‘It will kill the community’: residents fight to save London warehouse district

Caitlin Strongarm is the campaign organiser for Save the Warehouses. ‘These spaces aren’t just our homes but our livelihoods,’ she says. Photograph: Andy Hall/The Observer

Since Ata moved to the UK five years ago he has found his home in London’s warehouses. The aspiring actor was drawn to the community of musicians and artists who live and work in them.

But after moving to a warehouse in Harringay, north London, Ata heard about plans to demolish and redevelop the area. “My immediate thought was ‘oh no, not again’,” he says. The two other warehouses he had lived in were also pulled down to make way for luxury flats.