This update is a few weeks old but still newsworthy. s144 refers to the clause which criminalised squatting in residential buildings in England and Wales.
Another four people have been found “Not Guilty” of the criminal offence introduced in September 2012. They were arrested at a building in Scrutton Street in March. After over six months on bail, their trial took place at Stratford in October.
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Update 28/11, 8am: After an urgent call for support, bailiffs gained access and evicted the space.
Update 27/11: Thanks everyone for making today possible. It was a great success if not a bit of a spectacle 🙂 The new place is incredible and we want to have it up and running and filled with events as soon as possible. Watch this space!! Decent homes for all!!!
Callout 26/11: The Anti-Social Centre is re-occupied territory. A radical space that is home to community organizing, such as the Radical Housing Network counter-conference to MIPIM, Anti-Fascism, squat-network dinners, fundraisers for Zapatistas, No Borders, and more. [Read More]
Squatters have moved into a former police station, it has been confirmed. Yesterday, police received a report that the old Leytonstone police station, in Kirkdale Road, haad been occupied. The station was closed on October 23 and has been boarded up and empty since. [Read More]
Squatters with “large dogs” have moved into an empty magistrates’ court and police station due for redevelopment.
Haringey Magistrates’ Court in Bishops Road, Highgate, has lain empty since December 2012 when it was closed by the Ministry of Justice following a round of cuts. It is thought the squatters moved into the derelict building with at least two “large-sounding dogs” over the weekend. [Read More]
Squatters have set up camp in an abandoned community centre as part of a mission to prove that “everyone deserves a place to call home”. [Click here and scroll down for video from the corporate press]
The 30-strong group made a name for themselves when they took over Friern Barnet Library and the Bohemia Pub – but now they are back to provide support to those living on the West Hendon Estate.
Tenants living on the estate are being evicted from their homes over the next six months to six years before they are torn down to make way for 2,000 new flats. [Read More]
Squatters were forced to leave a vacant former convent next to the Royal Free Hospital following a two-day siege by a private security company hired by the building’s owner.A crew of guards from VPS security firm accompanied by two vans, purportedly containing dogs, swooped on Bartrams Convent Hostel, in Rowland Hill Street, Belsize Park, last Thursday. [Read More]
Giggles Nursery in Grove Green Road, Leytonstone, closed last year and a group of four squatters have been living there since the end of May. The squatters were evicted via court order by Waltham Forest council last Wednesday and the authority will clean up the premises today. The Guardian spoke to one squatter, known as Rob, who was still at the property on Friday to gather together his belongings. [Read More]
From Vice Magazine by Harry Sword
In 1977, squatters on Freston Road, Notting Hill, in London, declared independence from the British state. Facing eviction by the Greater London Council (GLC), the community figured the best way to evade the constraints imposed on them was to just free themselves of those constraints altogether. So they lobbied the UN and established a 1.8-acre microstate-“The Free and Independent Republic of Frestonia”-complete with its own postage stamps, visas, and passports. [Read More]
The fight for council housing in Newham and London continues
Despite Newham Council’s attempt to evict us, we can today confirm that the E15 Open House occupation will continue until 7th October as planned.
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“Did you hear the water’s been cut off?”
“No”
“Newham Council say it wasn’t them, but they were photographed out there with their van. They have broken the water mains”
This was the news I was met with when I arrived yesterday to visit the E15 Mums in a squatted social centre in the Carpenters Estate, Newham. Sprawling onto the streets is a hive of activities: kids painting, a free shop, free food and banners that read ‘social housing not social cleansing’. People are chatting, planning meetings, attending workshops, playing guitars and discussing community issues. Why would the local council try to sabotage a property occupied by a community of vulnerable single mothers?
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Diverse housing action groups in London have called for protests against the real estate fair “MIPIM UK”. Hashtag for the campaign is #stopMIPIM. Here is a flyer from the the “radical housing network“.
MIPIM, the world’s biggest property fair, is coming to London, October 15-17th.
MIPIM proudly describes itself as the world’s largest property fair, attracting around 20,000 investors, developers, local authorities, and banks each year.
It usually takes place annually in Cannes, France. This year will see the first MIPIM UK, to be held at London’s Olympia 15-17 October. Billed as ‘the 1st UK property trade show gathering all professionals looking to close deals in the UK property market’ – a gathering of professionals and elites looking to profiteer from UK land and property.
Join affected communities, the Radical Housing Network, the European Action Coalition for the Right to Housing and the City, Defend Council Housing, trade unions and a range of other groups to demand a City for People, not for Profit. [Read More]
A group of housing campaigners and local residents occupied a four-flat block on a largely empty east end estate yesterday in protest over the sell-off of council housing to private developers while former tenants are priced out of the city.
The action on Stratford’s Carpenters Estate marked the anniversary of local campaign group E15Focus Mothers being set-up to fight for the right to stay in the borough after Newham Council proposed housing the group of single mums outside of London. They had previously being living in a hostel that was to be closed by the housing association that ran it. [Read More]
