Save Arch 505 Petition!

Who we are and what we do:

My name is Stephen Wallace and I am the CEO of an up and coming record label located in Brixton Called “Money Empire Entertainment”, which is a company that specialises in managing new, undiscovered artists, musicians, videographers and dancers and also providing a platform for people from all walks of life to express their talents. Our company’s main focus being production (recording, producing, mastering etc), Photography/Videography (shooting music videos, blogging, photo shoots). We also understand that living in an area such as Brixton as well as the surrounding areas, there are a lot of vulnerable and hard to reach youths that also need support, advice, guidance and opportunities that they may not necessarily be receiving at home, so that’s what we aim to offer.

We initially started out from home and wanted to expand our premises, in order to be able to provide better services for our youth. We found a place to house our project with a company called Meanwhile Space; who’s mission was to provide affordable workspaces to people within the community and without their hard work, none of this would have been possible. The space that we were able to rent from Meanwhile Space was in a shared Archway occupied by 4 other tenants, who use the space much less frequently. We each have our own private ‘pods’, as well as access to the shared common space.

It is my belief that by offering activities to young people who are usually getting into trouble, we can divert their stagnant energy into something more productive and beneficial. From my own experiences I can say that many young people do not have places to “chill”, and things to entertain them. Most activities are too expensive for young people who are not of age to earn money yet, which means that most opportunities are unaffordable. By providing a platform for creative minds to congregate and be a part of something bigger, we allow the youths to express themselves in a healthy manner.

Throughout the summer, we ran workshops and worked with various different youths throughout our community. We even branched out of our usual line of work in order to teach some practical life skills too. With verbal permission (key word: verbal) by a member of the Meanwhile Space team, we were given the go ahead to run a hand car wash outside of the arch as the spaces were never occupied by anyone from our arch. This was a success as the teens were very happy to be able to learn a hands-on trade. Once we saw the keenness of our youngsters, we decided that we would help them to open up a tuck shop. This made them feel empowered and like they could do anything that they set their mind to. We went over business studies basics such as how to start a new business, check for licenses and permissions, accounts and other day to day business functions (e.g. stock checking, cash handling etc).

Unfortunately, that has had to come to an end as there were complaints made to Meanwhile Space by other tenants about our work not being what we initially signed our lease agreement to do, and as we didn’t have a written agreement between ourselves and meanwhile space, we had no other option to comply. Since then, we have continued our mission to rebuild our community and we have resorted back to only using our media based workshops/projects in the hopes of continuing without upsetting anyone.

Why We Need Your Help:

The leasing agreement that Meanwhile Space have for the Arch is over come January 2021, and this would mean that the space would once again be returned to the owners, The Arch Co. This would mean one of three things

1)  The Arch Co take back their Arch and all tenants would lose their workspaces.

2)  One person from our current arch space takes on the lease on behalf of everyone and we continue to pay for a pod using the current arrangement.

3)  One person takes over the lease and continues to use it for their own purposes.

We at Money Empire Entertainment hope that we would be able to take on the lease ourselves as it would provide us with an affordable space for our youthwork, as well as allow us the freedom to make a difference within the community. We have noticed that the majority of affordable workspaces in and around the Brixton/Lambeth area are occupied by people who neither live, nor grew up in the area, and who’s services hold no value to our community. Yet it is those very same people, who are complaining about said areas and are attempting to push out the people who are trying to better it (Gentrification, if you will). We would still happily allow the other tenants to continue their work also, but we feel that if it were the other way around, that we could lose our space altogether.

Due to the pushback that we already received when trying to provide more services/workshops, we are calling on the public to give us a helping hand this time around. We would like to ask for you help in petitioning The Arch Co to allow us to stay in our space, and all that we ask for is a signature and your support. Feel free to contact us if you have any other queries or questions.

In my opinion, the work we put into the community is the work we will get out so let’s stand together and make a change.

Thank you,

Mr.Stephen Wallace

CEO of Money Empire Entertainment

Please contact me on:

Email: Moneyempirerecords012@gmail.com

Number: 07925876117