{{Short description|Occupation of unused land or derelict buildings in England and Wales}} {{Use British English|date=August 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2017}} [[File:London Social Centre Russell Square squat 1 20060329.jpg|thumb|The "London Social Centre" an anarcho-syndicalist squat in Russell Square, 2006.]]In England and Wales,{{refn|group=lower-alpha|In the two other legal jurisdictions within the United Kingdom, in Scotland (which has had a criminal trespass law since 1885) and [https://en.squat.net/2015/01/11/a-squatters-guide-to-belfast/ in Northern Ireland] (where paramilitarism is a factor), the history and development of squatting is significantly distinct.}} squatting {{snd}}the occupation of a vacant property without the owner's consent{{snd}} has been progressively criminalised since the 1970s. The relative toleration accorded by a common law tradition in which the practice was unlawful but not criminal, was eroded in the wake of a wave of squatting that in the 1970s crested in London. At the end of that decade, there were estimated to be 50,000 squatters in England and Wales, with 30,000 in the capital.
Squatters typically occupied local council owned housing which lay empty awaiting demolition and redevelopment. Having a statutory duty under the 1948 National Assistance Act to house homeless persons, councils were at times willing to tolerate these occupations on a temporary, licensed, basis. On rarer occasions, squatters were able to persuade the authorities to recognise them as a housing association or cooperative with a legitimate claim to permanent accommodation.
There was a much smaller incidence, in London, of organised groups squatting in privately owned city-centre properties. The greater publicity surrounding these higher-profile occupations contributed to an increasingly hostile coverage of squatting in the media focused on left-wing politics, alternative life-styles and drug-taking. Squatting was to draw a range of radical and marginalised groups stigmatised by the tabloid press, including proponents of free collectives, women's liberation, black empowerment, and gay rights.
From the late 1970s, coinciding with a retreat from post-war commitments to public housing, the law surrounding squatting began to tighten. In 1977, the Criminal Law Act defined conditions in which trespass, which has been a tort (that is, a matter for redress in a civil proceeding), could be considered criminal. These were broadened by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 to include refusal to leave after being ordered to do so by a person entitled to occupation. Finally, the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 made squatting in residential property, in itself, an offence subject to a penalty of up to 6 months in prison, a £5,000 fine or both.
Within this constrictive legal framework, squatting in the 21st century, tends to involve protest actions or pop-up venues in non-residential property where trespass remains a largely civil matter.
==Early history== [[File:The_Ugly_House_near_Betws-Y-Coed_-_geograph.org.uk_-_2111697.jpg|left|thumb|The Ugly House ({{langx|cy|Tŷ Hyll}}) near Betws-Y-Coed, a relic of a tŷ unnos.]] From the 14th century in England and, following its incorporation into the English realm, from the 16th century in Wales, enclosure forced the displaced rural poor onto wasteland and commons.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hatcher |first=John |date=1994 |title=England in the Aftermath of the Black Death |url=https://academic.oup.com/past/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/past/144.1.3 |journal=Past and Present |language=en |issue=144 |pages=3–35 |doi=10.1093/past/144.1.3 |issn=0031-2746|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Clark |first1=Gregory |last2=Clark |first2=Anthony |date=2001 |title=COMMON RIGHTS TO LAND IN ENGLAND, 1475–1839 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-economic-history/article/abs/common-rights-to-land-in-england-14751839/B15720055AE3358F4123833954944473 |journal=The Journal of Economic History |language=en |volume=61 |issue=4 |pages=1009–1036 |doi=10.1017/S0022050701042061 |issn=1471-6372|url-access=subscription }}</ref> They relied on a customary belief that a shelter erected overnight (a "one-night house" or ''Tŷ unnos'' in Wales)<ref>{{Cite news |date=2020-08-23 |title=Tŷ unnos: Homes made using 17th Century 'squatters' rights' |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-53854853 |access-date=2025-06-03 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> gave them a right to undisturbed possession.<ref name=":42">{{Cite book |last=Ward |first=Colin |url=https://files.libcom.org/files/cotters-squatters.pdf |title=Cotters and Squatters: the hidden history of housing |publisher=Bay Leaf Books |year=1980}}</ref>{{rp|41-52}}<ref name=":03">{{Cite book |last=Harrison |first=John Fletcher Clews |url= |title=The Common People: A History from the Norman Conquest to the Present |date=1984 |publisher=Croom Helm |isbn=978-0-7099-0125-9 |pages=135 |language=en}}</ref> The Forcible Entry Act of 1381, a statute still cited by squatters to oppose or delay eviction in the 1970s,<ref name="Book2">{{cite book |last=Ward |first=Colin |url=https://en.squat.net/wp-content/uploads/en/2013/01/wates-wolmar-squatting-real-story.pdf |title=Squatting: The real story |date=1980 |publisher=Bay Leaf Books |isbn=0-9507259-1-9 |editor1-last=Wates |editor1-first=Nick |location=London |chapter=The early squatters |editor2-last=Wolmar |editor2-first=Christian}}</ref>{{rp|159}} did establish a presumption against forcible repossession save in the exercise of a court order.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=8 February 2008 |title=Clean up your Acts |url=https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/analysis/clean-up-your-acts/3202.article |access-date=2025-06-03 |website=Law Gazette |language=en}}</ref>
In 1649, at the outset of the Civil War, Gerrard Winstanley and others calling themselves the True Levellers occupied disused common land at St George's Hill, Weybridge in Surrey, and cultivated it collectively. They hoped that the action would inspire other poor people to defy enclosure and follow their lead. In ''The Law of Freedom'' (1652), Winstanley famously declared: "the poorest man hath as true a title and just right to the land as the richest man".<ref name="Book2" />{{rp|104}}
Squatting by the rural poor on what was recognised locally as common or waste land continued through to the end of the nineteenth century.<ref name=":42" />{{rp|53-78}} In the early 1800s, Herefordshire's commons hosted almost a hundred settlements comprising ten or more dwellings.<ref name=":42" />{{rp|93-104}}<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Moir |first=James |title='A World Unto Themselves'?: Squatter Settlement in Herefordshire 1780-1880 |date=1990 |degree=PhD |publisher=University of Leicester |url=https://figshare.le.ac.uk/articles/thesis/_A_World_Unto_Themselves_Squatter_Settlement_in_Herefordshire_1780-1880/10097363/1 |language=en}}</ref> Commons and wasteland also accommodated workers in mines, ironwork and manufacture. In areas like the Forest of Dean and what became known as the Black Country and the Potteries, their informal settlements served as "nuclei" for new industrial centres.<ref name=":42" />{{rp|105}}
After the First World War this pattern of self-built housing on marginal land was resumed by ex-servicemen and their families. On plotlands in the English southeast, chalets and sheds were transformed into more permanent accommodation. Although not strictly squatting, as occupiers were paying at least a nominal fee for their site, they fell afoul of tightening local planning bye-laws.<ref name=":42" />{{rp|156-158}}
== Post World War Two == Urban squatting first becomes a major phenomenon in the wake of World War II. Memory of the failure of the Conservative-led coalition after the First World War to deliver on the promise of "homes fit for heroes" may have contributed to Labour's 1945 electoral landslide.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Taylor |first=Alan John Percivale |url= |title=English History, 1914-1945 |date=1965 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-821715-2 |pages=596 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Book232">{{cite book |last=Friend |first=Andrew |url=https://en.squat.net/wp-content/uploads/en/2013/01/wates-wolmar-squatting-real-story.pdf |title=Squatting: The real story |date=1980 |publisher=Bay Leaf Books |isbn=0-9507259-1-9 |editor1-last=Wates |editor1-first=Nick |location=London |chapter=The postwar squatters |editor2-last=Wolmar |editor2-first=Christian}}</ref>{{rp|110}} But with the housing shortage rendered acute by the destruction of stock in the Blitz, it also encouraged organised direct action.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Webber |first=Howard |url=https://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/collegeofhumanities/history/exhistoria/volume4/Webber-Squatters_movement.pdf |title=A Domestic Rebellion: The Squatters' Movement of 1946 |publisher=King's College London, Thesis |year=2012}}</ref><ref>Hinton, James (1988). "Self-help and Socialism The Squatters’ Movement of 1946", ''History Workshop Journal'' 25, 100–26.</ref>
In July 1945, ''Time'' magazine credited a "bowler-hatted chimney sweep, Harry Cowley," with blowing "the lid off Britain's housing problem".<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=TIME |date=1945-07-23 |title=Foreign News: Vigilantes |url=https://time.com/archive/6605924/foreign-news-vigilantes/ |access-date=2025-06-06 |magazine=TIME |language=en}}</ref> In Brighton, at the head of 400 self-styled Vigilantes he moved families of servicemen into three empty houses.<ref name=":5" /> As military camps were decommissioned, the example was followed by families across the country.<ref>Hinton, J. 'Self-help and Socialism The Squatters' Movement of 1946' in ''History Workshop Journal'' (1988) 25(1): 100–126.</ref> In October 1946, Aneurin Bevan, the Minister for Health and Housing, reported to the House of Commons that 1,038 camps in England and Wales were occupied by 39,535 people.<ref name="Webber, H. 2012 pp125-1462">{{cite journal |last=Webber |first=H. |year=2012 |title=A Domestic Rebellion: The Squatters' Movement of 1946 |url=https://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/collegeofhumanities/history/exhistoria/volume4/Webber-Squatters_movement.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Ex Historia |volume=4 |pages=125–146 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190626224449/http://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/collegeofhumanities/history/exhistoria/volume4/Webber-Squatters_movement.pdf |archive-date=26 June 2019 |access-date=29 August 2015}}</ref> But unwilling, as he saw it, to divert resources from new-build housing, he refused squatter demands to help patch up the Nissen Huts and improve services.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Watson |first=Don |title=Squatting in Britain 1945-1955: Housing, Politics and Direct Action |publisher=Merlin Press |year=2016 |isbn=9780850367287 |location=London |pages=177-179}}</ref>
