Making Space for Communities
We are a community land trust and registered charity that is seeking a significant, permanent allocation of space for nature, growing, housing, craft, and community use — in a development we live next to. We run filmmaking and crafting workshops, screen local films and support Mortimer Terrace Nature Reserve.
See our case for Murphy’s Yard →
Right Now
Mortimer Terrace Nature Reserve is formally ours. In July 2026, after decades of community stewardship and a four-year legal transfer process, ownership of our first asset — a Grade 1 Site of Importance for Nature Conservation bordering Murphy’s Yard — formally transferred from Camden Council to Camden Community Makers.
Photo Emily O’Mara 2019
We’ve already helped to change this development’s direction once. Our July 2022 charrette convened 14 local organisations and around 80 residents, and its published findings contributed to Murphy’s Yard withdrawing and reworking its previous planning application — an application that reportedly cost over £5 million and drew over 1,500 objections. As the next application approaches, we’re asking Camden and Murphy’s Yard to build on that partnership, not restart it.
The Wool Lab is open. Our community craft space takes wool from raw fleece to finished piece by hand: washing, carding, spinning, weaving, felting and natural dyeing, using natural, plastic-free materials. Workshops are open to everyone on a suggested-donation basis.
Who we are
Camden Community Makers Community Land Trust Limited is a charitable company and Community Benefit Society, registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (registration number 8160, registered 12 July 2019). Every decision we make is bound by formal governance, and everything we do goes back to benefit the wider community — not private owners or shareholders.
Read more about our structure →
Our history
We grew out of Coops for London, a campaign we founded in 2016 to defend and champion co-operative housing as a proven alternative to property speculation. In 2017 we began our community engagement with the local community by organising street parties. In 2019, we established our governance framework as a charitable community benefit society and community land trust to secure our future work for and with the communities we work with.
How we work
Crafting and filmmaking aren’t just fun forms of outreach for us — they’re planning tools and our primary method of knowledge and data collection. We use community mapping, made with felting, weaving, and collaborative filmmaking, to gather real evidence of what communities want, from Kentish Town to Cairo and Sinai in Egypt and Wadi Faynan in southern Jordan. Right now our wool lab is where this happens week to week: a working craft space where people learn, make and share skills together.
Visit our Wool Lab
Get involved
If you’d like to take part in a working group, or find out more about any of our work get in touch.