As we windup for the last weeks of 2025 and prepare for early activities in 2026 am pleased to report the conclusion of another productive and stimulating year.
Backspace.org was registered in Spring of 1996 a couple of months after the opening of the public access cyber lounge once the website was ready. Thinking back to those days now, it’s hard to recall just how these ideas we now all take for granted, rationalised out of the William Gibson novels or Mondo2000 tech-zines, were projected into the grime of 90s London.
We loved our time in Clink Street and revisit the area with a mix of affection for the quality experiences and horror at its gross commodification. Just this week, when wandering the area for a chat with media journalist and recent UAL graduate Alma, dipped into the Red Bus gift shop to admire the solid timbers and scale of the old place despite the total remodelling since the rug was pulled at the end of 1999.
With that all in mind, it is our intention to revisit regularly during the coming year in celebration of its 30th, but also to measure up for a VR rendering and reanimation of the space. To start we will be placing a Digital Marker in the window in time for the new year as Stuart, the current owner, is keen to acknowledge the innovative use we made of the place.
You still visit much of the original and extraordinary Backspace website from the era, but we hope to make it possible to once again stand in the place alongside some of the great characters whom once frequented. Founder of Cyberia, Eva Pascoe has already remodelled their network of spaces this year and will be assisting our efforts in the coming months.
That’s where we need your help ! Our photographs and recollections are surprisingly threadbare where they do exist. Yes we do have a bag of ephemera, flyers, posters and tangled memories, but it is our hope you kept better records! Please get in touch and let us know if you have stuff to share ASAP – it’s bak@spc.org for email users and +447973318881 for James.
In spring 2006 some friends and regulars did regroup for an afternoon in the then Starbucks coffee bar, to reminisce a decade on from Backspace first opening, but that afternoon also now feels like a deep history!
As we soon reach winter solstice, how about a get-together at the Crossbones Vigil on 23rd December then find a local bar to plot for next year?
