1ST-UP

1ST-UP

25-31 Tavistock Place, WC1H.

Approx dates

Mar 23 to May 23

Owner

Birkbeck University.

History, plans etc

Squatted once before and evicted in 2021, empty since early pandemic planning application in process for office refurbishment.

Keywords

students, university, education,

Size SQm

2000 m2 (20,000 sqft)

Floorplans / layout / General Description

This building was already a squat, evicted in Dec 2021. Any more than 50 people living there would start to get squashy, would be great as a large open studio building, the rooms are set out as offices with basic kitchens on each floor and a few showers around the building, last time we were inside. We need to find a way back in for an inspection of the present state of the electrics and water… We’re planning to open it with a party at the end of March. link to the general chat group here

https://signal.group/#CjQKIFU0xfeM-9b_GkRqJXPJG1j9NZK-RqDhKttyDM3yxt0IEhDuvKZXm1jITnwn8Qmo3hZ6

The Cookie Crumbles in the Direction of Time

Pirates Coding across the treasure map

Until about two hours ago, it was the Pirates’ Code day of the week: itself a quarter of a month in the Gregorian calendar, and approximately a quarter of a Lunar Month.

We have been exploring Pirate symbols, designing Project InfoTorrent and of course, practising the Pirates’ Code (see fig 1).

Fig 1, Treasure Map

A cohort of cowardly buccaneers and idle pleasure pleasers found some wisdom Down in the Sett today. Using the Treasure Map as a visual and tactile aid, we travelled through time and had a look at our relative positions with regard to activity at the Flowerpot. What a journey it has been too!


Navigating

A flatbed opentop boxtruck thingywhatsy

Today is about navigating. A lord is indicating they want possession of the Sett back, so we might do well to scout some locations and do some scrolling.

58 Porchester Rd London W2 6ET

So we are inside the first Space Pirate’s squat of 2023! It’s here: 58 Porchester Rd. Telegram channel and Signal Chats coming soon..

At present we are holding it semi open to the public. The location is a nightclub more photos etc coming soon. We are asking that everyone who is given the combination lock to the internal doors first has the Pirate’s Code explained to, or reviewed with them in person. You are strongly encouraged to bring a buddy or two with you whenever you come.

Please keep an eye our open collective pages for events and info!

CRACK-A-SQUAT – Space Pirates style aka Submersion Week aka Keelhauling aka Space Pirate’s Rehab aka The Cabin aka… probably a lot of other names!

Soooo the names are all very appealing – I know! A few people have asked me though:

“What’s exactly is the line up for this week then?”

So here it is:

Saturday 7th- get-to-know and look ahead.

11am-3pm Arrivals

There is no set plan for Saturday, arrive anytime between 11am and 3pm for this informal day where we’ll all get to know each other a little more, start to tell one another our back stories and maybe do some omming together or something. By Friday we will have established and be part of our own fully autonomous Space Pirates Squat! – no pressure ! : )

>3pm Dorming

From 3pm you’ll be given your space in the cabin, a 6 person dorm with the other 5 proto-pirates. There’s a shared locker in the cabin you can keep any valuables in but you’ll need to have everything you personally need for the week in a rucksack.

Sunday 8th, The Pirates Code

Sunday is dedicated to the Pirates Code – the foundation of Space Piracy.

12-2 Origins & Background

After an early lunch/late breakfast we will look at the origins of the Space Pirates Code. Beginning with a brief recap of the Pirate’s code, we’ll go on to cover how it was discovered at consentframework.org and how it’s been adapted from that text-based document. We’ll also look at ways in which the Pirates Code can be used: as a treasure map, as a personal mnemonic for navigating consent and accountability, and so on.

3-3:45pm Treasure-map for our week

During this brief session we’ll set out a treasure map for the week ahead which we’ll adapt and use to guide us through the rest of the week.

4-5:30 pm Pirate’s Code public session (optional)

This is a public session where people will be able to come and learn more about the Pirates’ Code. You’re welcome to join in and observe, but this session is dedicated to others who have expressed an interest in learning more about the Pirates Code.

Monday 9th, Navigating

Monday is dedicated to Navigating – Plotting buildings on maps and ways into them.

10-12 Route planning

We’ll be learning all about plotting our way into buildings, this will be an intensive session in which we will select 6-8 buildings, start doing some desk based research on them and plan a route for the afternoon.

