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Sharing Place: Think Pieces invite external contributors to explore the theme of sharing place from diverse perspectives, and offering a broad range of reflections, ideas and provocations.
In this piece, Leslie Barson explores the difference between space and land, and the power structures that influence our relationships with our local places and with each other.
Otherwise Living and Granville Community Kitchen
Some time ago at the beginning of this iteration of our struggle against the regeneration of our 2 community buildings, a senior official on the Regeneration Team asked me, ‘What’s more important, your project or the space to do it in?’
The corner this question pushed me into has always stayed with me.
It’s a trap of huge proportions and implications.
In the official’s mind he obviously thought I would answer that the project was the most important aspect of our work and that we could go somewhere else and do the project, giving up the community centre. But I couldn’t say this and sat quietly knowing I was in an impossible situation but not sure how to answer in a manner that reflected my principles.
The idea that you can have a project without a place to do it, is odd. Conversely, how can there be a place with no people in it because there are no projects?
In the intervening 8 years after this question was posed we have come to a point where there are no spaces to run any projects in South Kilburn. The building of housing is so dense and so pervasive that we are not able to find any space. In fact the new MP recently reflected this problem saying there are so many great ideas and projects in South Kilburn, but nowhere to do them.
The idea that space is endless, a given, an infinite freely available resource that can be plucked out of the air at any time may have been true at some point in history but, in contested areas of regeneration, has not been true for a long time. However, the myth remains. The idea that we could pick up our projects and put them anywhere is left over from the days when local government saw its role more as supporting their constituents. Housing blocks were built with large rooms for the residents to use in whatever way they chose, for projects, parties and get-togethers, even a space to organise in and make sure their landlords heard their voices. Society, at that time, acknowledged that landlords had greater power than tenants and therefore tenants needed more support to be able to have their interests discussed, articulated and their voices heard. That support came in the form of a community room in each block of flats and this represented an acknowledgement of that need. Without this space, residents would be even more incapacitated in their struggles against a system lined up against them. Needless to say the new housing built in South Kilburn does not have community rooms. The consequence is that residents have had to meet in the stairwells to discuss problems in their buildings.
When people think of space they don’t think of land. Somehow the two seem to be divorced in our minds. Space is seen as a natural right like air or water and something that cannot be taken away from us as humans on the earth. It is all around you, impossible to remove from around you. It is the place that is infinite above us in the night sky, immeasurable, Intangible and metaphysical.
Land, however, is the dirt under your feet that you can touch and feel and dig up. It is constantly measurable and measured. It can be bought and sold with all sorts of numbers attached to it, size, price, depth, so that it appears to be rational, real, tangible, such that the owner can say who does what and where on their land. Land is a lesser thing than space. Space is unable to be taken from us whereas land is. It does not have the gravitas of space so is considered less important.
This distinction between space and land is so ingrained in our culture that it is rarely questioned. Being in the situation we are in South Kilburn, losing so much public space in such a short time brings home the reality of this artificial separation between land ownership and space. This separation suits those in power. Actually, when we stop to think about it, we all agree land and space are intimately intertwined. The two issues are inseparable.
So, while we continue to speak about space in community buildings we are actually talking about land that is a finite resource managed through price and ownership (power). So going back to the original question: What’s more important your project or the space to do it? We have realised the official was not really asking me a question but flexing his muscles reminding me that those he worked for had the power to do what they wanted with the land (the building). Community voice, democratic principles and the importance of food and connection were relegated, in reality, to rhetoric.
All images courtesy of Leslie Barson.
About the Author
Leslie cofounded Granville Community Kitchen in September 2014 with her dear friend Deirdre Woods. Their love of the South Kilburn community, The Granville and Carlton Community buildings, community education and food justice is what drives them.
Their community meals, support for the people seeking asylum, support for those who are lonely, isolated or struggling financially, their volunteer and education programs and their food growing in the area all help to bring more joy to South Kilburn! Joy is very important!
About the WEdesign 2024/25 Series: Sharing Place
WEdesign is The Glass-House’s annual series of free interactive public events, held online and in-person in cities across the UK, where we explore collaborative design in placemaking through discussion, debate and playful co-design activities.
Sharing Place brings people together to propose more equitable ways of sharing our places and spaces, as well as creating places to share experiences, skills and other things we value, through thoughtful placemaking.
Our online events create provocative spaces for conversation and are open to participants across the UK and further afield. Our Think Pieces bring together a series of blogs from a range of voices to explore the WEdesign series theme.
WEdesign in-person events are safe spaces for diverse audiences to come together to explore challenging issues and to work collaboratively to generate ideas and solutions, co-designing propositions for changes to culture, policy and practice through hands-on making activities, discussion and debate. These events are co-facilitated by students from our WEdesign Student Programme, in collaboration with our partner universities in cities across the UK.
WEdesign is supported by the Ove Arup Foundation.
Find out more and book a place at one of our WEdesign Sharing Place events here.
Visit our WEdesign page to find out more about the WEdesign Programme and how we work with partner universities, students and external contributors here.
