Makespace Oxford launch day

We’re finally here! Thanks everyone who’s worked their asses off to get this project going!

But first a bit of backstory. EOF Hackspace started as a splinter group from Oxford Hackspace. While the community was great and there was lots of interesting activities, we realised that our goals for a hackspace were different and trying to achieve that in the context of the current community was not feasible. Most of the founding members of EOF Hackspace were also founding or early members of OxHack, which is why we tried changing it from the inside before moving on.

Our first official meeting was at OARC on the 19th of November. There about half a dozen of us started to discuss what’s going to happen with OxHack when their lease would expire and try to find alternatives. We knew the current management didn’t want to involve us in the process so the best approach was to find an alternative venue.

After a few months of discussion about our constitution and possible locations we found Makespace Oxford, an organisation dedicated to reusing abandoned buildings in Oxford until they’re scheduled to be torn down. On the 19th of Jan we had an agreement with them.

On the 6th of Feb we finally saw the building. It was in a bit of a state but in the end it was something we could call home. After much debate we decided we should take as much space as we could afford.

On the 20th of May we got a pair of keys and started moving in. Unfortunately it would take a while before we could call it ready. We started fixing the floor and bringing some equipment in.

We struck gold with Maplin closing and scored some really neat tool boards.

And so we reach the big day. On the 14th of July we opened our doors and started our voyage. The day before we quickly designed some merch and leaflets to give our visitors.