3pm & 3am – Recce tours 1 & 2

Prepared for quick in-n-out internal inspections with very minimal kit, we will go together on a group tour to shortlist the 3 best options that afternoon, and aim to get inside for a look around. This may be repeated in the early hours of Tuesday morning if necessary. Once safe rentry has been secured message the general chat saying “We’re in! Come round for a house warming on Friday!”

Tuesday 10th, Scrolling

Tuesday is dedicated to administration and organising

10am-1pm – Pirates Code presentations.

Tuesday begins with confirming today’s timings and reviewing the treasure map so far, Then we’ll share our thoughts on our organisational strategies in pairs present the Pirates code to an imaginary audience. We’ll wrap up by starting to prepare for the Compass sharpening session later today.

3-7pm – Compass sharpening

During this session we will agree exact coordinates of our compasses on the treasure map and prepare for the rest of the week’s action.

Wednesday 11th, Squatting

Wednesday is dedicated to Securing the building setting-up and maintaining safe occupation

<10am Special Breakfast Check-ins & Final prep

This will be the most intense day so far, so we’ll start off with a special breakfast check-in and final preparation meeting.

asap – Occupation begins

According to logistics, we will begin occupation of the building at the earliest opportunity on Wednesday. Beginning by securing the perimeter we’ll go on to ensure the safe supply of services such as water and electricity and assess and mitigate for any new risks, not obvious from our initial inspection on Monday.

<10:30pm Check-outs

Having been the most intense day so far we will settle down and rest well for an early start and another busy day ahead making our new home place comfy cosy!

Thursday 12th, Domesticity

Thursday is about settling in, getting comfortable and making sure everyone’s got somewhere to rest

>10 am Scavenging

This will be another highly practical day starting with this morning session where we’ll buddy up into pairs, two of which will go out and scour the neighbourhood’s dumping grounds, skips, Olio collections and generally locate any other resources to collect from. The remaining pair will hold down the building and show around any other set-up volunteers who’ve made themselves known by this point.

!!Bonus session!! – Court for the Flower Pot!! 11am

12 noon – Scheduling meeting

According to the building and numbers of people involved at this point there will be a meeting at 12 noon to establish what affinity groups have formed by this point and what their priorities are.

Friday 13th, Welcoming

Friday is about welcoming our friends over and starting to think about who else we’d like to share the place with

Friday morning will begin with another review of the treasure map and affinity groups will continue sharing offers requests of assistance and duties according to their own rotas etc.

>12 noon House-warming prep begins

Preparations for the house-warming party will begin to get underway from midday depending on the amount of work involved

6 pm Final checkouts and last supper!

This marks the end of our keelhauling and the beginning of a whole other set of stories…

>8 pm house-warming party

From 8pm guests will start to arrive and perhaps there’ll be a new group of proto-pirates meeting for the first time somewhere among them…

PLEASE NOTE

  • The above information is specific to Friday 13th Crew a new post will be created for future submersion weeks.
  • Precise timings are to be agreed on by those involved.
  • A lot more detail will be handled by affinity groups more and more so towards the end of the week, this will be determined by the nature including it’s size and location.

Reimbursement

  • All tickets are fully refundable on completion of the week.
  • Tickets are sold as part of a registration process to ensure commitment of participants.

Food

  • Breakfast lunch and dinner will be a shared event three times a day which we’ll all take responsibility for.

Shelter

  • You’ll be provided shelter at 43 Teesdale Street from 3 pm on Saturday night until 11 pm on Friday 13th, however
  • we will be in occupation of the new building by Wednesday night, but you will still be able to access the cabin in an emergency.

Drugs

  • There will be a high threshold on all drugs including nicotine, caffeine and alcohol
  • You will be encouraged to commit to following these optional extras if you feel abstinence may challenge your participation.

Optional extras

  • 5 tibetians
  • extra help preparing meals
  • morning pages
  • meditation (group, guided or individual)
  • early morning excercise
  • yoga
  • 9am & 9pm Keelhaul checkins
  • the opportunity to contribute your own optional extras!

Claim your invitation here:

https://opencollective.com/spacepirates/events/space-pirates-submersion-week-aka-keelhauling-this-one-ends-on-friday-13th-lucky-for-some-811bc436

Questions, comments, suggestions?

Please login and comment here or visit the ticket link above.

The Flowerpot

First things first… or so it seems… here’s our signal chat… requires admin approval and here’s a kanban if you’re into that kinda thing.

