Entering The Platform – a community space in Loughborough Junction in south London filled with plants, homemade beauty products and crafts, and home to a host of workshops and cultural events – it is hard to imagine its former incarnation as a public toilet. But it is usually the first thing locals remark on when they stop by, says Kenyasue Smart, who has been managing the space since May.  Smart came to The Platform through Meanwhile Space, a social enterprise that finds temporary uses for disused spaces. The Platform is leased from Lambeth council for free and enables people to test retail ideas. “It’s what you make of it,” says Smart, whose background is in research and management. “We’re trying to develop that aspect of community involvement so the people here can have a voice in what is going to happen in the future,” she says.  Meanwhile Space works as an interim landlord, helping people who might be excluded from renting commercial property get their business idea off the ground. “What I hope we offer people is the chance to fail,” says Eddie Bridgeman, director and co-founder of the organisation. “If it doesn’t work out then they haven’t committed themselves to a long lease and something that’s going to financially cripple them for the next five to 10 years.”  Bridgeman and director Emily Berwin co-founded Meanwhile Space in 2009. Back then, as the recession bit, the former communities secretary Hazel Blears promoted short term use of vacant retail spaces to help revive town centres.  With funding, Meanwhile Project (as it was known then) offered practical and financial support for a range of temporary uses of space across the country. When the fuding ended three years ago, it became a community interest company, making money by charging tenants rent at cheap rates.  In recent years, commercial property rents have rocketed, making it hard to find affordable space in London. Rent increased 70% between 2010 and 2015 to an average of £55 per square foot, according to recent research by EY.  Bridgeman says at first they were concerned that Meanwhile Space would just be a recession business. “But if anything when property is booming landlords are more willing to sit on stuff so the vacant opportunities come along a bit more regularly,” he says.  Once a location is scouted – usually after a bit of door knocking and calls to the Land Registry – Meanwhile Space negotiates a flexible lease and does minimal renovations before renting it out for the lowest cost possible. An archway in Loughborough Junction, for example, is about £350 a month.  The organisation tends to find clusters of properties in deprived town centres. It has occupied over 40 across the country and has about 25 spaces in use at the moment, including premises in Wembley, Walthamstow and Hastings, for a range of businesses such as food, florists, party supplies and kids clothing. From its inception to 2015, it claims to have supported 511 people and created 170 jobs. “If you’ve got a proposal and need the space then we will try and find you the space,” says Bridgeman.  The tenants – about 80% of whom are underemployed or unemployed according to Meanwhile Space – are found through word of mouth, ties to local recruitment agencies and community events, such as the recent drumming workshop hosted at The Platform. People submit a loose business plan to get a space, with each application judged on its viability to generate income.  In the archway next to Meanwhile Space’s offices is the workspace of Jamie Hoyle, a furniture designer and maker. His business, Koda Studio, would have been a “non-starter” if he had not found the affordable space via Meanwhile Space, he says. “When space comes at such a premium in London, it’s a shame when you walk around spaces and they are just derelict or boarded up and unusable,” he says.  While short-term leases can help people get businesses off the ground, it also means a level of insecurity. Hoyle says he would like to start teaching furniture making in the space, but with a 12-month lease and uncertainty over Network Rail’s plans for the archways, he does not want to risk expanding, only to have to move.  In neighbouring Brixton, redevelopment proposals for the railway arches have sparked controversy, with concerns that the existing independent traders will be pushed out by rent increases.  Across London gentrification has been driving up prices and displacing communities. In reviving vacant spaces by filling them with entrepreneurs and creatives, does Meanwhile Space risk accelerating these economic forces? Bridgeman says not. “We provide little havens of affordability in areas where prices are going up – gentrification is a wider force than anything that we do,” he says. “What we try and do is get what we can out of gentrification for local people.”  Getting the right balance of locals with ties to the community and tenants from outside who can provide stimulation, is key to the success of such place-making schemes, says Graeme Evans, professor in design cultures at the University of Middlesex. “The claims that creative industries’ growth directly benefits local economies will only be true over time if local residents, businesses and those not normally entering or getting access to this sector, are able to access this provision,” he says.  But by the nature of temporary workspace, there are no guarantees on how sustainable such as scheme will be for the community in the long term. “Short licences are great for startups and for project based work, but most want to stay for longer so what happens then?” says Evans. “You need some kind of hierarchy of space and lease terms to prevent blocking up of space but also to sustain artists and SMEs as they grow, but where they can’t afford full commercial rents.”  Having recently bought and renovated a five-storey building in Hastings, Bridgeman sees Meanwhile Space’s future in buying and turning more property into affordable live and work spaces. “If you can own stuff, you can control the rent and if you have a long-term vision on that, you don’t need to necessarily scrape all the profit from it,” he says.
Gentrification is driving up prices in London. This social enterprise repurposes vacant buildings to offer space to people unable to afford commercial rents