The Livesey Exchange is building itself a new home ahead of the demolition of the Ledbury Estate beginning this September.
For the past five years, the grassroots community project for local creatives and entrepreneurs has used the garages beneath Old Kent Road’s Ledbury Estate.
Work has now begun on its new home, LEX 2, near Curry’s, Old Kent Road, off Lovegrove Street, with the first building set to be finished by December this year.
Ledbury Estate demolition and redevelopment plans get the rubber stamp
Livesey Exchange founder, Nicholas Okwulu says the site’s location will help local people reap the dividends of the Old Kent Road regeneration: “It’s smack bang in the middle of what could be the future Old Kent Road high street. It’s smack bang in the middle of the gravy train and that’s what I wanted.”
Local artist Daniel Oduntan, whose work has been displayed at the old Livesey Exchange (LEX 1), said: “The garages are a unique, interesting, one-off space and it’s a bit sad that it has to go. It will be missed.
“What the Livesey Exchange has done for that space has been incredible for the area and I think it will carry on here. Maybe it will have a slightly different function but I think its ethos will be the same.”
The two new buildings comprise eight large hireable spaces, some of which will be classed as ‘affordable’ that people can hire out for fixed periods.
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There will also be a cafe with a seating area, two commercial kitchens, a dark kitchen, and a spacious mixed-use area available for theatre productions, corporate events and much more.
The buildings are being constructed with £313,861 council investment, £267,300 from the Greater London Authority Good Growth Fund and £18,000 in Livesey Exchange crowdfunding.
The site is earmarked for future development as part of the Old Kent Road Area Action plan so the Livesey Exchange only has the premises for the next fifteen years.
Livesey Exchange founder Nicholas Okwulu says it’s been made out of wood so it can easily be demolished in the future.
Nicholas is excited about the new space but will miss the garages: “It was in the middle of the estate so the community would tell us what to do. When you have a space like that it’s the community that sets the guidelines.
“How do we get people who do have, and those who don’t have, into one space? That’s what we achieved with the garages.”
While the first building should be completed by December, the second one has an undetermined finish date as Nicholas seeks additional funding.
These changes are all part of the Old Kent Road regeneration, which the council says includes building 20,000 new homes and creating 10,000 new jobs.
On local regeneration, Daniel said: “Everyone wants cleaner streets but when it comes at the cost of your memories – that’s when it gets complicated.”
Nicholas jokingly used a “gravy train” analogue to explain how young people should approach regeneration: “It’s a gravy train. You have to jump on the train otherwise you miss it.
“If you’ve got gravy dripping all over the place you don’t want to be scrabbling around for the leftovers you want to be on the gravy train itself.”
Watch the Southwark News documentary about the demolition of the Ledbury Estate:
Watch: the Ledbury Estate, the Old Kent Road estate whose residents voted for demolition
