Rabbits Road institute was initially developed as a public space for community, educational and creative activity, in Manor Park, East London. Celebrating the Free Public Library and Worker’s Education Movements, Rabbits Road Institute is about creating space dedicated to self-education and independent thought, aiming to promote the development of culture, ideas and debate through everyday knowledge and experience.
The Institute draws on the history of the Old Manor Park Library where it was launched and situated from 2015-2018. Rabbits Road is the colloquial name for the former Carnegie library, something we learnt from local people during our time in Manor Park, and which we think speaks to the question of what local means to communities in London and beyond.
Over the course of our 18 month programme of talks, workshops and exhibitions, collaborating and working with local and wider communities in East London, we devised a concept and ethos for what Rabbits Road Institute could be and how it might function in Old Manor Park Library.
Many of the projects we developed at Rabbits Road Institute during its time in Manor Park were about discussing, learning and re-thinking economic issues relevant and prescient to the communities and individuals we met and collaborated with. These included The Rich as a Minority Group, Economics for All and The Story of Money. The last public event we did in Manor Park was Lantern Lecture by Shami Chakrabarti CBE in January 2017.
From 2017-2018 Create took forward the vision of Rabbits Road Institute at Old Manor Park Library, including the managing and creative programming of a community programme by Laura Owen, supported by volunteers. This included, among many other things, the continuation of a weekly Conversation Club, summer schools, the Maghreb Cine film club, Tech Tribe children’s coding workshops, Second Saturday Cinema and a Young Artists group.
The ideas and ethos of Rabbits Road Institute continue and develop through Rabbits Road Institute Library which we have taken on tour to Barking and Dagenham in 2020-2021.
Since 2017 the public space at Old Manor Park Library has hosted other artists’ projects, namely Rabbits Road Press.