Holloway Women's Centre is built but standing empty. We're calling on Islington Council to fund the centre and provide vital support for women facing trauma, violence, poverty and homelessness.
When Holloway women's prison was closed in 2016, Peabody, the housing developer that bought the land, promised to build a women's centre on it.
A women's centre would honour Holloway's legacy by providing vital services to women who need them most.
Ten years on, where is the women's centre? Progress has stalled. Why? Because Islington Council, responsible for making sure the women's centre is delivered, seems to have forgotten about all it.
We're calling on Islington Council to keep their promise to deliver the women's centre, which will provide a safe space and services for women in London who need them most, and honour the legacy of HMP Holloway as a place for women.
If the council doesn't step in now, Holloway's legacy will be erased. The site that should have become a community resource for women who need support could be turned into a cafe amid just another block of overpriced flats in London.
What would Holloway Women's Centre mean to you? Share your thoughts and or experiences.
Force Islington Council to keep their promise and deliver the Holloway Women's Centre — a safe space and vital services for women in London who need them most.
Right now, the Holloway women's centre stands unfinished and women are left without the vital support they need. There's a group of women's charities, currently spearheaded by Treasures Foundation, ready and willing to run services from the building – but first, the council needs to make sure the building can open.
When women can access the support they need in one trusted place, they get help before things reach a crisis point. When a woman is transformed, it transforms communities for generations, saving funds across all sectors and services in the long run.
HMP Holloway is a historic site in feminist history. It's where the suffragettes were once held, along with thousands of other women over 150 years.
Building a women's centre to replace the prison is a powerful symbol of progress. It marks a step forward on how society should treat traumatised women and is a blueprint for a more compassionate society.
We're calling on Islington Council to honour their commitment to women and deliver the promised women's building in a way that is true to the legacy of Holloway.
A women's centre is a hub for support services that helps women to address key social issues that could lead to them getting swept up into the criminal legal system, including domestic abuse, sexual violence, poverty, trauma, addiction and homelessness.
It's a safe space for women to turn to where they can find compassion and healing. The Holloway Women's Centre would be run by a group of specialist organisations that understand the specific needs of women, and are able to provide the holistic support, nurture and safety that they need all in one place.
Most of all, women's centres are an alternative to prison, with a focus on the prevention of social issues, not punishment. They are a place where women can get the support to stop the continuation of generational trauma and break the cycle of criminalisation, providing women with the resources they need to thrive.
When Holloway women's prison was closed in 2016, Peabody, the housing developer that bought the land, promised to build a women's centre on it. A women's centre would honour Holloway's legacy by providing vital services to women who need them most.
Ten years on, where is the women's centre? Progress has stalled. Why? Because Islington Council, responsible for making sure the women's centre is delivered, seems to have forgotten about all it.
There's a group of women's charities, currently spearheaded by Treasures Foundation, ready and willing to run services from the building – but first, the council needs to make sure the building can open.
Sign the petition to tell Islington Council: keep your promise.
This will be a healing space for women, a space free from the gaze of the patriarchy — a women-only space to honour our sistahs who were wrongly incarcerated, who did not get justice, who should have not been in prison. Having this place will be defiance, resistance and revolutionary.
This is a unique opportunity to really honour women's place in society through Islington's support of those women who have ended up in prison through complex circumstances. This is a chance to build a community that honours, empowers and supports women.
I attended one of the first ever planning meetings for the women's centre, in 2016/17. It would focus on former inmates but be open to any woman in Islington — an amazing way of reclaiming the space for those it once constrained and repressed.
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