eroding empire

HOUSMANS POETRY SERIES: Joseph Minden launches Answerlands
2026-02-28 19:00 - 22:00 (Europe/London) | Housmans, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross, N1 9DX
We are BUZZING to be keeping off our 2026 Poetry Series with the brilliant Joseph Minden, who’ll be launching is latest collection Answerlands, published late last year by Carcanet. Joining Joseph we have Kat Addis, Joseph Persad, Dolly Rae Star and Verity Spott.
This is a free event, but please RSVP below. Also please feel free to BYOB.

56a Infoshop Open
2026-02-28 14:00 - 18:00, 2026-02-26 14:00 - 20:00, 2026-02-21 14:00 - 18:00, 2026-02-19 14:00 - 20:00, 2026-02-14 14:00 - 18:00, 2026-02-12 14:00 - 20:00 | 56a InfoShop, 56 Crampton Street,, SE17 3AE
Open: Thurs 2-8 / Fri 3-7 / Sat 2-6
56a Infoshop is a long-term volunteer-run, 100% unfunded, DIY social centre in Walworth, South London since 1991. We share a collectively-run building with the brilliant Fareshares Food Co-op and the awesome 56a Bikespace.
we sell radical books, zines, magazines, pamphlets and other printed matter on a wide variety of topics from Anarchism to Zapatistas via everything in between.
we have a massive open-access archive so you can read and research about all sorts of radical politics (both local and international).
you can hang out and meet people in the space. Tea and coffee is free!
find out about what’s going on with other centres, squats, struggles and campaigns.
come and help us put on small events in our space. We can offer free meeting space for groups / study groups / book launches etc. We fit about 15 ok inside plus we have the outside large yard space good in Spring through early Autumn.
Use our SQUATTERS NOTICEBOARD to meet other squatters, post up info on empty buildings, read legal advice etc.
For exceptional closures check Twitter: @56aInfoshop

56a Infoshop Open
2026-02-27 15:00 - 19:00, 2026-02-20 15:00 - 19:00, 2026-02-13 15:00 - 19:00 | 56a InfoShop, 56 Crampton Street,, SE17 3AE
Open: Thurs 2-8 / Fri 3-7 / Sat 2-6
56a Infoshop is a long-term volunteer-run, 100% unfunded, DIY social centre in Walworth, South London since 1991. We share a collectively-run building with the brilliant Fareshares Food Co-op and the awesome 56a Bikespace.
we sell radical books, zines, magazines, pamphlets and other printed matter on a wide variety of topics from Anarchism to Zapatistas via everything in between.
we have a massive open-access archive so you can read and research about all sorts of radical politics (both local and international).
you can hang out and meet people in the space. Tea and coffee is free!
find out about what’s going on with other centres, squats, struggles and campaigns.
come and help us put on small events in our space. We can offer free meeting space for groups / study groups / book launches etc. We fit about 15 ok inside plus we have the outside large yard space good in Spring through early Autumn.
Use our SQUATTERS NOTICEBOARD to meet other squatters, post up info on empty buildings, read legal advice etc.

Archiving from Below: DIY Psychoanalysis and the Free Clinic Archive
2026-02-26 19:00 - 21:00 | Mayday Rooms, 88 Fleet Street, EC4Y 1AE
For the next event in our ‘Archiving from Below’ series, we invite two researchers from the Freepsy Research Collective: ‘Free Clinics and a Psychoanalysis for the People: Progressive Histories, Collective Practices, Implications for our Times’ to discuss historical findings from free clinics, grassroots psychoanalytic groups and the future of memory.
The first part will explore DIY psychoanalytic movements in the 1970s in the UK, including the Barefoot Psychoanalyst, the Red Collective, and Red Therapy. Feminist and liberatory social movements of the time critiqued traditional psychoanalysis and implemented new DIY psy practices that addressed how power is maintained through capitalism and political oppression. This history showcases a horizontally structured psychoanalysis that is both a clinical and political exercise, organised in a very particular manner: the hierarchy between patient and analyst is consistently challenged, reassessed, and modified. DIY methods and self-help in this framework imply mutuality and a horizontal relationship based on the exchange of skills, knowledge, and resources rather than hierarchy. In this session, we will grasp historically both hope and despair: examples of activism, psychoanalysis, and mutual care as a collective practice of experimentation.
The second part of the session will encourage us to think together about changing archives and archival practice, especially in relation to collective and social memory. We ask how new collaborative relationships between archives and their users are developing the future of memory. With the notion of the traditional archive dismantling, we’ll also look at how this reconfiguration of the archive is shifting the mode from exclusivity to inclusivity, a central theme shared with the free clinics.
You will encounter archival objects from the UK to Brazil that record and retell a history of psychoanalysis as a practice from below. This session will be interactive and open to experimentation, sharing ideas, and, hopefully, helping us link past and present while imagining the future of psychoanalysis and a network of free clinics.
Sign up in bio!