There was public sympathy.<ref name="Book2322">{{cite book |last=Friend |first=Andrew |url=https://en.squat.net/wp-content/uploads/en/2013/01/wates-wolmar-squatting-real-story.pdf |title=Squatting: The real story |date=1980 |publisher=Bay Leaf Books |isbn=0-9507259-1-9 |editor1-last=Wates |editor1-first=Nick |location=London |chapter=The postwar squatters |editor2-last=Wolmar |editor2-first=Christian}}</ref>{{rp|112-113}} In August 1946, Clementine Churchill, wife of the ex-Prime Minister, protested that the "people are referred to by the ungraceful term 'squatters'" were "respectable citizens whose only desire is to have a home".<ref name="Webber, H. 2012 pp125-1462" /> A month later, in a "Great Sunday Squat" organised by members of the Communist Party, over 100 families assisted by the Women's Voluntary Service and, in some case, by police officers,<ref name=":10">{{Cite book |last=Vasudevan |first=Alexander |url= |title=The Autonomous City: A History of Urban Squatting |date=2017-05-16 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78168-786-4 |pages= |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|45}} occupied an hotel and flats at various locations in central London.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsOvqUpT3pw |title=SQUATTERS MOVE IN AT KENSINGTON |date=12 September 1946 |last=British Movietone |access-date=2025-06-29 |via=YouTube}}</ref><ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbjiLRJXq1E |title=Post war squatters move in to London properties |date=1946 |last=British Pathé |access-date=2025-06-29 |via=YouTube}}</ref><ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v16xqqkcjRw |title=SQUATTERS CONTINUED |date=16 September 1946 |last=British Movietone |access-date=2025-06-29 |via=YouTube}}</ref> Five of the leaders were arrested for conspiracy but were merely bound over to good behaviour. The squatters left the properties but did receive temporary accommodation.<ref name="Webber, H. 2012 pp125-14622">{{cite journal |last=Webber |first=H. |year=2012 |title=A Domestic Rebellion: The Squatters' Movement of 1946 |url=https://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/collegeofhumanities/history/exhistoria/volume4/Webber-Squatters_movement.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Ex Historia |volume=4 |pages=125–146 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190626224449/http://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/collegeofhumanities/history/exhistoria/volume4/Webber-Squatters_movement.pdf |archive-date=26 June 2019 |access-date=29 August 2015}}</ref>
Responding to the housing crisis, in the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 the Labour government gave local authorities wide-ranging compulsory purchase and planning powers<ref>{{Cite web |title=Building more social housing - Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee - House of Commons |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5801/cmselect/cmcomloc/173/17305.htm |access-date=2025-06-29 |website=publications.parliament.uk}}</ref> and, scrapping Public Assistance Institutions (a last vestige of the old workhouse system), in Part III of the National Assistance Act (1948) made it their statutory duty to house the homeless.<ref>Means, Robin; Smith, Randall (1985), ''The Development of Welfare Services for Elderly People,'' Routledge, p. 155. {{ISBN|978-0-7099-3531-5}}</ref> By the mid-1950s the Conservatives could boast an unprecedented 300,000 house completions a year, yet demand continued to outstrip supply and by the end of the decade funding for new developments had slowed.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Shapely |first=Peter |date=2018 |title=Britain's hundred-year housing crisis: a century of uneven spending |url=https://historyandpolicy.org/opinion-articles/articles/britains-hundred-year-housing-crisis-a-century-of-uneven-spending/ |access-date=2025-06-29 |website=History & Policy |language=en-GB}}</ref>
== 1960s ==
=== The campaign for "family housing" === In the sixties, the publication of reports like the [https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/1965-03-29/debates/aa9480bf-88d6-4580-b99e-8b7dea3cafd2/MilnerHollandReportOnLondonHousing Milner-Holland survey on London's housing] in 1965, TV dramas like Cathy Come Home (first broadcast in 1966) and the formation of Shelter, a national charity campaigning on housing, helped prepare public opinion for actions that might directly challenge the seeming complacency of the authorities.<ref name="Book24">{{cite book |url=https://en.squat.net/wp-content/uploads/en/2013/01/wates-wolmar-squatting-real-story.pdf |title=Squatting: The real story |date=1980 |publisher=Bay Leaf Books |isbn=0-9507259-1-9 |editor1-last=Wates |editor1-first=Nick |location=London |editor2-last=Wolmar |editor2-first=Christian}}</ref>{{rp|15}} In November 1968, a group of homeless families and of anarchists, some with experience of direct action in the campaign for nuclear disarmament, launched the London Squatters Campaign "for family housing".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Radford |first=Jim |date=2004-02-11 |title=The Squatting Campaign: homes for families |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2004/feb/11/voluntarysector.comment1 |access-date=2025-05-31 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Milligan |first=Rowan Tallis |date=2016 |title=The Politics of the Crowbar, Squatting in London, 1968-1977 |url=https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/anarchiststudies/vol-24-issue-2/article-9313/ |journal=Anarchist Studies |volume=24 |issue=2}}</ref> This was against a background of the newly established Greater London Council (GLC) leading the city's borough councils in compulsorily purchasing aging private tenements which might then lie empty for years while plans were brought forward to redevelop the sites for new public housing.<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal |last=Wall |first=Christine |date=2017 |title=Sisterhood and Squatting in the 1970s: Feminism, Housing and Urban Change in Hackney |journal=History Workshop Journal |language=en |volume=83 |issue=1 |pages=79–97 |doi=10.1093/hwj/dbx024 |issn=1363-3554|doi-access=free }}</ref>{{rp|79}}[[File:StAgnesPl.squats.JPG|thumb|St Agnes Place, London, prior to demolition in 2007]]The campaign's first major test was the occupation of 17 houses in the east London borough of Redbridge.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Radford |first=Jim |date=2004-02-11 |title=The Squatting Campaign: homes for families |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2004/feb/11/voluntarysector.comment1 |access-date=2025-05-31 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Reeves |first=Kesia |title=Kritiek 2009 : Jaarboek voor Socialistische Discussie en Analyse. |date=2009 |publisher=Askant |isbn=9789052603469 |location=Amsterdam |pages=137–159 |chapter=The UK Squatters Movement 1968-1980 |editor-last5=Leendert |editor-first5=Van Hoogenhuijze}}</ref>{{rp|142}} After facing down the forceful efforts of private bailiffs, and with media coverage playing "a major part", the families and their supporters, persuaded the council to concede the use of empty properties under licence.<ref name="Book23">{{cite book |last=Platt |first=Steve |url=https://en.squat.net/wp-content/uploads/en/2013/01/wates-wolmar-squatting-real-story.pdf |title=Squatting: The real story |date=1980 |publisher=Bay Leaf Books |isbn=0-9507259-1-9 |editor1-last=Wates |editor1-first=Nick |location=London |chapter=A decade of squatting |editor2-last=Wolmar |editor2-first=Christian}}</ref>{{rp|19-21}}The local authority had had to consider the costs not only of getting squatters out, but also of then having to provide those eligible for homelessness support with temporary accommodation in bed-and-breakfast hotels.<ref name="Book23" />{{rp|40}}
In the same year, 1969, Rastafarians joined in occupying a street of derelict houses in Kennington, south London, St Agnes Place. A High Court injunction prevented the demolition and, after an attempted eviction in 1974, the street was run as a housing cooperative. The squatted street featured a Rastafari temple (visited on occasion during the 1970s by Bob Marley),<ref name="rogue">{{cite news |last1=Ryan |first1=Rosalind |date=2005-11-29 |title=End of the rogue |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/blog/2005/nov/29/endoftherogu |access-date=2019-04-03 |work=Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Squatting the Street for 30 years |url=https://socialdocumentary.net/exhibit/Janine_Wiedel/233 |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=Socialdocumentary.net |language=en}}</ref> and a pirate radio station Rasta FM (which was raided by Ofcom in October 2005).<ref>{{cite web |title=Ofcom tackles illegal broadcasting |url=http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/news/2005/11/illegal |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100704093312/http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/news/2005/11/illegal |archive-date=4 July 2010 |access-date=2013-08-15 |publisher=Ofcom.org.uk |df=dmy-all}}</ref> Lambeth London Borough Council did not obtain an eviction order for "London's longest running squat" until 2005.<ref name="Muir">{{cite news |last1=Muir |first1=Hugh |date=2005-11-30 |title=Police begin to clear 30-year-old squat |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2005/nov/30/communities.uknews |access-date=2019-04-03 |work=Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=BBC News |date=29 November 2005 |title='Oldest squat' residents evicted |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4481284.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831015937/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4481284.stm |archive-date=31 August 2017 |access-date=9 January 2013}}</ref> Demolition was completed in 2007.<ref name="buzz">{{cite news |last1=Urban |first1=Mike |date=2016-11-29 |title=The history of Kennington Park, Lambeth |url=https://www.brixtonbuzz.com/2016/11/the-history-of-kennington-park-lambeth-cricket-protest-model-houses-tragedy-bob-marley-and-spliffs/ |access-date=2019-04-03 |work=Brixton Buzz}}</ref>
