There are 80,000 empty buildings in London, and I’m in one of them.
Perched across the road from the vast Tate & Lyle sugar refinery in Silvertown – a part of east London that gentrification forgot – the Tate Institute is a memory of Victorian corporate philanthropy. Built to provide its workers with education and enlightenment, it fell into dereliction as such paternalism fell out of favour and into the hands of Newham Council, who struggled to find a suitable use – and funds – with which to revive it.
Then came the squatters, leaving their graffiti on the walls, but doing little to stop the decay: holes in the roof, floors collapsing … It’s an all-too familiar tale.
But this one comes with a twist. The building today is buzzing with people at work, renovating and restoring. They’re a mix of staff and volunteers at ReSpace Projects: a social enterprise that is transforming derelict or at-risk sites across the capital and beyond.