MAY WE FEED THE KING: Writing Radical Fiction Today with Rebecca Perry & Misha Honcharenko
2026-02-26 19:00 - 20:30 | Housmans, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross, N1 9DX
Perry combines effortless exactitude with canny ambiguity to create a novel that is always as stimulating as it is enchanting. ‘May We Feed the King’ is a rare achievement, I absolutely loved it.
Claire-Louise Bennett
We are delighted to welcome two of the most exciting writers working in Britain today, Rebecca Perry and Misha Honcharenko, to Housmans for our first creative writing event of the year. The talk will be focused on Rebecca’s new novel May We Feed The King (Granta), a ‘serial and dreamlike’ (Jessie Burton) work of avant-garde historical fiction that tells the story of ‘ a curator, who spends her time dressing the rooms of historic buildings to bring them to life. But in the lush private quarters of a medieval palace, she finds herself so transfixed by the reign of an almost-forgotten King that the edges of her life begin to blur.’ Interviewing Rebecca about the book we welcome back Misha Honcharenko, a queer Ukrainian artist and writer whose incredible debut novel Trap Unfolds Me Greedily (Sissy Anarchy) we launched at Housmans back in 2024. The are two writers whose work is in equal parts inventive and alert to the historical circumstances under which it is produced. As the current global order continues to dissolve before our eyes, we ask: what can, or should, ‘fiction’ be now?
As always, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com, and a free ticket will be made available.
If you choose ‘book +entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier, or arrange for delivery, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com.
Doors Open at 6:45pm, Event Starts 7:00.

Reading Group 18 – Poll Tax Rebellion
2026-02-24 19:00 - 21:00 | Freedom Bookshop, 84b Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX
For our eighteenth reading group we will be reading Poll Tax Rebellion by Danny Burns. From the blurb: This book tells the gripping inside story of the biggest mass movement in British history, which at its peak involved over 17 million people. Using a combination of photos, text, and graphics, and drawing from the voices of activists and non-payers, it describes the everyday organisation of local anti-poll tax groups and chronicles the demonstrations and riots leading up to the battle of Trafalgar Square. It shows how the courts were blocked, the bailiffs resisted, and the Poll Tax destroyed. The final chapter draws from our experience to present a radically new vision of change from below.
A free version of Poll Tax Rebellion can be found at Libcom here and our friends at Freedom Press here have offered a 10% discount on physical copies for the reading group. Just quote “London SolFed Reading Group” or pop into Freedom for your general radical book buying needs. You are welcome to come and join in the discussion even if you have not finished the reading.

SLAP at Trespass
2026-02-24 19:00 | TRESPASS, 48 albury street, SE8 3PS
For craft evening this week at Trespass we’re going to be putting together the latest edition of our favourite squatters newspaper – SLAP. Come down for an evening of cutting and sticking, and making your own last minute entries if you have any! As usual feel free to bring your own projects or just come and hang out. Starts at 7pm 🙂

Steatopygous / Lip / My Theatre Friend / Clouded / Forced To Run
2026-02-24 18:00 | New Cross Inn, 323 New Cross Rd, SE14 6AS
Real Life Presents
Steatopygous
screamo mosh youth ffo Febuary
[www.instagram.com/steatopygous_band/]
Lip
Twinkling screamo meets punk breakdowns ffo Frameworks, Counterparts
[www.instagram.com/jjxlip/]
My Theatre Friend
Captivating lo-fi screamo ffo Flowers Taped To Pens
[www.instagram.com/pictureadaylikethis/]
Clouded
Mathcore stomp ffo Cursed
[www.instagram.com/cloudedisaband/]
Forced To Run
Blown-out big riff hardcore ffo Bib
[www.instagram.com/forced_to_run/]
Tuesday 23rd February
£9
Doors 6pm
New Cross Inn
14+, u16s with an adult
https://pit.live/events/steatopygous