=== The "hippie menace" === What had seemed to be a "tide of public opinion .. . firmly in favour of squatters in Redbridge" (there was sympathetic coverage by the ''Sunday Times'', Thames Television and the BBC),<ref name=":7" />{{rp|79}} began to turn with the publicity a surrounding the occupation of a number of privately owned buildings in central London. In September 1969, the takeover of 144 Piccadilly, an empty mansion at Hyde Park Corner, by the London Street Commune, triggered an "open season for hippie-hunting and squatter-bashing in the press".<ref name="Book23" />{{rp|22}} Under the front page heading "HIPPIE THUGS: THE SORDID TRUTH",<ref>{{Cite journal |date=21 September 1969 |title=Hippie Thugs, the Sordid Truth |journal=The People |pages=1}}</ref> ''The People'' reported "drug taking, couples making love while others look on, rule by heavy mob armed with iron bars, foul language, filth and stench". ''The Times'' warned of Molotov cocktails being manufactured’ in preparation for a long siege.<ref name="Book23" />{{rp|22}} In the event, after seeing off an assault by Skinheads, "the Dilly dossers" were evicted with little incident.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Supercrew |date=2010 |title=The Dilly Dossers and the London Street Commune (1968-1969) |url=https://www.wussu.com/squatting/144_piccadilly_supercrew.htm |access-date=2025-08-15 |website=www.wussu.com}}</ref><ref>''Police storm squat in Piccadilly'' [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/21/newsid_3092000/3092343.stm News On This Day] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080105023353/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/21/newsid_3092000/3092343.stm|date=5 January 2008}} 21 September 1969</ref>
1969 had also seen the much quieter occupation by a small group of local anarchists of an hotel on Eel Pie Island in the River Thames at Twickenham. In its one year of existence, 1970 the Eel Pie Island Commune was the UK's largest "hippie commune".<ref name="Faiers2">{{cite book |last=Faiers |first=Chris |title=Eel Pie Dharma |publisher=Unfinished Monument Press |year=1990 |isbn=0-920976-42-5}}</ref> == 1970s ==
=== "Not a movement" ===
In 1973, Ron Bailey published ''The Squatters'' (Penguin) in which he described what he and other housing activists insisted was "the basic human reason why squatters occupy empty property and challenge the housing authorities''".''<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=Bailey |first=Ron |title=Squatters |publisher=Penguin |year=1973 |isbn=9780140523003 |location=London |pages=}}</ref>{{rp|20}}<blockquote>[Temporary] accommodation and hostels were overcrowded, under-funded, and generally in poor condition . . . Welfare departments used the threat of eviction or taking children into care in order to discipline such shelters, booting occupants onto the streets during the day, placing bars on the windows and locking doors at night, as well as refusing husbands and fathers permission to visit. By 1971, there were in excess of 21,000 people living in such conditions, in addition to 1.8m families living in accommodation classified ‘unfit for human habitation’; 3m families living in slums; and 2m families living in accommodation classed as ‘badly in need of repair’.</blockquote>Facing rising court costs when evicting squatters, local housing departments would gut their empty properties, rendering them uninhabitable by pouring concrete into toilets and sinks or smashing the ceilings and staircases.<ref name=":7" /> In London, however, it was the assessment of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch in 1976 that the local authorities generally ignored squatters unless eviction was pending, and that they provided "no real channels to help wean people away from the field".<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Deputy Assistant Commissioner |first=Metropolitan Police, Special Branch |url=https://www.ucpi.org.uk/publications/special-branch-report-providing-an-assessment-of-squatting-in-london/ |title=Special Report: Squatting |date=12 August 1976 |publisher=Undercover Policing Inquiry, 2021}}</ref>{{rp|6}} The Advisory Service for Squatters reported that they were getting referrals from social services, citizen advice bureaux, and even the police.<ref name="Book23" />{{rp|48}} Squatters recall Hackney Council inviting them to occupy "hard to let" flats.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Higson |first=Charlie |date=2015-10-01 |title=Charlie Higson: my days squatting with Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/sep/29/charlie-higson-my-days-squatting-with-harry-enfield-and-paul-whitehouse |access-date=2025-06-12 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
The tabloid press, meanwhile, was portraying squatting as a political threat.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Middleton |first=Theodora |title=Moral Rhetoric and the Criminalisation of Squatting Vulnerable Demons? |publisher=Routledge |year=2016 |isbn=9781138686076 |editor-last=O'Mahony |editor-first=Lorna Fox |location=London |chapter=The Role of Rhetoric in the Criminalisation of Squatting |editor-last2=O'Mahony |editor-first2=David}}</ref> What may have "started as a desperate resort by the genuine homeless", was now spreading rapidly at the direction of "extremist political groups" – Piers Corbyn, of the Squatters Action Group – was profiled as "a Marxist" – for whom "anybody's home" could be a target.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=8 June 1975 |title=Inside the new squatter army |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002454/19750608/054/0008 |journal=The People |pages=8 |via=British Newspaper Archive}}</ref> While they were sufficiently concerned to infiltrate and monitor the squatting scene, this was not the view of Special Branch: squatting, they concluded, did "not exist as movement".<ref name=":2" />{{rp|1}}
Various organisations purported to speak on behalf of the estimated 30,000 squatters in the capital (a majority of the 50,000 thought to be in the England and Wales as a whole):<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bell |first=Mathew |title=Home truths: 'Squatting is the perfect example of the Big Society' |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/property/house-and-home/home-truths-squatting-is-the-perfect-example-of-the-big-society-2288870.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221208005716/https://www.independent.co.uk/property/house-and-home/home-truths-squatting-is-the-perfect-example-of-the-big-society-2288870.html |archive-date=2022-12-08 |access-date=2025-06-05 |work=The Independent |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref name="Kearns2">{{cite journal |last1=Kearns |first1=K |date=1979 |title=Intraurban Squatting in London |journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers |volume=69 |issue=4 |pages=589–598 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-8306.1979.tb01284.x}}</ref> the Squatters Action Group, the London Squatters Union and the All London Squatters Federation.<ref name=":10" /> But Special Branch found that the "real activists" in these organisations were "limited to not more than about a dozen persons", and that the largest political tendency among squatters were the anarchists whom they judged to be neither a "unifying", nor – excepting those with "affiliations to Iberia or South America" – a particularly challenging, force.<ref name=":2" />{{rp|1}}
Squatting did figure in contemporary anarchist thinking.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Corr |first=Anders |url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anders-corr-anarchist-squatting-and-land-use-in-the-west |title=Anarchist Squatting and Land Use in the West |date=2021 |publisher=www.ditext.com |language=en}}</ref> Colin Ward, who in 1971 had become Education Officer for the Town and Country Planning Association,<ref>{{Cite web |last=TCPA |date=2024-08-14 |title=Remembering Colin Ward: 'gentle anarchism' and a do-it-yourself spirit |url=https://www.tcpa.org.uk/remembering-colin-ward-gentle-anarchism-and-a-do-it-yourself-spirit/ |access-date=2025-05-29 |website=Town and Country Planning Association |language=en-GB}}</ref> provided the practice with a philosophical and political defence in ''[https://files.libcom.org/files/Colin_Ward_Housing_Anarchist_Approach_1976.pdf Housing: an anarchist approach]'' (1976).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ward |first=Colin |url=http://archive.org/details/housinganarchist0000ward |title=Housing : an anarchist approach |date=1976 |publisher=London : Freedom Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-900384-12-7}}</ref> At the end of the decade he was part of a collective that included, among others, Corbyn, Ann Pettitt, Steve Platt and Christian Wolmar, that produced ''Squatting, the real story'',<ref name="Book22">{{cite book |url=https://en.squat.net/wp-content/uploads/en/2013/01/wates-wolmar-squatting-real-story.pdf |title=Squatting: The real story |date=1980 |publisher=Bay Leaf Books |isbn=0-9507259-1-9 |editor1-last=Wates |editor1-first=Nick |location=London |editor2-last=Wolmar |editor2-first=Christian}}</ref> a compendium of articles offering insider knowledge primarily of the London squatting scene.<ref name="IJURR">{{cite journal |last1=Berry |first1=Mike |date=March 1983 |title=Book Reviews |journal=International Journal of Urban and Regional Research |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=129–154 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-2427.1983.tb00587.x}}</ref><ref name="TLJ">{{cite journal |last1=Aldenton |first1=Jon |date=November 1981 |title=Shorter Reviews |journal=The London Journal |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=219–224 |doi=10.1179/ldn.1981.7.2.219}}</ref>
Of the squatters organisations founded in the 1970s, the east-London based Advisory Service for Squatters (1975) survives. The A.S.S. publishes the ''Squatters Handbook,'' now in its 15th (2024) Freedom Press edition.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Squatters Handbook (15th edition) |url=https://freedompress.org.uk/product/squatters-handbook-15th-edition/ |access-date=2025-06-05 |website=Freedom Press |language=en-GB}}</ref> It serves as a guide for how and where to squat and explains the legal issues involved.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Advisory Service for Squatters |url=http://squatter.org.uk/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104154219/http://www.squatter.org.uk/ |archive-date=4 November 2012 |access-date=9 January 2013}}</ref>
=== "Who are the squatters?": Twickenham === Broadly consistent with the Met's Special Branch assessment, a comprehensive survey of squatters in the outer London borough of Richmond found less than four percent admitting to a political motivation.<ref name=":19">{{Cite web |last=Whitehouse |first=Chris |date=1973 |title=Squatters In Central Twickenham (a survey) |url=https://www.wussu.com/squatting/survey.htm#reasons |access-date=2025-12-22 |website=www.wussu.com}}</ref> The survey was of all the people openly squatting in central Twickenham on 9th September 1973: 112 adults (77 men and 35 women) who, with 16 children, occupied 18 houses in Grosvenor Road and four neighbouring streets, empty properties that had been land banked by the developer Bovis.<ref name=":20">{{Cite web |last=Saunders |first=James |date=1976 |title=Squat, a documentary about Grosvenor Road, Twickenham |url=https://www.jamessaunders.org/squat_jamessaunders.htm |access-date=2025-12-22 |website=www.jamessaunders.org}}</ref> While some people gave more than one reason for squatting, almost two thirds cited the shortage or cost of housing. Half as many (among them veterans of the Eel Pie Island commune)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chris Whitehouse (Weed) - history after leaving Eel Pie Island |url=https://www.eelpie.org/history_chris_whitehouse.htm |access-date=2025-12-22 |website=www.eelpie.org}}</ref> admitted to the attraction of "communal living". The surveyors noted a "strong community feeling" expressed in activities and projects, such as a play centre, cafe, arts centre, shop and studio. Three quarters of the, mostly young, adults "were available for work", and of these 90% had worked whilst squatting in Twickenham, and 61% currently had jobs. Less than 5% expressed an aversion to paid employment. Activities of those not working included painting, mending cars and motorbikes, helping to run the squatted cafe, and upkeep of the houses.<ref name=":19" />
