50 pm
Kirsten
really want to help and support
add me to your e-mailing list if you have one
can offer you loan of projector for films
see you at next meeting
check out http://www.abbeytaxi.info
I’m there and here with you
thank you for making it happen – about time
28 May 2008 at 7:16 pm
M Smith
This is disgraceful behaviour. You have illegally broken into private property and should be ashamed of yourselves. If you really want a community facility, you should lobby the council for one, or raise money for one.
28 May 2008 at 7:52 pm
millroadsocialcentre
Lobby the council! A lot of good that did trying to stop Tesco’s, how would we fair getting a club like this officially set up before…say 2020?!
Raise money for one!! How much would that cost Mr Smith, would you like to donate a tenner!?
Disgraceful behavior Mr Smith are when misguided kids pull a knife out on a mother with two children, or drink because they have nothing better to do, disgraceful behavior is when a beautiful community starts to drift apart due to giant Tesco shaped wedges being driven down the middle of it.
Not everything people are trying to do will work, and not everything people are doing is ‘right’ but at least we are doing something, the support and community interest of this project has already been worth a thousand of your letters sir, so please, instead of complaining and working agenst the community, is there anything you can do to help?
Cheers
Mark
28 May 2008 at 8:21 pm
Suzanne
Great idea, finally something to keep the kids off the streets and a million times more needed than another Tesco and in such a great location. Good luck :o)
28 May 2008 at 10:54 pm
Jman
Great, I hope it lasts. I don’t mind Tescos to be honest, but I would prefer the MRSC!
Enjoy it while it lasts, I guess.
JMan
29 May 2008 at 5:24 pm
Ruth
Actually lobbying the council did do a lot of good trying to stop Tesco’s – the council kicked Tesco’s application out! Tesco can’t open up in there unless they get planning permission, which they don’t yet have. Right, I’ll stop bending your ear now.
1 June 2008 at 1:18 am
smelly dave
yeah man love it…. can i come and stay just been made homeless need a place… staying down on cam at mo u can get me there..
1 June 2008 at 4:59 am
Toxic Dwarf
To be fair, yes the council DID refuse the planning application…. to extend the site and build refrigeration units. However Tesco’s are more than capable of opening a shop there without these extensions. Tesco are adament that they will be developing a shop there. The fact that the site is open and being used by the community till this happens is brilliant. Why leave the space empty, wasted and useless. People who might otherwise be living on park benches and on the streets have a roof over there heads and are trying to put something back into the community. Disgraceful behaviour.. i think not. If people have a problem with the social centre being there then the answer is simple…. don’t use it! Otherwise join the rest of us in enjoying the space to be creative, entertain and be entertained, meet people from your local area, get involved in community projects and do something positive for as long as it lasts.
2 June 2008 at 12:41 pm
Ruth
No, they aren’t more than capable of opening a shop without the extension (happy to explain why but I warn you it’s very boring…). And there’s no way they will ever be able to open without refrigeration unless they have found a secret way to make a ton of money selling nothing but tins of beans and catfood – no refrigeration means no fresh fuit and veg, milk, butter, cheese, sandwiches, ready meals, frozen food, cold drinks, ice cream.
They have now had this site for a year – do you think they would be sitting on an empty site if they could open?
Of course they are saying that they can open – that’s what their PR people are paid to do – but they can’t. They said 3 months ago (immediately after they lost the council vote) that they had a “secret plan” to plan to open anyway. What happened? Nothing.
Then they read the case against them at appeal and suddenly decided to tell the world they had another “secret plan” and were about to put in a planning application for this miracle, smaller store that would be abut 40% smaller but still profitable. That was a month ago and they still haven’t submitted the planning application that was due to be sumitted by the end of the first week in May, so they said. Why not? Maybe it’s because Lord Lucan, Elvis, Shergar, and the Area 51 aliens are putting the finishing touches to it, or maybe it’s all yet more Tesco spin to convince local people and councillors that there’s no point opposing them because it’s all a done deal. They’ve been trying that since day one.
2 June 2008 at 5:01 pm
Mani
For the record, we didn’t break in it was already open. The only damage that has been done to the building is by children playing football in the car park well before we got there. Unless you count painting it as damage.
There is nothing illegal about what we are doing, although squatting immediately gives somewhere a bad name, it is completely legal. Also, it is strictly a no smoking, no drugs site.
I’m interested as to how that is disgraceful.
Mani x
2 June 2008 at 5:48 pm
Ruth
My partner says that when he walked past the other day, the front of the site was empty except for the dog, who was skateboarding around the room. Can you confirm that you have a skateboarding dog or do I need to send my partner for urgent medical help?
2 June 2008 at 5:59 pm
Mani
It’s all ok. We have a skateboarding dog called Ganstar. Feel free to send your partner for urgent medical help anyway if you fancy it. Could be fun…
x
2 June 2008 at 6:24 pm
Ruth
🙂
Maybe he could run a dog skateboarding workshop?
3 June 2008 at 11:49 am
Mani
Your partner or the dog? Perhaps both, team effort and all that, this is all about the community coming together after all…
3 June 2008 at 1:12 pm
Andy Shaggy
well in guys – good to see a lovely positive project in the birthing! hope to get down to see it all soon.
Much love from Peterborough.
5 June 2008 at 6:08 pm
Dan
I think your idea is simply brilliant. Boo to that grumpy M Smith!
10 June 2008 at 11:33 pm
James, Loser
Ditto that Dan – is Mr Smith a disgrunted Tesco employee perhaps? If he turns up handing out Clubcards, be suspicious….
If Tescos want to be accepted into Mill Road, the least they could do is be supportive of their empty building being cared for and used by a bunch of residents. They missed a HUGE PR trick there. Pics in the paper of happy rollerskaters drinking Value Lemonade, gig goers enjoying tasty snacks from their Finest range…ok, I’m joking about the food and drink, but pissing off the local community isn’t as clever as being a little tolerant and looking like good guys.
Anyway, whatever, my point was just that I think this is awesome 🙂
11 June 2008 at 3:18 pm
Tom
Perhaps M Smith is volunteering him or herself to donate some leisure equipment?
30 June 2008 at 9:38 am
Pippy
Fab – think what you guys are doing is excellent and totally within the ethos of Mill Road, as opposed to Tesco which is totally against. Hope you guys get to stay there, have been too shy to pop in yet, but I’m a-working on it…. Long may you guys continue.
3 July 2008 at 4:56 pm
Karl Atkins
I too live near to the centre and while I agree with Mr Maloney’s comments above about noise, drunkenness and swearing I am pleased that the space is being used in the way it is.
2 August 2008 at 4:32 am
Anonymous
Good riddance scumbags