The Grove DIY

I first started building at The Grove DIY during 2020 whilst Covid-19 Lockdowns were taking place in London. I had just come back from The Freedom Skatepark Project and found a group of concerned skateboarders repurposing a derelict pub carpark for a DIY skatepark. Since then I have been involved with building and event organising at the space. This includes a number of skate obstacles, a film screening fundraiser for CJF and the production of A Midsummer Nights Dream. London is a city eating itself up; mental health crisis, high rent prices and working conditions of late stage capitalism yet London continues to grow. Yet, The Grove DIY represents a radical reclamation of space within a spectre of these systems in which young people are able to reappropriate, challenge or simply play with the city around them.