In 1976, after four years and with the Council's assurance that the families made homeless would be rehoused, the last of the squatters were evicted in advance of demolition.<ref name=":20" />
=== Lambeth and the setting for the Brixton Riots === In Lambeth, the combination of extensive damage caused by the Blitz and large-scale slum clearance, which induced private landlords, in anticipation of compulsory-purchase cash, to hold properties empty and in disrepair, contributed to an acute housing shortage. It was felt most keenly by West-Indian immigrants and the growing Black community in Brixton.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Piper |first=Alan |title=A History of Brixton |publisher=The Brixton Society |year=1996 |isbn=9781873052075}}</ref> The Council was suspected of allowing Black overcrowding of properties go unchecked so as to reduce their statutory housing obligations.<ref name=":13">{{Cite web |last=Laura |first=Ana |date=2012 |title=A radical history of 121 Railton Road, Lambeth {{!}} libcom.org |url=https://libcom.org/article/radical-history-121-railton-road-lambeth |access-date=2025-08-14 |website=libcom.org |language=en}}</ref> Following passage of the 1968 Race Relations Act, Lambeth had admitted operating "a policy of dispersal" that, in any particular area, effectively capped the number of "coloured" families they were prepared to accommodate.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hillard |first=Christopher |date=5 August 2025 |title=Housing and the Peripheralization of Race Politics in Britain, 1948–1977 |url=https://academic.oup.com/past/advance-article/doi/10.1093/pastj/gtaf019/8222635 |journal=Past & Present |pages=18}}</ref>
==== Railton Road ==== In 1972, Olive Morris and Liz Obi, British Black Panthers, occupied a flat above a launderette in Railton Road.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":6" /> After fighting off attempts at illegal eviction, and taking cue from a group of white women who had also moved into the road to run women's centre, they opened a larger corner-shop building, 121 Railton Road, for the Brixton Black Women's Group and related activists.<ref name=":13" /> Others followed: by the mid-1970s there was a second women's centre; the collective producing ''Race Today'' (edited by Darcus Howe whose mentor and uncle, the Trinidadian historian C. L. R. James, lived, and in 1989 died, at 165 Railton Road – now the Brixton Advice Centre);<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-07-05 |title=Stories from Railton Road |url=https://brixtonadvice.org.uk/stories-from-railton-road/ |access-date=2025-08-14 |website=Brixton Advice Centre |language=en}}</ref> the South London Gay Community Centre (evicted in 1976);<ref name=":15" /> Pearl Alcock's Caribbean gay shebeen (closed by the police in 1979);<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-10-27 |title=Pearl's a Zinger! – The Brixton Society |url=https://www.brixtonsociety.org.uk/pearls-a-zinger/ |access-date=2025-08-15 |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref name="galdemRemeber">{{Cite web |last=Adewole |first=Oluwatayo |date=2021-02-02 |title=Remembering Pearl Alcock, the Black bisexual shebeen queen of Brixton |url=https://gal-dem.com/remembering-pearl-alcock-black-bisexual-shebeen-queen-of-brixton/ |access-date=2021-06-06 |website=gal-dem}}</ref> and a Claimants’ Union.<ref name=":15">{{Cite web |last=Townson |first=Ian |date=2012 |title=The Brixton Fairies and the South London Gay Community Centre, Brixton 1974-6 - |url=https://www.urban75.org/blog/the-brixton-fairies-and-the-south-london-gay-community-centre-brixton-1974-6/ |access-date=2025-08-14 |language=en-GB}}</ref>
In 1981, Albert Meltzer, who established the Kate Sharpley Library (KSL) in the "121 Centre",<ref name="AS">{{cite journal |last1=Goodway |first1=David |date=2008 |title=The Kate Sharpley Library |journal=Anarchist Studies |volume=16 |issue=1}}</ref> recalls the police doing "their best" to blame the onset of the Brixton riots on his fellow anarchists, but that this "was rather difficult as the rioters were Black youths pushed by harassment".<ref name=":14">{{Cite book |last=Meltzer |first=Albert |url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/albert-meltzer-i-couldn-t-paint-golden-angels |title=I Couldn't Paint Golden Angels, Ch 21. The Battle of Railton Road |publisher=The Anarchist Library |publication-date=1996 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":13" /> The trigger to the riots, which began in Railton Road, is commonly ascribed to the police's increasing use of stop-and-search and to tensions arising from the deaths of 13 black teenagers and young adults in a suspicious house fire in New Cross.<ref name="Multicultural Britain">J. A. Cloake & M. R. Tudor. ''Multicultural Britain''. Oxford University Press, 2001. pp.60–64</ref>
In the event, the 121 Centre, in which the anarchists also ran a bookshop, a cafe and a disco, was one legacy of squatting in Railton Road that was to survive the riots and their aftermath.<ref name=":14" /><ref name=":13" /> The authorities saturated the area with police and social workers, and demolished half of Railton and neighbouring Mayall roads, clearing them of shops, homes and clubs.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-03-25 |title=Today in London squatting history, 1984: the eviction of Effra Parade, Brixton. |url=https://pasttense.co.uk/2018/03/25/today-in-london-squatting-history-1984-the-eviction-of-effra-parade-brixton/ |access-date=2025-08-15 |website=LONDON RADICAL HISTORIES |language=en}}</ref>
==== Villa Road ==== Before the riots, there had been a quieter conclusion to squatting in another Brixton street. People started moving into Villa Road, which was due for demolition, early in 1973. By the summer of 1975, there were approximately 200 squatters including, in different houses, people professing to be anarchists, British Black Panthers, feminists, Marxists and primal screamers.<ref name="ES2013">{{cite news |date=27 November 2013 |title=Sex, Marx and primal screaming — it was a wildly utopian place |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/sex-marx-and-primal-screaming-it-was-a-wildly-utopian-place-8966786.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208103101/https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/sex-marx-and-primal-screaming-it-was-a-wildly-utopian-place-8966786.html |archive-date=8 February 2023 |access-date=10 February 2023 |work=Evening Standard |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Kerrang2022">{{cite news |last1=Hutchcraft |first1=Jak |date=6 January 2022 |title=Property Is Theft: A history of punk rock and squatting |url=https://www.kerrang.com/property-is-theft-a-history-of-punk-rock-and-squatting |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208103050/https://www.kerrang.com/property-is-theft-a-history-of-punk-rock-and-squatting |archive-date=8 February 2023 |access-date=10 February 2023 |work=Kerrang! |language=en}}</ref> They organised a street carnival; and maintained a cafe, a food co-operative, and a regular news-sheet, ''The Villain''.<ref name="Book210">{{cite book |last1=Anning |first1=Nick |url=https://en.squat.net/wp-content/uploads/en/2013/01/wates-wolmar-squatting-real-story.pdf |title=Squatting: The real story |last2=Simpson |first2=Jill |date=1980 |publisher=Bay Leaf Books |isbn=0-9507259-1-9 |editor1-last=Wates |editor1-first=Nick |location=London |pages=142–149 |chapter=Victory Villa |editor2-last=Wolmar |editor2-first=Christian}}</ref><ref name="Ferreri">{{cite journal |last1=Ferreri |first1=Mara |last2=Vasudevan |first2=Alexander |date=May 2019 |title=Vacancy at the edges of the precarious city |url=http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/41142/1/Ferreri_Vasudevan_Vacancy%20at%20the%20Edges_pre-print.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Geoforum |volume=101 |pages=165–173 |doi=10.1016/j.geoforum.2019.03.009 |s2cid=159227196 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230503175149/https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/41142/1/Ferreri_Vasudevan_Vacancy%20at%20the%20Edges_pre-print.pdf |archive-date=3 May 2023 |access-date=12 June 2023}}</ref> After they began to build barricades to contest eviction, a High Court judge suggested negotiation.<ref name="StRS">{{cite book |last1=Anning |first1=Nick |url=https://en.squat.net/wp-content/uploads/en/2013/01/wates-wolmar-squatting-real-story.pdf |title=Squatting the real story |last2=Simpson |first2=Jill |date=1980 |publisher=Bay Leaf |isbn=0-9507259-1-9 |editor1-last=Wates |editor1-first=Nick |location=London |pages=142–149 |chapter=Victory Villa |access-date=14 July 2023 |editor2-last=Wolmar |editor2-first=Christian |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201207175133/https://en.squat.net/wp-content/uploads/en/2013/01/wates-wolmar-squatting-real-story.pdf |archive-date=7 December 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>
The barricades were taken down in March 1978 and many occupants of the remaining buildings formed a housing association called Solon, which renovated 20 houses with Lambeth Council remaining as the owner. A park was developed on the demolished south side.<ref name="BBC2008">{{cite news |date=21 March 2008 |title=Housing co-ops |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/content/articles/2008/03/21/south_east_housing_co_ops_s13_w4_feature.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208103058/https://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/content/articles/2008/03/21/south_east_housing_co_ops_s13_w4_feature.shtml |archive-date=8 February 2023 |access-date=10 February 2023 |work=BBC |language=en-gb}}</ref><ref name="Ferreri" /> The Villa Road squat was profiled in the 2006 BBC Four documentary series ''Lefties''.<ref name="Villa2">{{cite news |last1=Billen |first1=Andrew |date=13 February 2006 |title=Rising damp |work=New Statesman}}</ref>
Solon also took over the 12 houses, back to back, on Railton and Mayall roads that had been occupied by the gay community.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kroeger |first=Emma |date=2021-11-03 |title=On Railton Road: The New Play Breathing life into Brixton's Queer History |url=https://dalstonsuperstore.com/on-railton-road-the-new-play-breathing-life-into-brixtons-queer-history/ |access-date=2025-08-15 |website=Dalston Superstore |language=en-US}}</ref> Initially decanted as single people into hard to let flats, through the self-managed Brixton Housing Cooperative the squatters were eventually given the opportunity to move into new flats that they, themselves, had helped design.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Railton Road – a 'shortlife' success story {{!}} |url=http://www.lambethunitedhousingco-op.org.uk/?page_id=656 |access-date=2025-08-15 |language=en-US}}</ref>