Emergency Broadcast - "Make Them Pay" EP Release Show
2026-02-22 18:00 | New Cross Inn, 323 New Cross Rd, SE14 6AS
Emergency Broadcast
“Make Them Pay” EP Release show. Radical vegan straightedge hardcore.
[www.instagram.com/emergencybroadcastband/
+ Support from
Mentality
[www.instagram.com/mentalityhc/]
xTemperancex
[www.instagram.com/xtemperancexukhc]
Neversaid
[www.instagram.com/neversaidband/]
Sunday 22nd February
New Cross Inn
Doors 6pm
£8
14+, u16s with an adult
https://pit.live/events/emergency-broadcast-1

Central & Eastern European Diasporic (CEED) Feminisms Reading Group
2026-02-22 14:30 | The Feminist Library, 161 Sumner Road, SE15 6JL
Join us in reading Authority, Authenticity, and the Epistemic Legacies of Cold War Area Studies; Some Reflections on Women’s History and State Socialism in Eastern Europe.
No prior reading is required, as we will read together aloud during the session – one person and one paragraph at a time. There is also no need for any prior knowledge on the topic. Some hard copies of the text will be available on the day.
There is an option to join online – please email us at events@feministlibrary.co.uk to let us know you would like to join remotely. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/central-eastern-european-diasporic-ceed-feminisms-reading-group-tickets-1981725049971?aff=oddtdtcreator

COLD CALLER + MENTAL ISSUES + GUTTED @ the Birds Nest
2026-02-21 20:00 - 23:00 | The Birds Nest, 32 Deptford Church Street, SE8 4RZ
GUTTED, COLD CALLER, MENTAL ISSUES…….
Free entry, donations to the bands……..pretty please bring cash
*also Ollie SLPC, Alex “Pin Swine” and Roswell’s triple Birthday Bash – merriment encouraged!

Herstories Book Club: our wives under the sea
2026-02-21 14:00 | The Feminist Library, 161 Sumner Road, SE15 6JL
☕ Next meeting: Sat 21 February, 2.00-3.30pm 📍Location: Feminist Library (tbc) 📖 Book: Our Wives under the Sea, by Julia Armfield (2023) 📚 Previous books we’ve read: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/herstories-book-club
🔎 When Leah finally returns after a deep sea mission that ended in catastrophe, her wife Miri knows that something is wrong.
Whatever happened in that vessel stranded on the ocean floor, Leah has carried part of it with her, onto dry land and into their home.
As Miri searches for answers to her wife’s altered state, she must face the possibility that the woman she loves is slipping from her grasp.

Monthly Drop In
2026-02-19 19:00 - 20:00 | LARC, 62 Fieldgate Street, E1 1ES
Need advice about an issue with your boss or landlord? Want support organising in your workplace or community? Want to talk about anarchism or syndicalism? Want to meet members of the group and find out how SolFed works? Just want to say hi? Then come see us at one of these drop in sessions.

Andrew O'Neill's History of Punk
2026-02-19 19:00 | The 100 Club, 100 Oxford Street, W1D 1LL
Punk Ethics presents: From the cult comedian who brought you A History Of Heavy Metal, Andrew O’Neill is back with a side-splitting, full-volume journey through the history of the most iconoclastic subculture of all time: PUNK!
This special benefit for No Sweat features an unmissable guest panel where Andrew will be interviewing members of legendary anarchist icons Chumbawamba and long-standing punk stalwarts The Restarts in a fascinating discussion on the enduring link between punk and politics.
Tickets: https://wegottickets.com/f/15360

Crochet a Balaclava
2026-02-17 18:00 | TRESPASS, 48 albury street, SE8 3PS
This week at craft evening I am going to be sitting in a corner trying (and potentially failing) to crochet a balaclava, and I’ll happily show anyone what I know if you want to join me in that endeavour. I know crochet isn’t for everyone so still come down anyway if you have your own projects to work on; if you want to carry on the painting of the space we started last week; or make use of the materials we have to do some sewing. Either way, come down for another craft evening and BRING SNACKS (our chocolate supply is getting dangerously low) 😉

