Wapping Autonomy Centre, also known as The Anarchist Centre, was a social centre in Wapping from late 1981 to 1982. It was listed in the SDS 1981 Annual Report as a main surveillance target, though the Inquiry offered little disclosure to confirm that.
HN85 Roger Pearce (‘Roger Thorley’) reported on the centre, although it was not his central target. A catalyst for the centre’s creation was the arrest of several anarchists, who became known as the Persons Unknown defendants.
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Crass, the famous anarcho-punk band played a benefit gig for Wapping Autonomy Centre.
Punk band The Poison Girls released a single by that name and played a benefit gig for the defendants, alongside even better-known punk band Crass.
HN304 ‘Graham Coates’ reported on the defendants’ group but not on the centre itself.HN304 'Graham Coates''Graham Coates' is the cover name of a former Special Demonstration Squad undercover officer who, between 1977 and 1979, infiltrated the International Socialists/Socialist Workers Party and spied on several anarchist group including the Zero Collective, Persons Unknown, and the Anarchy Collective. He gave evidence to the Inquiry on several undercovers’ sexual relationships with activists and said that it was common knowledge in the SDS that such relationships took place. His real name has been restricted. Full page: HN304 'Graham Coates'
Source: Penguin. Autonomy Centre, Wapping, London E1 – 06/12/81. Penguin & Andy Martin, Autonomy Centre, Wapping, London E1 – 06/12/81, KYYP, 'Vince Stevenson, Iris Mills and Ronan Bennett, briefly infamous for the ‘Persons Unknown’ trial in 1979, later unwitting participants on a record sleeve by Crass worked hard to find, secure and decorate a social centre for anarchists and punks in the then useless, dangerous and wrecked London docklands.', 18 May 2009.
