We’re still going!
Possession has been granted to Jerwood Trading Ltd from the 5th of May 2011. This means that bailiffs can arrive with the lawyers of Jerwood at any time from that date. They plan to auction off the buildings through the auctioneers Maggs and Allen.
Meanwhile we are in negotiations with the lawyers of Jerwood with a view to buying the property off them. We have formed a legal co-op that will administrate it all. The last valuation of the buildings was negative£100,000, which puts us in quite a good position. People seem to want the freeshop and emporium to keep going so this is an avenue we are hoping will succeed.
In the meantime we invite anybody to come down and use the space and get involved in the decisions as to what happens next. The buildings will obviously not be sold, and will sit empty again for years. So we would really like to convince the owner to let us take them off their hands.
At the trial the judge was very unhappy with the absentee owner and decided to refuse their request for us to pay their costs (amounting to nearly £20,000). It is quite unusal for this to happen and is quite a positive indication that he commended what we are doing and how little he respected the position of an owner that has not even been to this country since buying the properties 20 years ago.
So please get in touch by either turning up to the buildings (free shop is open 2-5pm thurs, fri, sat) or emailing emporium37 [at] gmail [dot] com.
WEEKLY MEETINGS AT THE EMPORIUM 5.30PM on THURSDAYS after the free shop closes.
https://emporium37.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/update-on-classics-and-emporium-apr-2011/
