Karen Turner is now looking forward to ‘rebuilding with all the possibilities of change’

A CREATIVE community space that was almost destroyed by a flood at Christmas is relaunching this weekend with an arts project inspired by the disaster.

Founder Karen Turner was devastated after a burst water pipe filled Cave, an art space/secondhand furniture store in the Lillington and Longmore Gardens estate, with hot water and steam for hours. She had been crowdfunding to set up a gallery in the space in Tatchbrook Street for months before the flood. Her comeback event, starting at 1pm tomorrow (Saturday) is called “Letting Off Steam”.

Karen said: “The way I dealt with a lot of stuff that’s been destroyed is to look at it in an art context. It was like counselling for me, my way of dealing with what had happened. I’ll also be projecting the video in the gallery space on Saturday, I made on Boxing Day, when I was filming all the devastation and crying and I posted it out on Facebook.

“I don’t often put myself out there like that… I haven’t watched it since. I think it is an interesting transition between that feeling I had on Boxing Day, where as far as I was concerned, everything was finished, this dream that we have was over… to where we are now, rebuilding with all these possibilities of change.”

The space is part gallery and co-operative creative work- space, part up-cycled furniture and bric-a-brac store, and partly outdoor café. “We don’t take anything away, we just keep adding stuff,” Karen said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

Preparing for the relaunch on Saturday, Deana, Elaina, Tiana, Teodora, Liberty, Anjie and Karen 

There are plans for creative desk-hopping, where people can come and rent a sewing machine or other space. They will also have regular exhibitions in the Cave Space, and already have two lined up. Many Old Hands Make Great Work, a community project, will be curated by potter Emily Hall, displaying pieces by care home residents, which opens on June 12. Then Pimlico Pop photography exhibition, part of the SouthWestFest, will shine a light on the area’s musical roots from the 1960s.

Karen’s neighbour, Anjie Lee, 43, who also lives in Pimlico has stepped in to run the CakeHole, a little café run out of a wagon in Cave’s front garden. “I love working here. I’ve known Karen all my life, we live next to each other,” she said.

“Our families have grown up together. The flood was devastating. It affected us all more than you can imagine. We’ve just watched it grow together and to think it could have been wiped out in one fell swoop… But it’s back and it’s magic. We’ve all put so much effort into Cave and I love it. It’s not just tea and cake any more. “I’m doing crêpes, toasties, afternoon tea.”

Karen added: “We get lots of people in, lots of characters. We get people in this block, tourists, we get the kids coming in to do chalking. It’s a lovely buzzy, busy, sort of place but it is also very chilled and a really nice place to come to work.”