Niki Gibbs, a local resident and board member for Community Plan for Holloway (CP4H), is one of many who have been campaigning for a Women’s Building on the Holloway Prison redevelopment site. CP4H is a voluntary organisation campaigning for what should be built on the site of the former women’s prison. The proposed Women’s Building will be a “safe space” for women and girls, offering multiple services such as therapy and workshops.
Talking to Islington Now, Niki told how she joined the campaign in 2017 after meeting a women’s rights campaigner. Mo Mansfield was from Reclaim Holloway, the group that started the “fight” for a Women’s Building. But, Niki explains, at first she “didn’t get what the Women’s Building” meant.
“I was trying to work out what she [Mo] was talking about when she described the Women’s Building to me. I was walking from Euston station and I remember thinking, ‘what was she talking about?’
“But then it was like an epiphany on the way home, and I drew it.”
As an artist, Niki was able to create a visual of the Women’s Building – which has been used on many of CP4H’s documents. She says: “I just thought – you know what? My drawing can communicate to many more people what Mo was saying with words.”
Working with CP4H, she says “has broadened my understanding for the requirement of women and what is actually needed on the site. It’s quite exciting.
“We all do so many things in our life and I’ve always wanted to do something meaningful. I mean, sure maybe some aspects of my work are meaningful, but this is really meaningful.
I’m really privileged to be in the position where I can be involved in something like this. And to be involved from the beginning is better than anything.”
New housing will also be built on the site, a point of frustration for many. Peabody, the housing association, and Islington Council are primarily focused on maximising housing, something Niki describes as “demoralising”.
“I get frustrated but I know that if we succeed, it will all be worth it.”
