Locks Changed at 7.30am: A Developer Evicts a West London Church, Its Nursery and Its Foodbank

• Pentecostal City Mission Church was evicted from 2 Scrubs Lane, Willesden, on 23 March 2022
• Developer Fruition Properties took possession early in the morning and changed the locks
• Planning policy required space for the church within any redevelopment of the site
• The regeneration body, the local MP and the church’s pastor all condemned the move

Parents arriving to drop off their children at a community nursery in west London on 23 March 2022 found they could not get in. At around 7.30am, the developer Fruition Properties had entered 2 Scrubs Lane in Willesden, the long-time home of Pentecostal City Mission Church, and changed every lock. Staff were unable to retrieve their belongings, and the church’s worship space, nursery, foodbank and dementia care services were shut out in a single morning.

The eviction was publicised by the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC), the Mayor of London’s regeneration body for the area, which made clear it was not happy. The building is registered as a community asset, and when Fruition sought planning permission for the site in 2018, the condition was plain: space for the church and its community facilities had to form part of any redevelopment.

Reverend Desmond Hall said the congregation was “shocked and saddened that Fruition took possession of this beloved church and vital lifeline for so many community members.” He said the services on the site supported up to 1,000 people in a single day.

OPDC chief executive David Lunts called the eviction “shocking” and said it was hard to believe that, with so much local need, “any developer could act with such heartlessness.” He said the developer had refused attempts to engage. Local MP Andy Slaughter described the news as “unacceptable and quite frankly unbelievable”, pointing to the number of families struggling to put food on the table.

The case shows how exposed a congregation can be when it occupies a building it does not own on land earmarked for development. A planning condition may promise the church a future place in a new scheme, but it does not stop the landowner taking possession of the existing building in the meantime.

For Jamaican and wider Caribbean-heritage congregations in Britain, many of which began in rented halls and borrowed rooms, the Scrubs Lane eviction is a hard reminder of why generations of church members worked to buy their own buildings. For churches in Jamaica and for returnees helping to plan church projects at home, the lesson carries over: a lease, a promise or a community-asset listing is no substitute for clear title and a written agreement that protects the congregation’s right to stay.

Follow Jamaica Homes on Youtube @jamaicahomes and Instagram @jamaica_homes and on Facebook @jamaicahomesnews Send us a message or email us at onlinefeedback@jamaica-homes.com or editor@jamaica-homes.com