This petition asks Lambeth Council to refuse Hyde Housing Association’s proposal to demolish the KP Community Centre and Oval Arts Depot in order to redevelop the land. Community spaces are more important now than ever and we must all stand together to keep ours alive for ourselves, our children and our children’s children.

The Kennington Park Community Centre and Oval Arts Depot at the very heart of our estate are once again at risk of being stolen. 

Having been taken over from the Lambeth Council, Hyde Housing Association have spent years breaking their promises to our community. With this pattern of betrayal and miss-management having left our community centre in ruin, we took matters into our own hands and brought our centre back to life ourselves. It is now a fully functioning, life enriching centre that binds our community together and keeps our children safe. And that is the place that the Hyde Housing Association once again plans to bulldoze in service of profit over people.

Hyde Housing Association are proposing to demolish both the Oval Arts Depot and the KP Community Centre to build commercial flats. As tenants, small businesses and young people we have invested our energy, time and money into this community centre, making it a place that brings our whole community together, provides positive opportunities for our estate and community, and acts as a safe space to shelter in. This is not just a building, it is a communal space, a shared space, a space that has real value in our community that far out-weighs any narrow commercial definition of value. We are a community that has spent years growing and building relationships with each other, now we find ourselves once again fighting to keep our centre alive and stop the very heart of our community from being ripped out.