YELLOW SWANS + UNMARRY ME + RAIME (DJs)
2026-02-16 19:30 | The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Road, N1 9JB
Upset The Rhythm presents…
YELLOW SWANS
UNMARRY ME
RAIME (DJs)
Monday 16 February
The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB
7.30pm | £18 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/r1ab97cac2bd
YELLOW SWANS have carved an influential path through America’s experimental music underground, at the axis of noise, psychedelia, industrial, drone, and hardcore. From their 2001 founding to the duo’s final shows (and subsequent hiatus) in 2008, Gabriel Mindel Saloman and Pete Swanson released well over 50 recordings documenting studio experiments, live improvisations, and numerous collaborations. Together they relentlessly toured North America, Europe, and Oceania, performing at numerous international music festivals including Sonar (ES), Open Circuit (BE), and Sonic Protest (FR), and were invited to join Art Council England’s Free Noise Tour in 2007. Yellow Swans performed for Upset The Rhythm multiple times during these busy years. Now, after a 15 year break, they have returned to recording and performing. Their music continues to be restless, ragged, and forever in flux, untethered and unresolved. Check out the duo’s two new casette albums on Bandcamp now, ‘Out of Practice I & II’, the second is particularly striking and alien, enjoy!
https://yellowswans.bandcamp.com/
UNMARRY ME is a triangular shaped group, comprising of Lise Frances, Jon Slade and Chris Rowley. London to Brighton and back again. Unmarry Me are a group that have been together for about 6 months in a world at war and in trouble. Unmarry Me are therefore a group trying to carve out some joy and light as form of resistance, no small feat, and maybe grandiose but worth the stating. Unmarry Me Is comprised of personnel who have all had time or continue to have time in other groups who did not take easy routes or money and didn’t make many friends, so it goes. These groups respectively or chronologically were and are Huggy Bear, Comet Gain, I’m Being Good, Help She Can’t Swim, Snoozers and Adulkt Life. Bands that time will record as being on the right sides of history and her story. Unmarry Me are of a completely different stripe or ilk but comprise the antagonist and peculiar DNA that honour this. Unmarry Me play and record and create and make do in a DIY syncretism that’s useful to themselves, distinct and not worth talking about. Unmarry Me! are about bending, queering, breaking and resetting rules, smudging boundaries and in the main having a lot of excellent fun!!
https://happy-soul-records.bandcamp.com/album/clean-fight-b-w-spanner-in-the-hurt
RAIME (DJs)
https://raime.bandcamp.com/

Practical Squatters Evening @ a local squat!
2026-02-16 19:00 | , ,
By squatters for squatters! Join us for evenings of practical squatting knowledge, skillshares, and meeting squatters new and old. Whether you’re looking to join a crew, looking for more people to join your crew, or just coming along to skill up, we hope that Practical Squatters Evenings can provide something for everyone, and bring together people in the squat scene in London. _________________________________
After a recent meeting, the Practical Squatters Network has decided on some changes to make the network and monthly sessions more useful to people looking to know more about squatting or to share and improve their skills in many of the aspects of squatting life. The Practical Squatters Network has been operating for countless years running regular sessions to introduce people to squatting, and to help those already squatting to meet others and share skills. The frequency of meetups along with the content has changed over years according to the changing landscape of squatting in the UK, but currently runs once a month on the 3rd Monday. It fluctuates between being hosted at Decentre, above Freedom Bookshop, and on alternate months in a local squat. Going forward all Practical Squatters Evenings will take place in a local squat, only using Decentre or other anarchist social centres as backup venues in the case a squat falls through for whatever reason. They will continue to run regularly on the 3rd Monday of the month. Each session will also take a particular focus on a topic or skillshare, to make sessions of more use to people who have already attended previously and heard the usual introductory speil. There will still be fair focus given to anyone who is new and ensure they are not left behind with questions about the basics of squatting.