Soooooo there’s a few of us been in occupation of the Flowerpot for a good few weeks now.

We’ve also been following up with Shared Assets about setting up a housing / workers / some other multi-stake-holder cooperative. Although this was initially focused on 234 Mare Street we’ve decided to see how that might work here… If you’re interested in getting involved in a long term initiative that explores how we might go about this, join the Space Pirates Scrolling signal chat and say “Hi!” there.

Liverpool’s not happening, but as you can see there’s been lots of strange goings on here at the Flowerpot while we’ve been taking things slower recently.

There’s plenty of links below you are welcome to scroll through and we’ll post more info here soon… ish…(soz!) Cyborg’s going to look into a new sign-up process for the website that will incorporate Space Pirates learning resources If you have a website account already, please leave a suggestion, question, comment, observation or anything to indicate that you know how to comment and are using your account.

Flowerpot Scrolling Links

  • tinyurl.com/fpcht1 Flowerpot Signal general chat (requires admin approval)
  • tinyurl.com/flororor Kanban for the flowerpot with cypher swimlanes – Real nifty!
  • tinyurl.com/floprewot A spreadsheet outlining some sums about how we might buy the Flowerpot and run it as a cooperative hostel(node) and community creative space offering short and medium term accommodation rest, recouperation etc, which generates other such self-sustaining places. This link can be edited on a taptop (but not a phone) tinyurl.com/floprewotedit
  • tinyurl.com/flowcomp1 A Compass outlining the above

Clerkenwell Fire Station

Space Pirates have been very busy in real life. We will be posting lots more to the website soon… Sorry for the slight radio silence here… An in depth Signal chat group index is clearly a priority…

For now here’s our main SPOCAGs and their QR codes!

Area 51 – access established!

Area 51 – our next location was easily accessed this morning at 7am through an open ground floor window. It is a lovely large empty commercial building between Farringdon & Kings Cross.

There is lighting and running water and fitted toilets. there’s a mix of large rooms and small rooms over 3 floors. Multiple windows require new glass but they are secure by bars on the outside. We have filmed inside but it was dark, so the quality of the footage is low.

This building will be shared with other activists and groups, including Just Stop Oil, to offer an opportunity to dip their toes into squatting with Space Pirates.

Everyone is welcome to come and get involved at any point, and to whatever degree they are comfortable with.

Trial weeks for living in this building start on Sundays

Sunday

Sunday’s schedule is as follows, today’s theme is the Pirate’s Code.

  • 9am-3pm – Begin occupying and resisting asap by getting ready practically, online and returning early this afternoon to secure the building and begin moving in.
  • 3pm-4pm – Indoor picnic in the new place – Please bring picnic items to share, considerate of allergies.
  • 4-5pm – 1hr informal meeting focused on using the Pirates Code
  • 6pm-8pm – Film 1 Pompoko
  • 9-11pm – Film 2 Gremlins

Monday

Tomorrow’s theme:
Navigation:
Plotting places on a map and ways to get inside them.

  • 9am Shared Breakfast
  • 10am Checkins
  • more details tbc

Please note, communication will be moving to the website more and more in the coming days, as the chat will soon become overloaded please register for access here:
411615.squat.net

There will soon follow more posts covering a Todo List, Door Buddy rotas (days 9am-9pm & nights 9pm-9am), a Wishlist of things we need, and an events & activities list.

234 Mare St

On Thursday night we found out there’s a solo security guard in what was intended (until that point) to be the first pirates’ mega cabin on Mare St.

The following proposal was on the table until that point:

Short term – Squat-to-co-op now-mid Nov

This would have involved squatting the building as a protest (it is a residential building) and building a campaign following up along the various lines this Hackney Citizen Article sets out, and initiating negotiations with Hackney Council around a licence agreement.

Medium term – Management coop 2023-2024/5

Proving our (whoever that may turn out to be) ability to manage the building better than the council has – easy!!

Long term – coop ownership of building 2024/5 onwards

Coop ownership as a combined housing and workers co-operative bringing the shops back into community use. Providing genuinely affordable accommodation.

Stopped and searched

We attempted a closer inspection of a building in Hackney this morning just after 8am. Cops stopped us, got searched and released. Worth noting at this point it’s mostly residential so we’ll be running this place as a protest squat. Please join the signal group if you want to be able to chat.

Plenty of learning done here feel free to dive into the comments section on ticktok!

@cyborgpsychopomp

♬ original sound – Cyborg Psychopomp