=== Central London ===
==== Tolmers Square ==== thumb|Tolmers Square, London, redeveloped, 2008
In 1973, Tolmers Square, between Tottenham Court Road and Euston station in central London, was occupied by more than one hundred squatters. Nick Wates and other students from the School of Environmental Studies (today, the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment) joined local residents in protesting the intended demolition of the square's Georgian terraced housing and its non-residential redevelopment.<ref name="Wates2">{{cite book |last1=Wates |first1=Nick |title=The Battle for Tolmers Square |date=1976 |publisher=Routledge & K. Paul |isbn=9780710084484}}</ref><ref name="Bartlett2">{{cite web |title=We all live in Tolmers Square |url=https://bartlett100.com/article/we-all-live-in-tolmers-square |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190513132108/https://bartlett100.com/article/we-all-live-in-tolmers-square |archive-date=13 May 2019 |access-date=13 May 2019 |website=Bartlett 100 |publisher=Bartlett School of Planning}}</ref>
The Tolmers Village Association was founded to represent the interests of small business owners, tenants, owners and squatters, allied against the council and the developers.<ref name="Wates2" /> A 1975 documentary film,''Tolmers: Beginning or End?'', written by Nick Wates and directed by Philip Thompson screened twice on BBC2.<ref name="Bartlett">{{cite web |title=We all live in Tolmers Square |url=https://bartlett100.com/article/we-all-live-in-tolmers-square |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190513132108/https://bartlett100.com/article/we-all-live-in-tolmers-square |archive-date=13 May 2019 |access-date=13 May 2019 |website=Bartlett 100 |publisher=Bartlett School of Planning}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Film |url=https://tolmers.net/film/ |access-date=2025-06-12}}</ref>
The squatters were eventually evicted but many of the proposals made by their 1978 ''Tolmers Peoples Plan'' were included in a revamped scheme, which resulted in the council making a compulsory purchase of the land from the developer and building housing instead of offices.<ref name="Wates2" />
==== Centre Point and Frestonia ==== In January 1974 an umbrella group of housing campaigners, including Jim Radford, Ron Bailey and Jack Dromey, organised a weekend occupation of Centre Point on the Tottenham Court Road to draw attention to the 32-storey office block left empty since its construction in 1966 as a symbol of property speculation amidst a housing crisis.<ref>Edward Platt, [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/hot-air-over-an-office-block-1074385.html "Hot air over an office block: It's 25 years since the protests over Centre Point. Not much has changed"], ''The Independent'', 16 January 1999.</ref> Later in the same year, two streets of terraced Victorian cottages – Freston Road and Bramley Road – in the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, were entered by squatters who rigged up electricity, water and makeshift roofs.<ref>[https://www.theoldie.co.uk/article/olden-life-what-was-frestonia "Olden Life: What was Frestonia?" Jane O'Grady. The Oldie. Dec 2018]</ref> When threatened in October 1977 with eviction, they declared the "Free and Independent Republic of Frestonia" with actor David Rappaport as "foreign minister", and playwright Heathcote Williams as "ambassador" to the United Kingdom. The squatters later formed themselves into the Bramley Housing Co-operative which still owns the buildings,<ref>{{cite web |last=Harris |first=John |date=30 October 2017 |title=Freedom for Frestonia: the London commune that cut loose from the UK |url=https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/oct/30/frestonia-london-commune-squatters |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618152247/https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/oct/30/frestonia-london-commune-squatters |archive-date=18 June 2018 |access-date=15 August 2018 |website=The Guardian}}</ref> managing forty homes.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bramleys HC |url=https://www.coophomes.coop/client-co-ops/bramleys-housing-co-op/ |access-date=2025-07-01 |website=www.coophomes.coop}}</ref>
==== Huntley Street ==== In August 1978, in what reportedly was "the largest police presence ever seen at an eviction",<ref name="STRS">{{cite book |last1=Platt |first1=Steve |title=Squatting the real story |date=1980 |publisher=Bay Leaf Books |isbn=0-9507259-0-0 |editor1-last=Wates |editor1-first=Nick |pages=94 |chapter=A whole new ball game |editor2-last=Wolmar |editor2-first=Christian}}</ref> 650 members of the Special Patrol Group cleared squatters out of 5 blocks in Huntley Street, behind University College Hospital.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9r6ac7RGS8 |title=SYND 16 8 78 SQUATTERS EVICTED BY THE POLICE IN LONDON |date=2015-07-24 |last=AP Archive |access-date=2025-05-30 |via=YouTube}}</ref><ref name="Kearns1979">{{cite journal |last1=Kearns |first1=Kevin C. |date=1979 |title=Intraurban Squatting in London |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/2563131 |journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers |volume=69 |issue=4 |pages=589–598 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-8306.1979.tb01284.x |issn=0004-5608 |jstor=2563131 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> 160 people, some of whom were evictees from previous squats, had moved into the former police flats in February 1977. Their occupation featured a hostel for battered women established with the assistance of Women's Aid (who in 1975 had themselves occupied an hotel in Richmond as safe refuge),<ref>{{Cite journal |date=May 1976 |title=Women Take the Space They Need |url=https://maydayrooms.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/MAYDAY-BOOK-DESIGNS-FINAL-UNPAGINATED-MARCH-2019.pdf |journal=Spare Rib |issue=46}}</ref> and offices for Piers Corbyn and his Squatters Action Council.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2018-08-16 |title=Today in London squatting history, 1978: mass eviction in Huntley Street, Bloomsbury. |url=https://pasttense.co.uk/2018/08/16/today-in-london-squatting-history-1978-mass-eviction-in-huntley-street-bloomsbury/ |access-date=2025-05-30 |website=LONDON RADICAL HISTORIES |language=en}}</ref><ref>Etoe, C ''Empty again, the squat attacked by bulldozers'' Camden New Journal 21 August 2003</ref> Corbyn summarised the squatters case in the slogan "No [housing] waiting lists while homes lie empty".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Huntley Street squatters outside court to defend... 04 Dec… |url=https://www.reportdigital.co.uk/reportage-photo-huntley-street-squatters-outside-court-to-defend--04-dec-1978-nla-photojournalism-image00105777.html |access-date=2025-05-30 |website=Report digital |language=en-UK}}</ref>
Corbyn and Jim Paton of the Advisory Service for Squatters were convicted of "resisting the sheriff" contrary to Section 10 of the Criminal Law Act 1977. In solidarity, 150 Dutch squatters "besieged" at the British Embassy in The Hague.<ref name=":1" />
Security on the barricades had been relaxed, because an agreement had been struck the day before with Camden's new housing chief, Ken Livingstone.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rupert Downing of the Huntley Street squatters in Camden reacting to the eviction by the property owners of 160 residents· LBC/IRN |url=https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/lbc/search/index.php/segment/0009600089010 |access-date=2025-05-30 |website=learningonscreen.ac.uk}}</ref> As agreed, many of those displaced were given "short-term community" flats on a nearby estate in Kings Cross.<ref name=":1" />
=== East London: Bengali Housing Action Group === In 1976, aided by Tower Hamlets Squatters Union and members of Race Today, a new-formed Bengali Housing Action Group opened up several blocks of flats in the Whitechapel-Spitalfields area to cope with the demand of Bengali families, many of whom had found themselves isolated in council housing estates.<ref name=":21">{{Cite book |last=Begum |first=Shabna |title=From Sylhet to Spitalfields: Bengali Squatters in 1970s East London |publisher=Lawrence Wishart |year=2023 |isbn=9781913546748 |location=London}}</ref> At its height, one of these blocks, Pelham Buildings, on Woodseer Street, was perhaps the largest squat in the country, with almost 200 families.<ref>Glynn, S. [http://www.sarahglynn.net/The%20Battle%20for%20Housing.html 'East End Immigrants and the Battle for Housing: A comparative study of political mobilisation in the Jewish and Bengali communities'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130307155448/http://www.sarahglynn.net/The%20Battle%20for%20Housing.html|date=7 March 2013}} in ''Journal of Historical Geography'' 31 pp 528–545 (2005).</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Kehoe |first=Cormac |date=2022-07-11 |title=The East End's Bengali squatters movement |url=https://whitechapellondon.co.uk/bengali-squatters-movement-brick-lane/ |access-date=2025-06-01 |website=Whitechapel LDN |language=en-GB}}</ref> With the National Front present in the area, the BHAG set up vigilante patrols to defend the community against racist attacks. The squatted properties were firebombed, and at one point the authorities cut off the gas.<ref name=":3" />
When in 1977 the Greater London Council (GLC), overwhelmed by the numbers squatting across the city, declared an amnesty, granting squatters the chance to register and secure a tenancy, the BHAG drew up a map for the GLC defining a safe living area for the Bengali community. It was within this area, that the Bengali families were given tenancies, some in their existing squats.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":21" />
=== Westminster === [[File:Queen's_Silver_Jubilee_street_party,_Bristol_Gardens_W9,_1977.jpg|left|thumb|1977 Queen's Silver Jubilee street party, Bristol Gardens]]
==== Elgin Avenue ==== In October 1975, 200 squatters in Elgin Avenue in Maida Vale, west London, were gathered behind barricades when they learned of a last-minute evacuation and rehousing deal struck with bailiffs, the police and GLC officials.<ref name="Book262">{{cite book |last=Corbyn |first=Piers |url=https://en.squat.net/wp-content/uploads/en/2013/01/wates-wolmar-squatting-real-story.pdf |title=Squatting: The real story |date=1980 |publisher=Bay Leaf Books |isbn=0-9507259-1-9 |editor1-last=Wates |editor1-first=Nick |location=London |chapter=We won, you should fight them too |editor2-last=Wolmar |editor2-first=Christian}}</ref>{{rp|131}} For their 3-year occupation, it was "a 'victory' of sorts",<ref>{{Cite web |title=Community Politics: The Still Living Dead {{!}} libcom.org |url=https://libcom.org/article/community-politics-still-living-dead |access-date=2025-05-31 |website=libcom.org |language=en}}</ref> which Corbyn, as their spokesman, attributed to three factors: (1) a public campaign that "related to the whole housing crisis" so that support was won from the labour movement; (2) democratic organisation so that "everyone could join in and know that what they did was part of what everyone was doing"; and (3) a readiness to "defy the law" proving that the residents were "serious and not squatting for fun".<ref name="Book262" />{{rp|141}}
