The Bank of Ideas was a squatted,

self-managed social centre Self-managed social centers, also known as autonomous social centers, are self-organized community centers in which anti-authoritarians put on voluntary activities. These autonomous spaces, often in multi-purpose venues affiliated with anarchi ...

in a disused

UBS UBS Group AG is a multinational investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Co-headquartered in the cities of Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres as the largest Swi ...

office complex on Sun Street in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

, England. It remained in the building from November 2011 until January 2012. The building was owned by

, and the squatters were members of the

Occupy London Occupy London was a political movement in London, England, and part of the international Occupy movement. While some media described it as an "anti-capitalist" movement, in the statement written and endorsed by consensus by the Occupy assembly i ...

protest movement. The building was described by an Occupy London spokesman as "a space for political discussion".

Aims

The Bank of Ideas' website stated that its purpose was to host "the non-monetary trade of ideas to help solve the pressing economic, social and environmental problems of our time" and referred to itself as a "public

repossession Repossession, colloquially repo, is a "self-help" type of action, mainly in the United States, in which the party having right of ownership of the property in question takes the property back from the party having right of possession without in ...

". The idea of "repossessing" bank property, according to one member of the movement, was in response to bank takeovers of households behind on their

mortgage A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any ...

payments. Drugs and alcohol were forbidden at the Bank of Ideas, as was all commercial activity. The centre continued to engage in organized meetings, events and actions until about March 2012.

History

Occupy movement handsignals diagram bank of ideas nov 2011

The building on Sun Street was occupied by protesters from November 2011. It hosted teach-ins and seminars on various social, economic and political issues. Other events included a mock trial of the United Kingdom government for alleged war crimes conducted during the

War in Afghanistan War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to: *Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC) * Muslim conquests of Afghanistan (637–709) *Conquest of Afghanistan by the Mongol Empire (13th century), see al ...

, a screening of the BAFTA-winning film ''

How to Start a Revolution ''How to Start a Revolution'' is a BAFTA Scotland Award-winning British documentary film about Nobel Peace Prize nominee and political theorist Gene Sharp, described as the world's foremost scholar on nonviolent revolution. The 2011 film descri ...

'' and a free performance by the bands

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass ...

and

Massive Attack Massive Attack are an English trip hop collective formed in 1988 in Bristol by Robert "3D" Del Naja, Adrian "Tricky" Thaws, Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall. The debut Massive Attack album '' Blue Lines'' was releas ...

Eviction

All seminars and events at the Bank of Ideas were suspended indefinitely after a court approved UBS's request for the organization's eviction on 26 January 2012. The centre was evicted from the site on 30 January 2012. While most people left peacefully, clashes between law enforcement and remaining squatters led to the arrest of one bailiff for assault.

References

{{Location dec, 51.520213, -0.084382, display=title 2011 in London Occupy movement in the United Kingdom Protests in London Evicted squats Squats in the United Kingdom Social centres in the United Kingdom Infoshops 2011 establishments in the United Kingdom 2012 disestablishments in the United Kingdom