Save Soanes Campaign
Our beloved community centre is at-risk.
But we are fighting back!
What’s going on?
In July 2024, Tower Hamlets Council issued an eviction notice to kids education charity Setpoint London East to empty and vacate the Soanes Centre, their home for the last thirty years, within seven days.
With the support of artists Kin Structures and the volunteers of the Save Soanes Campaign, Setpoint London East resisted the eviction, and the council withdrew the notice. As a result, Setpoint London East has been able to continue providing pioneering environmental education to local school children.
Unfortunately, despite the valuable services offered by Setpoint London East, the Council has still not offered a secure long-term lease for the Soanes Centre.
Without this agreed lease, Setpoint London East has no security. They can be evicted again at short notice and therefore are unable to plan meaningfully for their future.
How can I help?
Sign the petition
The Save Soanes campaign has launched a petition with the aim of persuading the Council to grant Setpoint London East a secure, long-term lease in recognition of the vital services they provide to the local community. The aim is to secure 2,000+ signatures on the petition. Once the petition has 2,000 signatures, the issue has to be discussed by local councillors at their meeting.
Anyone can sign the petition, but the council will only count signatures from people who live, work or study in Tower Hamlets. Please use the relevant address (i.e. your home, work or university address) when you sign.
Volunteer with us
We are looking for volunteers to help across the campaign!
Over the past couple of weeks, dozens of volunteers have been getting involved. With their support, we were able to design and launch a website, create a campaign identity and social media resources, source vital legal advice and find helpful contacts within the Council and wider Tower Hamlets civil and grassroots society.
Do you want to volunteer with us? Click below for more information and to sign up!
Stay up to date
Join our mailing list and follow us on Instagram and Twitter/X to stay up to date with the campaign.
Who are Setpoint London East and Kin Structures? What is the Soanes Centre?
Since 1997, the Soanes Centre - a purpose-built educational facility for science and ecology - has been the base of Setpoint London East. Setpoint London East is a small charity on a mission to support local school children to discover the world around them through practical, hands-on science workshops, using the natural resources of the Soanes Centre and its surrounding 33-acre woodland park. The charity’s work has been vital in providing local, largely black and brown school-children and their families, access to green space in a borough where the amount of publicly accessible open space remains some of the lowest in the capital and nationally. Each year, over 8,000 primary school children in Tower Hamlets and neighbouring boroughs visit and learn at the Soanes Centre through Setpoint.
Since 2023, grassroots cultural organisation Kin Structures have been working and supporting Setpoint London East in delivering free, community-led programmes of art, learning and play and protecting the at-risk space. Founded by artists Arman Nouri and Kwame Lowe, Kin Structures began in response to the declining numbers of cultural and community spaces, particularly community centres, across London.
The Principles of Save Soanes
Save Soanes is a collective effort by a coalition of local community members, residents supporters, and friends to build a vision alongside Setpoint London for Soanes Centre that will secure it’s place as a home for community-led education and grassroots creativity for generations to come.
The principles shared here are a reminder to mobilise with compassion, connection, and consistency.
1. Intersectional, Expansive, Openness to Growth
We are committed to creating an intersectional and expansive movement, growing with and shaped by the community.
How we do it
- - Recognising the different experiences, skills and insights of each member offer opportunity for collective growth
- - Treating others how we wish to be treated
- - Principles are continually revised and revisited so they can remain true to the overarching aims of our campaign and be moulded to support the most current needs of Soanes Centre
- - Welcoming and accommodating different abilities and levels of experience
- - Fostering skills development and growth through campaign activities through peer mentorship
- - Building networks with like-minded organisations within LBTH and beyond by commissioning and collaborating on projects, and invitations to participate in the campaign, and supporting their activities
2. Collectivity, De-centralisation, Rootedness
We cherish, admire, and respect the infrastructural resilience established within other local de-centralised, grassroots organisations, whose members are also part of the Save Soanes movement. We endeavour to continue to channel the strength and guidance of the collective.
How we do it
- - Principles as a means to anchor our campaign and community for safety and stability in decision-making
- - Decision-making is participatory and transparent, with open, iterative, and non-hierarchical discussion
- - Encouraging initiative and proactivity to present ideas and plans to the group
3. Championing Conflict-Resolution through Mediation and Accountability
We believe conflict is best resolved through mediation, accountability, and de-escalation; paramount in creating a rooted and anchored community space.
How we do it
- Avoiding assumptions to minimise miscommunication
- Actively listening to each other, and asking questions when we do not understand
- Championing conflict resolution skills, communication, and community
- Showing and speaking up with consistency; being honest with our individual capacity
- Honouring the commitments we make with a humble attitude and a willingness to be vulnerable
4. Developing Liberatory Frameworks around Curriculum, Place-making, and access to Green spaces, working towards a Sustainable Legacy
We recognise the existing cultural and educational programming at Soanes Centre are integral to the Campaign’s immediate goal of securing a long-term lease of the physical site. We will ensure access to these invaluable offerings will be sustained by local, individual, and community knowledge exchange and empowerment.
How we do it
- - Delivering programmes nurturing peer-to-peer learning, knowledge exchange, practical skill-sharing including: political and cultural education, artistic development, honouring different formats and approaches to curriculum
- - Translating this education into practical, tangible activities to preserve access to public and community spaces and green spaces
- - Documenting and archiving our journey and activities for public access
We believe these principles to reflect our collective agreement in the necessity of community spaces, underpinned by intersectionality, collectivity, liberatory, grassroots resistance. Recognising the critical urgency of this seminal movement to ensure the legacy of Soanes Centre, we continue to commit the mobilisation of our time and labour as necessary.
