Westmoreland House, Stokes Croft’s iconic derelict playground, will be gone by Christmas.

Even before Burning Candy painted the giant skull and crocodile on its upper stories, the gutted hulk of Westmoreland House was a symbol of the dilapidation of Stokes Croft. This very neglect by land-bankers and property owners is why the PRSC, graffiti artists, squatters and other alternative & creative types adopted the area, and how it came to be the Cultural Quarter and Outdoor Gallery we know and love today. The distinctive and always changing walls of Westmoreland House have been one of the neighbourhood’s main attractions for almost a decade.

This print is the first step in helping Stokes Croft take back control from the forces of gentrification, as the money raised from sales of the print will help fund the setting up of a Stokes Croft Land Trust (SCLT).

The way to have control over our destiny, is to hold our resources in common.

A Stokes Croft Land Trust is the response to yet more gentrification the area. Owned by us, working for us.

We’re setting up camp, and it’s a big job. If you want to support us, buy this Westmoreland House Memorial print to help fund the initial stages. Come to our meetings and get involved, we’ll need lots of us to get this right.

This is the beginning.

For every print sold £40 will be donated to the SCLT fund (the remaining £10 will be used to cover the cost of production).

As we look to the future, the replacement of Westmoreland House with a brand new development is itself representative of the gentrification of the area, and pushing out of the creative energy that made Stokes Croft one of the ‘trendiest places to live in the UK.’ The setting up of a land trust, to safeguard buildings and land that are community assets, is the only way we can see to hold back the tide of gentrification.

Shares in SCLT will be issued to the community, and all property it holds in trust will be protected for the benefit of the community in perpetuity. Money made from sales of the prints will help with the initial stages of creating the SCLT, allowing people to work on creating the necessary infrastructure to get it off the ground.

See more about PRSC’s ongoing love of Westmoreland House & the Carriageworks here:
https://prsc.org.uk/the-project-pages/carriageworks-westmoreland-house/