Fab Labs Essex doesn't exist

This entity, Fab Labs Essex, does not exist. I tried to reach them by email and phone with no luck so I drove 1 hour to get there. The facility doesn’t exist.

Please remove this misleading and time wasting information from your website.

Thank you.

I noticed that they have a Facebook page which has not been updated since late 2018. Perhaps messaging them on Facebook might help you find out more?

Hi all.

I can answer some of these questions.

This was set up by a group of people who are an offshoot of London Hackspace.

They are mostly based in the outer reaches of East London, out towards Chelmsford.

While i haven’t spoken with them in a couple of months, when i last saw them, they were currently looking for a new location.

One of the problems that arises from being anywhere near a transport route to London, is that the rents are going up, and that commercial/industrial properties are being converted to residential land, due to the short-term way that the property developers are behaving.

Last time i spoke with them around the October/November, they were using meanwhile spaces, and temporary venues for meetup events.

This meant that they were using rooms in libraries/community-centres.

While this is good for community engagement, it does mean that the equipment they use has to be portable, so they are limited in what they can do.

One of the events that they come along to is the East London Inventors Club, http://www.eastlondoninventorsclub.com/ which takes place on the last Thursday of each month.

So if you are available, you can meet some of them there tomorrow evening. :smiley:

I’ll be heading down there myself, so i’ll mention the issues with their website, and see if i can get them to update their contact details. :smiley:

Hi all,

I finally found the answers.

FabLab Essex has closed. :frowning:

They were too far from the local transport hubs for easy access, and the local parking was non-existant as there was an MOT test centre next door, which consistently blocked access to the two parking spaces that the FabLab had set aside for their use.

They tried to relocate, but couldn’t find anywhere that was in their budget levels.

This is a consistent problem for a large number of organisations that are within spitting distance of transport hubs near London.

Side-effect of the London property bubble.

There is a group of people that are trying to get another FabLab up-and-running in East London, but they haven’t found any properties that would work, due to the over-priced rents required.

Add in the actions of the property developers who are converting industrial/commercial estates into residential land for luxury-flats/commuter-villages, and you get the situation that we have now.

Sorry to have to share the bad news.

If anyone does come across places that would be interested in renting out buildings in the East London area, then please let me know, and i’ll pass the messages on.

Thank you. :smiley: