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2017

== 2017 == This is now a residential property. == 1980s == When the Uhuru wholefood business  moved across the road, the building was used as a women's centre and accommodated helplines which included Rape Crisis, Lesbian Line and Oxford Friend.  As well as holding weekly women only discos, there was also a brief period of time when there was a women's only cafe, but the building by this time was becoming increasingly unsafe with rickety stairs and crumbling plaster complete with a spidery outside lavatory!   Many of the women were very politically active and organised Reclaim the Night marches and support for the Greenham Common camp, as well as producing the women's magazines, Lillith, which was sold in local newsagents.  The glass front of the Women's Centre was still as seen in the photo below, and Disco attendees were not safe from late night drunken youths trying to force entry.  The Women's Centre disco disbanded once Jackie Sunderland and Kim Williams started up the Early Gaze Disco in the Coop Hall (at 190 Cowley Road), now the O2 Academy.  Shortly after this, in the late eighties, the building was renovated and made into a men only Mind House.  Oh the irony! == 1975 ==

1975: Uhuru Wholefoods shop. Linda Lumb (left) and John Clark (right) were members of the co-op. Photo by Jane Kilpatrick.

This was the Uhuru wholefoods co-op, before it moved across the road to its current location. The shop unit has now been demolished, and large cherry trees now grow on the spot shown in the photo. The tall man on the right in the photo is John Clarke who used a windfall to found Uhuru, but gave over control to the Uhuru Collective. It was a cafe and a shop for 3rd world crafts. The wholefood sales had been a buyer's co-op in Wellington Square since the late 1960s, it was passed on to Uhuru. A photo from 1974 can beseen here. == 1950s == There used to be a greengrocer's shop here. == Before then? == Cowleyroad.org is a DIY community history - help us write it! Do you know more about this business, or remember what was at this address before? Do you have any old photographs or memories to share? Please add them to the site! Here is a how-to guide. == References ==