Modern Life: What are meanwhile spaces?
With commercial property rents on the rise, many of our high streets are being left with gaping holes – where cafés, libraries and local shops once fostered a tight-knit community.
But derelict property – or land that is awaiting redevelopment – doesn’t have to stay untended and forlorn. The notion of ‘meanwhile spaces’ has been gaining ground since 2009, when a project was set up in response to London’s voracious gentrification and astronomical rents.
Meanwhile Space was the original social enterprise body that found temporary uses for idle spaces, whether former public lavatories or a bit of scrubland. The project takes on the lease negotiations and spruces up buildings before renting the space out for the lowest possible cost. Acting as an interim landlord, it’s there to help people who can’t afford to rent commercial property to get their business idea up and running. So far, more than 600 people have benefited from its work.
Take the temporary Blue House Yard in north London. Once a council car park, it has been doing a brisk trade since January 2017. Studios, workshops, food and arts and crafts markets, and retail units have popped up to cater for the local creative community in a space that had been underused and underloved. Now, cosy wooden huts, painted in vibrant colours, are home to everyone from fashion designers and ceramicists to a beer shop. Because of favourable rents, these quirky start-ups can afford to experiment with their businesses, even if they don’t succeed long-term.
Architects are also aware of meanwhile spaces: whether thinking about the use of land vacant while awaiting redevelopment or awkward pockets in tightly packed cities that can be turned into community gardens. Initiatives have included pop-up housing by starchitect Richard Rogers that – in principle, at least – can be moved from spot to spot, as land becomes available.
The disused magistrates’ court in Barking has been temporarily transformed into a public canteen, amphitheatre and cinema. The project, carried out by architecture firm The Decorators, reopened the front doors of
the once-bustling courtrooms to test new uses for the space.
Elsewhere, a sliver of land, owned by Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals in Waterloo, has been transformed into a buzzing urban farm and garden. Once farmland, its use as a meanwhile space will remain in place until St Thomas’ Hospital redevelops the site as part of a master plan to expand the hospital.
It’s undeniably beneficial for all involved to have vacant lots used by start-ups, entrepreneurs and the community at large. But they will, in time, revert to their intended use; and what goodwill and community that built up around them will surely dissipate.
The solution lies in what Meanwhile Space has been trying out in Hastings. Having recently bought and renovated a five-storey building there, it is proposing to transform the property into permanent and affordable live-and-work spaces. But meanwhile? Let’s celebrate those who have enough imagination – and goodwill – to make your former public loo worth visiting once again.