==== Seymour Buildings ==== Two other large-scale squats in the same Westminster City Council area negotiated settlements. Avoiding direct confrontation, but addressing wider housing issues, those who in 1975 occupied the Seymour Buildings in Marylebone, were successful, after more than a year's negotiation, in gaining Council's recognition as a legitimate housing association.<ref name="Book262" />{{rp|151}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=May Day Rooms |date=2019 |title=Squatting is part of the housing movement: Practical Squatting Histories |url=https://maydayrooms.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/MAYDAY-BOOK-DESIGNS-FINAL-UNPAGINATED-MARCH-2019.pdf |access-date=}}</ref> Today members of the Seymour Housing Co-operative "collectively own and democratically manage homes across 3 sites".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Seymour Housing Co-operative |url=https://www.seymourhc.org/ |access-date=2025-05-31 |website=www.seymourhc.org}}</ref>
==== Bristol Gardens ==== Save for a group of converts to Sufism,<ref>{{Cite journal |date=17 September 1976 |title=Leaving soon . . . Little Venice, a squat with a touch of class |journal=Marylebone Mercury}}</ref> Bristol Gardens,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Housing in Bristol Gardens • 1978 |url=https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/bristol-gardens-1978--536913586822214370/ |access-date=2025-05-31 |website=Pinterest |language=en}}</ref> on the edge of Little Venice, had not been an organised squat. Beginning in 1972, individuals had moved in as the GLC decanted the former private-landlord tenants. National publicity might have been avoided but for the presence of Winston Churchill's granddaughter, Arabella Churchill.<ref name=":2222">{{Cite journal |date=22 November 1976 |title=Churchill's Granddaughter Endures a New London Blitz |journal=People Magazine}}</ref> In 1977, she and her neighbours took advantage of the GLC "amnesty" to become licensed, rate paying, occupants.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1 June 1979 |title=Evening Standard |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0005765/19790601/064/0008 |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=31 May 2025 |work=Time running out for GLC squatters}}</ref> They were nonetheless raided, together with squatters in the former Elizabeth Garrett Anderson maternity home in Hampstead, by the Met's Special Patrol Group. Doors were kicked in but no one in the street was arrested, suggesting to some that the purpose was intimidation not enforcement.<ref name="Book262" />{{rp|57}} By the end of the decade, the remaining 131 adults and 13 children were represented by a residents association in a deal with the GLC that promised, alternative housing in properties, uncommitted to waiting-list families, elsewhere in the city.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=10 February 1978 |title=Bristol Gardens Squat community plan 'Co-op' |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003128/19780210/032/0003 |journal=Marylebone Mercury |via=British Newspaper Archive}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |date=5 May 1978 |title=New homes for former squatters |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003128/19780505/532/0032 |journal=Marylebone Mercury |via=The British Newspaper Archive}}</ref>
=== Women only === In the 1970s, most councils did not consider women fleeing domestic violence to be homeless. As a result, battered women turned to squatting and (as in Railton Road and Huntley Street) women's groups took over houses to provide them with support and refuge.<ref name="Book234">{{cite book |last=Platt |first=Steve |url=https://en.squat.net/wp-content/uploads/en/2013/01/wates-wolmar-squatting-real-story.pdf |title=Squatting: The real story |date=1980 |publisher=Bay Leaf Books |isbn=0-9507259-1-9 |editor1-last=Wates |editor1-first=Nick |location=London |chapter=A decade of squatting |editor2-last=Wolmar |editor2-first=Christian}}</ref>{{rp|40}}
In addition to providing housing for homeless or hostel-bound single mothers and single women, feminists saw women squatting with women as a political choice: an opportunity to build community and to challenge patriarchal structures and capitalist norms associated with property and space.<ref name=":11">{{Cite journal |last=Wall |first=Christine |date=2017-11-01 |title="We don't have leaders! We're doing it ourselves!": Squatting, Feminism and Built Environment Activism in 1970s London |url=https://www.field-journal.org/article/id/80/ |journal=Field |volume=7 |issue=1 |doi=10.62471/field.80 |issn=2753-3638 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Routon |first=Madeline |date=2025 |title=Mothers, wives, friends: women’s role in London squatting struggles since 1969 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0966369X.2023.2294256 |journal=Gender, Place & Culture |language=en |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=176–207 |doi=10.1080/0966369X.2023.2294256 |issn=0966-369X}}</ref> Women living in these squats shared domestic labor including cooking and childcare and learned skills in house repair, plumbing, gardening to become self-sufficient communities.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Routon |first=M |date=2025 |title=Mothers, wives, friends: women's role in London squatting struggles since 1969 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0966369X.2023.2294256?scroll=top&needAccess=true#abstract |journal=Gender, Place & Culture |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=176–207 |doi=10.1080/0966369X.2023.2294256 }}</ref>
Through the course of the 1970s, there were women-only households, some serving as women's centres, in squatted communities on the Caledonian Road, near Kings Cross, in the streets behind Broadway Market in Hackney including, in an "oasis of lesbian communes",<ref name=":12">{{Cite web |last=Taylor |first=Sarah |date=2021 |title=Queer Neighbourhoods: Lesbian squats in London Fields |url=https://eastendwomensmuseum.org/blog/queer-neighbourhoods |access-date=2025-07-01 |website=East End Women's Museum |language=en-GB}}</ref> one terrace of seven women's squats on Lansdowne Drive, and in Brixton, Camden, Islington and Tower Hamlets.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":12" />
In the late 1970s, women associated with the [https://maydayrooms.org/archive_item/new-architectural-movement/#:~:text=In%20the%20mid%2D1970s%20the,work%20in%20the%20built%20environment. New Architectural Movement] in London drew on the comparative freedom to reshape their own housing that they had enjoyed as squatters (to accommodate different living arrangements, spaces could be repurposed and walls knocked through with relative impunity) to broaden their critique of contemporary architecture and urban planning.<ref name=":11" /> A result was the Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative, in the 1980s a pioneer of participatory design and collaborative practice management.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Spatial Agency: Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative |url=https://www.spatialagency.net/Database/Matrix.feminist.design.co-Operative |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241226002112/https://www.spatialagency.net/Database/Matrix.feminist.design.co-Operative |archive-date=2024-12-26 |access-date=2025-06-18 |website=www.spatialagency.net |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":33">{{cite book |last=Rendell |first=Jane |author-link=Jane Rendell |title=The Sage Handbook of Architectural Theory |date=2012 |publisher=Sage Publications Ltd |isbn=9781412946131 |pages=85–106 |chapter=Tendencies and Trajectories: Feminist Approaches in Architecture |doi=10.4135/9781446201756.n6}}</ref>
=== Brighton: rival political currents === According to Bailey (1973), "outside London the longest and most determined squatting campaign took place in Brighton”.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|124}} This would have been despite an early set-back. In July 1969, squatters occupying a row of 8 empty houses at Wykeham Terrace, property owned by the Ministry of Defence, were implicated in the fire bombing of an Army recruitment office. The squat had been the initiative of the Brighton Rents Project, an uneasy alliance of Labour Party supporters, anarchists and Trotskyists whose political factionalism further discredited the practice.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Using Space 5 |url=https://network23.org/snob/ |title=A Brief History of Squatting in Brighton |date=2012}}</ref>
After a short hiatus, squatters returned, occupying by the mid-1970 approximately 150 properties.<ref name="Book23" />{{rp|41}} Many of these had been assisted by Bruno Crosby whose declared aim was to be "very conservative with a small c": "We move in, clean up, do repairs and tell the neighbours what we are doing. We treat the landlords in a reasonable manner." He renamed his Squatters Union, the Sussex Housing Movement and moved on to the board of Brighton Housing Trust where he helped broker a number rehousing deals.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2002-02-09 |title=Big Bruno to the very end |url=https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/6765376.big-bruno-to-the-very-end/ |access-date=2025-09-27 |website=The Argus |language=en}}</ref>
As more squats were opened there was a renewed willingness to promote a militant, left-wing, critique of the housing market. In September 1975, an anonymous article in the ''Brighton Voice'' (issue 29) responded to arrests following a violent confrontation with bailiffs in Temple Gardens:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dee |first=E.T.C. |url=https://www.rc21.org/conferences/berlin2013/RC21-Berlin-Papers/26-2-DEE.pdf |title=A Tool for Social Change: The squatters movement in Brighton and London |date=2013 |publisher=A paper presented at the International RC21 Conference 2013, Berlin |pages=11}}</ref> <blockquote>Of course squatting is an attack on private property: it should be. Not an attack on the houses themselves or a destruction of walls, windows or floors, but a principled attack on the iron law of property which rules our society, making it lawful for some people to have two, three or twenty houses and others to have none at all. It may be the law but it is not justice. squatting is one way of bringing a little bit of justice into this ruthless society. </blockquote>
== 1980s & 90s ==
