Displacement: The Shifting of Our Roots.
You may have already heard the news, but we have been given notice to vacate our premises at 49 Marine Terrace by January 17, 2025.
This space has been more than just a building—it has been the foundation of our ecosystem, a place where ideas and futures have taken root. It has been a sanctuary for Black, Brown, and Diaspora communities to grow, develop, and connect.
Over the last four years in this space we’ve seen new organisations sprout, and established ones develop, each benefitting from a place that allowed them to grow in ways that would not have been possible without this home.
Artists have nurtured their work here, securing commissions and funding that expanded their reach, while others found the courage to start their own projects in fields of sport, fitness and wellness, community, heritage and music, knowing they had a safe space to explore and develop.
Beyond this work, the space has been one where our community has truly connected. People have come together for workshops, talks, food sharing, children’s activities, art classes, music practice, wellness activities, community organising, shared moments over ginger tea, and have simply been in the space with one another.
It is a space where Black, Brown & Diaspora people have felt safe, seen, valued. community and creativity has been nurtured.
But now, following broken promises and sidelining of the community in favour of corporate interests, we face displacement and are being forced to uproot from this home we’ve built together. This loss isn't just about a physical space; it’s about severing the ties we’ve worked so hard to establish, and it has consequences for the entire community that has thrived here.
Our Story: A Promising Vision for Margate
In 2020, when we first joined the Margate Town Deal process (A government fund to drive the economic regeneration of 101 chosen towns in England of which Margate was one) we were filled with optimism.
There was a shared understanding that Margate needed spaces like ours—places that could empower Black, Brown, and Diaspora communities. In the bid to secure the £22 million that Margate received, Thanet District Council (TDC) promised the government that part of the money would be used to support our organisation specifically, as our work aligned with the deal’s objectives to support marginalised and minority communities. We were identified as a key part of Margate’s cultural transformation.
Our group and our work was named seven times in the bid which secured the £22 million for Margate, with a focus on our plan to develop a cultural centre. Although TDC decided that we were to receive none of it directly, it was decided that Dreamland were to be granted £4 million for development with a key part of that development, listed numerous times in TDC’s bid, being the creation of a cultural centre developed by us. This cultural centre within Dreamland was one of the key elements of TDC’s proposals for Margate’s regeneration and was even drawn onto the map of proposed new and developed sites that TDC submitted as part of the bid.
Originally Dreamland worked with our group and wider community to plan how these funds were going to aid the proposed cultural centre in our meanwhile space. During the last few years, over many conversations between ourselves and Dreamland, through tours of the building and open days where our community members were invited in to see the space and imagine how we could develop our centre there, it was communicated to us that £1.2 million of the Dreamland funds were to be spent refurbishing the space that would house our cultural centre, and that £200,000 was to be spent on furnishings within it that we were to be able to keep when we eventually moved to our permanent space.
The space we currently occupy, and are soon to be evicted from, is not the ‘meanwhile’ space but a temporary non-resourced one that was not to be developed. Although we are grateful to have been given a space, this wasn’t the meanwhile space to develop our cultural centre in, but essentially an office space to be used for organising - a former nightclub and previously disused Dreamland office on the seafront which we could not make changes to. We were provided with the entrance floor of the building, while the floors above and below remained derelict and cordoned off due to health and safety reasons.
Despite being only a stopover to what was promised, this space gave us the basics: a roof over our heads, heating and desks to work on. Dreamland informed us that the in-kind support they provided through use of this disused space amounted to approximately £37,500 per year across four years. It is within this space that we have cultivated a creative and community seedbed—a nurturing space where ideas could germinate, connections could grow, and organisations could take root and flourish. From the most basic resources we have fostered creativity, growth and community-led endeavours that have had a profound and lasting impact.
However, the disparity between the resources provided to us in the form of this disused office space and the £1.2 million refurbishment earmarked for the meanwhile space underscores a missed opportunity. This funding, allocated as part of the Town Deal, was intended to create a space where we could test-run our vision for a National Cultural Centre—a space meant to empower our community and build a foundation for a permanent premises. As outlined in the Town Deal Plan, this was supposed to include the lower of two floors to be refurbished by the Dreamland funds, in which we were to create the cultural centre described in the bid, to celebrate the Black and Brown community within Kent and Margate. Despite what was proposed in the bid that brought in the £22 million to Margate, our meanwhile space never materialised, leaving us to make do with the limited resources we had.
Over the last four years, we’ve worked diligently to align our vision with the promises made. While we were led to believe that our meanwhile space in which to develop our prototype cultural centre was coming to us very soon, we focused our efforts on the next step, securing a place to become our permanent home. From securing funding through the Architectural Heritage Fund for a viability study on a building we thought could be our permanent home, to building partnerships with organisations like the Ubele Initiative, we committed ourselves to this path.
As we worked hard on securing a permanent space, we learned that Dreamland, our hosts who were to provide resources from the Town Deal funds to us, had come under new ownership and withdrawn entirely from the Town Deal. The promised £4m allocated to them, of which £1.2million was earmarked for the development of our meanwhile space, was diverted elsewhere.
Now, there’s no clear plan for how People Dem Collective can benefit from the Town Deal, as was intended when Thanet District Council was granted the £22 million. After operating without support for four years and waiting in vain for what was promised to us, it’s also unclear how we can continue to operate, grow or deliver the community-led projects we were supposed to.
We are left asking who truly benefits from these large-scale local government funding projects and, after the promises to better address racial disparity by increasing support for Black-led initiatives following the Black Lives Matter movement, has much really changed, either locally or nationally?
We acknowledge that systemic change takes time. Turner Contemporary, one of Margate’s most iconic institutions, stands as a testament to this. From conception to realisation, it took over 10 years of planning, support, and institutional backing to bring the gallery to life. Yet, it benefited from resources and privilege that grassroots organisations like ours are not afforded. For us, navigating these sharky waters often feels like an impossible task, with developers and investors controlling outcomes that should belong to the community.
We are now left in a worse position than when we began. It’s not just our own future we are fighting for, but for the many organisations who benefit from this space. The promises made to us have not been fulfilled, and while developers continue to thrive, community organisations like ours, whose name and voluntary work are leveraged to achieve funds, are left to fight for survival.
What Comes Next: A Call for Reflection and Solidarity
Looking ahead, our next steps are not just about finding a new space, they’re about addressing the systemic injustices that led to our displacement, amplifying the voices of those most impacted by gentrification, and continuing the fight for Black and Brown agency in Margate and beyond.
In the coming weeks, we will:
Host open conversations with our community to reflect on this experience and build a shared vision for the future.
Share our story to shed light on the national patterns of displacement and marginalisation of grassroots organisations.
Explore pathways to secure a new space, remaining transparent about the progress we make and the support we need.
We’re deeply grateful for the allies, partners, and community members who have stood with us. Your support is essential as we navigate this challenging time. Together, we must hold systems accountable and work towards a future where community-driven initiatives are allowed to flourish.
You can help by:
Sharing our posts on social media to raise awareness
Downloading our template letter to send to your MP to help safeguard us against unethical cultural leveraging.
Donating to our crowdfunder to help us secure a meanwhile space
Getting in touch if you can help us in securing a space.
This isn’t the end—it’s the beginning of a new chapter. With your continued solidarity, we will push for justice, equity, and a Margate that belongs to everyone.