Brockley Anarchist Reading Club
2026-02-16 18:00 - 20:00 | Brockley Brewery, 31 Harcourt Road, Brockley, SE4 2AJ
The Brockley Anarchist Reading Club will be concluding our discussion of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity. This book fundamentally challenges the standard narrative of human history, arguing against the notion that hierarchies and the state are inevitable. Graeber and Wengrow compel us to look past the confines of capitalism and actively practice imagining necessary political futures based on historical examples of freedom and self-governance. All are welcome! Whether you are a lifelong anarchist or just beginning your journey, join us to discuss how recognizing the long history of human political experimentation acts as a necessary step toward revolutionary change. Meeting Details: Book: The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (Discussing Chapters 11 & 12 Date: Monday, February 16th, 2026 Time: 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM (18:30 – 20:00) Location: The Brockley Brewery

Untangling Love #2
2026-02-15 14:30 | The Feminist Library, 161 Sumner Road, SE15 6JL
A creative and interactive workshop with Tasha Mansley, untangling ‘love’ and exploring the ways it can be co-opted (think patriarchy, colonialism, neo-liberalism, monogamy and heteronormativity!)
We will use arts based activities to engage with feminist thinkers, imagining how we could build our relationships in ways that challenge these structures, and apply these ideas to our own lives. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1981320689518?aff=oddtdtcreator

Love and Letters: a fundraiser for People's Letters
2026-02-14 13:30 | The Feminist Library, 161 Sumner Road, SE15 6JL
Join us at the Bookshop for a drop-in workshop and fundraiser for People’s Letters. We’ll be taking inspiration from Black Feminist writing to think through feminist futures centring love, care, solidarity and community. We’ll be exploring selected texts from our archive and there’ll be an option to send letters to prisoners of conscience currently in UK jails.
The workshop will be a low-key, no judgement, come as you are space. You’re welcome to drop-in any time. Light refreshments including tea and coffee and all materials are provided.

Housmans Valentine's Day Special: COURTING DISASTER with Zoë McGee
2026-02-13 19:00 - 20:30 | Housmans, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross, N1 9DX
Fan of a Romantic Period Drama? Can’t stand the stuff? Either way, we’ve got the event for you. Come and deconstruct Romance this Valentine’s Day with Housmans and Zoë McGee
We’ll be discussing
Zoë’s fabulous new work of Romantic Deconstruction: Courting Disaster: Reading Between the Lines of the Regency Novel.
What do #MeToo and Jane Austen have in common? More than you might think.
Ever since the novel was invented, women have used it as a platform for sharing ideas about sexual consent. Dr Zoë McGee reveals how Jane Austen, Frances Burney and their now-overlooked contemporaries used their stories to try to change society’s mind about rape culture – and to reassure survivors they were not alone.
Courting Disaster takes a timely deep-dive into a series of classic novels, comparing them with both historic court records and current events to show that our arguments about consent are not a new phenomenon. With the wit and wryness of a courtship novel, McGee reads between the lines to unveil a quiet feminist movement that still resonates today. Because every novel about marriage is also a novel about consent.
In an era that’s clamouring for a return to the values of the past, Courting Disaster asks what that would really mean, and whether anyone actually liked it back then anyway.
Zoë McGee has a PhD from Queen Mary University of London and an MSt in eighteenth-century studies from the University of Oxford. She has spoken at conferences internationally and now performs at very nerdy stand-up comedy nights. Among other things, she has worked as a university teacher, a bookseller and a professional board-game-explainer. She owns too many books and is a competitive ballroom dancer in her spare time.
As always, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com, and a free ticket will be made available.
If you choose ‘book +entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier, or arrange for delivery, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com.
Doors Open at 6:45pm, Event Starts 7:00.

Squat Safety
2026-02-13 19:00 | Lesnes estate, Thamesmead,

Untangling Love #1
2026-02-13 18:00 | The Feminist Library, 161 Sumner Road, SE15 6JL
A creative and interactive workshop with Tasha Mansley, untangling ‘love’ and exploring the ways it can be co-opted (think patriarchy, colonialism, neo-liberalism, monogamy and heteronormativity!)
We will use arts based activities to engage with feminist thinkers, imagining how we could build our relationships in ways that challenge these structures, and apply these ideas to our own lives. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1981320250204?aff=oddtdtcreator