=== Bonnington Square and the Pullens Buildings === In the early 1980s, there was a community of over 300 squatters within a ten-minute walk of the Houses of Parliament. Bonnington Square in Vauxhall, having been blitzed and left in disrepair in the 1940s, was due to bulldozed for a school and playing field. With the encouragement of local shopkeepers<ref>{{Cite web |last=eyeFULL |date=2012-06-16 |title=Bonnington Square, Alistair Oldham |url=https://creativemediaresearch.wordpress.com/2012/06/16/bonnington-square-alistair-oldham/ |access-date=2025-06-30 |website=Creative Industries Industries Group |language=en}}</ref> and a lone resident who had stayed in protest, the squatters were not deterred by precautions taken against them: bricked up windows, disconnected services, and concrete down the drains.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Hanson |first1=Michele |last2=Young |first2=Dave |date=2010-07-06 |title=Sustainable squatting in Bonnington Square |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/video/2010/jul/06/sustainable-squatting-bonnington-square |access-date=2025-06-30 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> They opened 65 of the terraced houses,<ref>{{Cite web |last=crispinhughes |date=2023-12-30 |title=Bonnington Square |url=https://www.crispinhughes.co.uk/2023/12/bonnington-square/ |access-date=2025-06-30 |website=Crispin Hughes Photographer |language=en-GB}}</ref> established a vegetarian cafė and community centre, two community gardens, a milk bar, a nightclub and a wholefoods shop.<ref name=":04">{{Cite journal |last=Dee |first=E.T.C. |date=2016-01-01 |title=Squatted Social Centers in London |url=https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/contention/4/1-2/cont040109.xml |journal=Contention |volume=4 |issue=1 |doi=10.3167/cont.2016.040109 |doi-broken-date=12 July 2025 |issn=2572-7184 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> It was a sufficient effort at regeneration to persuade the GLC and the Inner London Education Authority in 1983 to lease 25 of the houses to the squatters organised as the Vine Housing Cooperative.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-03-22 |title=A Visual History - Vine Housing Co-op |url=https://vinehousingcoop.org.uk/about-the-co-op/timeline-2/ |access-date=2025-06-30 |website=vinehousingcoop.org.uk |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=23 November 2010 |title=Bonnington Square – London – Self Help Housing |url=http://www.bonningtonsquaregarden.org.uk/bonnington-square-london-self-help-housing/ |accessdate=31 March 2013 |publisher=Bonnington Square Garden Association}}</ref>
Assisted by a network that sought local support for filling derelict "empties", by the mid-1980s squatters occupied more than 60 per cent of vacant council dwellings in neighbouring Walworth.<ref name=":9">{{Cite web |last=Rebel History Calendar |date=2018 |title=Today in London housing history, 1986: Pullens Estate squatters resist eviction, Walworth. |url=https://pasttense.co.uk/2018/06/10/today-in-london-housing-history-1986-pullens-estate-squatters-resist-eviction-walworth/ |access-date=2025-06-29 |website=LONDON RADICAL HISTORIES |language=en}}</ref> From 1982, these included dozens of flats in the Pullens buildings, Victorian-era tenement blocks which, against resident opposition, Southwark Council was planning to demolish. In 1986, the squatters barricaded resistance to eviction, the "battle of Pullens", garnered national attention.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Collins |first=Claire |title=The Pullenites |url=https://www.claphamfilmunit.com/projects/pullenites/ |access-date=2025-06-29 |website=Clapham Film Unit {{!}} Storytelling, workshops, screenings, commissions |language=en-GB}}</ref> The council agreed to renovation and, employing them to carry out the work of installing bathrooms and hot water, granted some of the squatters caretaker rights.<ref name=":9" /><ref name="iliffeyard.co.uk">{{Cite web |last=Batchelor |first=Roger |title=The Pullen's Story by 1879–2011 |url=http://iliffeyard.co.uk/managed_assets/files/the_pullen__s_story.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812223603/http://iliffeyard.co.uk/managed_assets/files/the_pullen__s_story.pdf |archive-date=12 August 2014 |access-date=11 August 2014 |df=dmy-all}}</ref>
=== Impact of Right to Buy === In 1986, the expanded "right to buy" provisions of the Housing Act 1985 came into effect. Together with cuts in central government funding, these discouraged councils from acquiring private tenements on the scale that had given squatters their opportunity in Bonnington Square and Pullens. Local authorities had little financial incentive to purchase, refurbish or build homes, when faced with an obligation to sell them on to their tenants at a discount.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hill |first=Simon |title=The damaging legacy of right to buy |url=https://neweconomics.org/2022/05/the-damaging-legacy-of-right-to-buy |access-date=2025-06-20 |website=New Economics Foundation |language=en}}</ref> Along with the overall stock of social housing,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-03-09 |title=Social housing stock has fallen over the last 30 years – Full Fact |url=https://fullfact.org/economy/social-housing-last-30-years/ |access-date=2025-06-20 |website=fullfact.org |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2020 |title=Building more social housing - Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee - House of Commons |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5801/cmselect/cmcomloc/173/17305.htm |access-date=2025-06-20 |website=publications.parliament.uk}}</ref> the number of local authority dwellings held vacant for repair, demolition or redevelopment – properties in which squatters might hope for some measure of tolerance – declined: in England, from 81,177 in 1986 to 33,246 in 1996.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-05-22 |title=Live tables on dwelling stock (including vacants) |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-dwelling-stock-including-vacants |access-date=2025-06-20 |website=GOV.UK |language=en}}</ref>
=== Bristol: Cheltenham Road, BASE === Lower rents and the relative lack of lack of anonymity may have militated against squatting in smaller cities. Nonetheless, there continued to be sizeable squatting communities in Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Leicester and Portsmouth.<ref name="Book22" /> Housing was not their only object. In Bristol, in the mid-1980s, squatters had the Full Marx bookshop, the Demolition Ballroom and the Demolition Diner, all on Cheltenham Road.<ref name="ReferenceA">Aufheben ''Kill or Chill – An analysis of the Opposition to the Criminal Justice Bill'' in Aufheben 4, 1995</ref> In Easton, Bristol, a 1995 squat was the origin of what continues as the Base for Anarchy & Solidarity in Easton (BASE),<ref>{{Cite web |last=Anderson |first=Tom |date=2025-04-01 |title=30 years of BASE social centre: community activism in Bristol |url=https://thebristolcable.org/2025/04/celebrating-30-years-of-the-base-for-anarchy-and-solidarity-in-easton-base/ |access-date=2025-06-20 |website=The Bristol Cable |language=en-GB}}</ref> a social centre with library and cafe.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Simpson |first=Will |date=2015-08-11 |title=Kebele comes of age |url=https://www.bristol247.com/spark/community/kebele-comes-of-age-bristol/ |access-date=2025-06-20 |website=Bristol24/7 |language=en}}</ref>
=== Manchester: Hulme Crescents, Okasional Cafes === In 1972, Manchester undertook the largest housing development in Europe, Hulme Crescents, a brutalist complex of 3,284 deck-access homes,<ref name="hartwell">{{cite book |last1=Hartwell |first1=Clare |title=Manchester |date=2002 |publisher=Yale Univ. Press |isbn=978-0300096668 |location=New Haven [u.a.] |page=327}}</ref> but construction and design problems were such that by 1984 the city council stopped taking rents.<ref name="parkinson">{{cite book |last1=Parkinson-Bailey |first1=John J. |title=Manchester : an architectural history |date=2000 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0719056062 |edition=[Reprinted] |location=Manchester |page=195}}</ref><ref name="wray">{{cite news |author=Daniel Dylan Wray |date=27 September 2023 |title='It was like Blade Runner meets Berlin rave': the Manchester sink estate with the UK's wildest nightclub |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/sep/27/it-was-like-blade-runner-meets-berlin-rave-the-manchester-sink-estate-with-the-uks-wildest-nightclub |newspaper=The Guardian}} Article names many residents who became well-known.</ref> Until pulled to the ground in 1993, the sink estate, "vermin-ridden, leaky and almost impossible to heat",<ref name=":16">{{Cite web |last=Wilkinson |first=Damon |date=2020-11-01 |title=Ravers, crusties and chaos - what it was like to squat in Hulme Crescents |url=https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/ravers-crusties-night-parties-what-19152564 |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=Manchester Evening News |language=en}}</ref> was colonised "first [by] the punks, then Smiths fans in overcoats, 'anarcho-crusties with dreads, big boots and a dog on a piece of rope' and later ravers from the burgeoning acid house scene".<ref name=":16" />
Artists and musicians appeared to thrive amidst "All the things bemoaned as deleterious to family life . . . the complexity of the blocks, the noise and sense of height, the lack of a feeling of 'ownership' in the communal areas".<ref name="vb">{{cite book |last=Hatherley |first=Owen |url=http://www.versobooks.com/books/951-a-guide-to-the-new-ruins-of-great-britain |title=A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain |publisher=Verso Books |year=2010 |isbn=9781844677009 |access-date=18 April 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Beckett |first=Andy |date=23 October 2010 |title=Book review: A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain by Owen Hatherley |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/oct/23/ruins-britain-owen-hatherley-review |newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref> At the same time, there was a "dark side" to the squatted Crescents:<ref name=":16" /> in 1977, "people living in Hulme were seven times more likely to commit suicide compared to the national average and thirty-one times more likely to be a victim of crime".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Irving |first=Sarah |date=2011 |title=Hulme Mural: From Tranquil Pastures To A High-Rise Age |url=https://radicalmanchester.wordpress.com/category/squatting/ |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=Manchester's Radical History |language=en}}</ref>
In the late 1990s, drawing on the networks and personal connections established in "second runway" protest camps at Manchester Airport, anarchists and Earth First! activists organised a series of squatted cafe-social centres across city. The "Okasional Cafes" featured events, including political meetings, exhibitions, film showings and fundraising parties. Typically, they avoided eviction by operating for operating for no more than a month.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Irving |first=Sarah |date=2009 |title=Okasional Cafes |url=https://radicalmanchester.wordpress.com/category/squatting/ |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=Manchester's Radical History |language=en}}</ref>
