Changes

This is now a residential property.

When the Uhuru wholefood business  moved across the road, the building was used as a women's centre and accommodated helplines which included Rape Crisis, Lesbian Line and Oxford Friend.

As well as holding weekly women only discos, there was also a brief period of time when there was a women's only cafe, but the building by this time was becoming increasingly unsafe with rickety stairs and crumbling plaster complete with a spidery outside lavatory!   Many of the women were very politically active and organised Reclaim the Night marches and support for the Greenham Common camp, as well as producing the women's magazines, Lillith, which was sold in local newsagents.  The glass front of the Women's Centre was still as seen in the photo below, and Disco attendees were not safe from late night drunken youths trying to force entry.  The Women's Centre disco disbanded once Jackie Sunderland and Kim Williams started up the Early Gaze Disco in the Coop Hall (at [[190|190]] Cowley Road), now the O2 Academy.  

== 1973 - 1980s ==

[[File:backStreetBugle1977BackStreetBugle1977-12no.3p.10 Uhuru 600px.png|frame|December 1977: Advert for Uhuru in Backstreet Bugle radical newspaper. No. 3, p.10. Courtesy Backstreet Bugle Collective.]]

[[File:backStreetBugle1978BackStreetBugle1978-01no.4p.7 Uhuru DonationList 600px.png|frame|January 1978: In response to controversy over rising prices at Uhuru, a list of good causes supported by the shop was published in the Backstreet Bugle, No. 3, p.10. Courtesy Backstreet Bugle Collective.]]

[[File:backStreetBugle1977BackStreetBugle1977-12no.1 womensCentre 600px.png|frame|December 1977: This article in the Backstreet Bugle reports on the key role of no. 35 Cowley Road as an organizing hub in the active feminist movement of the 1970s. (The Womens Centre opened in nearby Bullingdon Road.) Issue No.1. Courtesy Backstreet Bugle Collective.]]

Jane Kilpatrick took the 1975 photo and was a member of the Workers' Co-operative who owned and managed Uhuru. 2 other members of the Co-op are also in the photo, John Clark (R) and Linda nee Viney (L) now Lumb. John was one of the founding members in 1973, by 1975 there were about 6 or 8 people.   The shop sold crafts from co-operatives in the developing world (using fair trade principles) and whole foods. The cafe sold cheap and cheerful vegetarian food, and welcomed many customers other establishments would have thrown out. After hours it was used for meetings of political groups like Oxford Women’s Liberation.  

 There is a history of the early days of Uhuru, called ‘A Working Collective’ written by members of the collective - does anyone have a copy for reference? (There are 2 copies at Oxford History Centre). Annie Skinner’s history of the Cowley Rd is also a record of that era and Uhuru’s development.