=== London: 121 and The Alternative Centre === In London, self-managed social centres and venues<ref>{{cite news |last=Martin |first=Andy |date=1994 |title=Autonomy Centres, Riots & The Big Rammy |url=http://www.uncarved.org/music/apunk/autcent.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190718045821/http://www.uncarved.org/music/apunk/autcent.html |archive-date=2019-07-18 |access-date=2019-03-30 |work=Smile 12 |location=London}}</ref> included, until its eviction after a six-month stand-off with police in 1999,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-08-12 |title=Today in London anarchist history, 1999: the 121 Centre evicted, Brixton |url=https://pasttense.co.uk/2019/08/12/today-in-london-anarchist-history-1999-the-121-centre-evicted-brixton/ |access-date=2025-08-13 |website=LONDON RADICAL HISTORIES |language=en}}</ref> the 121 Centre in Railton Road, Brixton. In the 1980s, the Centre printed a squatters news sheet called ''Crowbar'' and the anarchist paper ''Black Flag''.<ref name="ReferenceA" /> In the 1990s, the centre hosted The Dead by Dawn Club whose attendees shared aesthetic interests, including zines, lectures by Sadie Plant, and intellectual literature by the Situationists, Deleuze and Guattari, and William Burroughs.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=St. John |first1=Graham |title=Technomad: Global Raving Countercultures |date=2009 |publisher=Equinox Publishing |isbn=978-1-84553-625-1 |series=Studies in Popular Music |location=London |pages=228–229 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> The first Queeruption festival was held at 121 in 1998.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bettocchi |first=Milo |date=2021-01-07 |title=Fairies, feminists & queer anarchists: geographies of squatting in Brixton, south London |url=https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/64265/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250214202602/https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/64265/ |archive-date=14 February 2025 |access-date=8 June 2025 |website=eprints.nottingham.ac.uk |page=7 |language=en}}</ref>
''Black Flag'' was previously published in the Centro Iberico, a Spanish anarchist centre which had squatted an old school building on the Harrow Road. Also known as The Alternative Centre, in the early 80s it followed on from the Wapping Autonomy Centre<ref name="Vice">{{cite web |last1=Jenkins |first1=Tom |date=10 July 2015 |title=Remembering Jo Brocklehurst, the Artist Who Documented London's 1980s Anarcho-Punk Squatters |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/jo-brocklehurst-anarcho-punk-artist-284/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191003165818/https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/xd7ym7/jo-brocklehurst-anarcho-punk-artist-284 |archive-date=3 October 2019 |access-date=3 October 2019 |website=Vice |language=en}}</ref> as a venue for anarcho-punk.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Counter Culture Portobello Psychogeographical History - Tom Vague |url=http://www.portobellofilmfestival.com/talkpics/talk-vague07.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100910124217/http://www.portobellofilmfestival.com/talkpics/talk-vague07.html |archive-date=2010-09-10 |access-date=2010-08-30}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Staff |date=23 June 2015 |title=Shine on: William Orbit |url=http://www.coldwarnightlife.com/features/2015/06/shine-on-william-orbit/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190503120318/http://www.coldwarnightlife.com/features/2015/06/shine-on-william-orbit/ |archive-date=3 May 2019 |accessdate=3 May 2019 |website=Cold War Nightlife}}</ref>
=== Greenham Common and Twyford Down protest camps === [[File:Embracing_the_base,_Greenham_Common_December_1982_-_geograph.org.uk_-_759090.jpg|thumb|December 1982, 30,000 women hold hands around RAF Greenham Common]] In September 1981, a Welsh group, Women for Life on Earth, initiated Britain's most internationally renowned squat, a series of camps established to protest the deployment of nuclear weapons at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire.<ref name="CND">{{cite web |last1=Muir |first1=Michael |date=30 August 2011 |title=30th anniversary of foundation of Greenham Common Women's peace camp |url=https://cnduk.org/30th-anniversary-foundation-greenham-common-womens-peace-camp/ |access-date=3 September 2022}}</ref> Greenham Common had survived as an open common until its wartime requisition in 1941 by the RAF. After the war, it was re-requisitioned for the United States Air Force (USAF) and in 1966 it became a NATO standby base.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Raymond |first=Jill |date=2021 |title=Still Carrying Greenham Home |url=https://www.thelandmagazine.org.uk/sites/default/files/Land%2029%20Raymond.pdf |journal=The Land |issue=29 |pages=55–57}}</ref> It was here that, in 1979, the government agreed to house U.S. intermediate-range cruise missiles, whose deployment anti-war activists believed greatly increased the risk of a nuclear exchange with the Warsaw Pact in Europe.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Conze |first1=Eckart |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rddsDQAAQBAJ |title=Nuclear Threats, Nuclear Fear and the Cold War of the 1980s |last2=Klimke |first2=Martin |last3=Varon |first3=Jeremy |date=2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-13628-1 |language=en}}</ref>
Realising that a march alone was not going to get them the attention that they needed, women began to stay at Greenham to continue their protest and attempted blockade.<ref name="NatArchive43">{{cite web |title=Records of Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp (Yellow Gate) |url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=106-5gcw&cid=-1#-1 |publisher=National Archives}}</ref><ref name="site2">{{Cite web |last=Hipperson |first=Sarah |title=Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp Commemorative & Historic Site |url=http://www.greenhamwpc.org.uk/historic.htm |website=Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp}}</ref> The Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp made international headlines when on 1 April 1983, about 70,000 protesters formed a {{convert|14|mi|km|adj=on}} human chain from Greenham to Aldermaston and the ordnance factory at Burghfield.<ref>{{cite web |date=1 April 1983 |title=1983: Human chain links nuclear sites |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/1/newsid_2520000/2520753.stm |access-date=5 January 2010 |publisher=BBC News}}</ref> The camp, and its defiance of the police, became a global symbol of the antinuclear struggle and of central role of women within it.<ref>The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament https://www.agendapub.com/page/detail/the-campaign-for-nuclear-disarmament/?k=9781788217774</ref> In accord with the 1987 INF treaty, the last missiles left the base in 1991. A camp remained in place until September 2000 when protesters won the right to house a memorial on the site.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hipperson |first=Sarah |title=Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp |url=http://www.greenhamwpc.org.uk/ |publisher=Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp}}</ref>
In 1992, Twyford Down near Winchester, Hampshire, became the site of a major road protest against a section of the M3 motorway from London to the south coast of England. As at Greenham, the protesters established permanent camps, which lying in the path of the motorway extension, was itself a resistance tactic.<ref name="monibot">{{cite news |last=Monbiot |first=George |date=21 February 1997 |title=Multi-issue Politics |url=http://www.monbiot.com/archives/1997/02/21/multi-issue-politics/ |access-date=10 January 2008 |work=Times Literary Supplement |publisher=News International}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Twyford Down road protest |url=https://www.thegreenfuse.org/protest/twyford.htm |access-date=2025-06-03 |website=www.thegreenfuse.org}}</ref> Squatting was used for same purpose in 1993 to protest M11 link road in London and in 1995 the Newbury bypass in Berkshire.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hindle |first=Jim |title=Nine Miles: Two Winters of Anti-road Protest |publisher=Underhill books |year=2008 |isbn=9780955273711}}</ref>
=== Brighton: Squatters Estate Agency === In 1996, a squatters group in Brighton, "Justice? Brighton's Campaign in Defiance of the Criminal Injustice Act", set up a Squatters Estate Agency which received national media coverage. Its corner shop displayed photographs of properties with captions such as "Easy to get in. Good condition. Been empty for a long time" and "Clean, nice but small. Alarmed with Chubb and Yale locks".<ref>{{Cite news |title=Squatter estate agency opens Des. res. Enter by back door |url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/squatter-estate-agency-opens-des-res-enter-by-back-door-1339773.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220707065457/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/squatter-estate-agency-opens-des-res-enter-by-back-door-1339773.html |archive-date=2022-07-07 |access-date=2025-06-03 |work=The Independent |language=en-GB}}</ref> In advance of a national homelessness campaign "to highlight the 'scandal' of more than 750,000 homes standing empty across Britain", in 1999 a similar estate-agency initiative followed in Nottingham.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Quinn |first=Sue |date=1999-08-06 |title=Homeless turn to estate agency for squatters |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/aug/06/3 |access-date=2025-06-03 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
== Legality: the introduction of criminal trespass law 1977-2012 == === Forcible Entry Acts === {{main|Adverse possession}} Through into the 1970s, in resisting evictions activists cited the Forcible Entry Act 1381 (5 Ric. 2 Stat. 1. c. 7) which had created a statutory offence of forcible entry.<ref>Aldridge, The Criminal Law Act 1977, Butterworths, 1978, paragraph 69 at page 18</ref> Squatting advocates were satisfied that its proscription against making "any entry into lands and tenements, but in case where entry is given by the law" and "not with strong hand",<ref name=":02">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=1870 |title=The Statutes, 1870 Revised Edition, Vol. I, p.227 |url=https://archive.org/details/statutes00britgoog/page/n325/mode/2up |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=11 March 2020 |website=Internet Archive}}</ref> implied that, provided they had used no force to enter the property, squatters could not be evicted save in the service of a court order. They had "squatter's rights". It seemed "simple enough".<ref name="Book28">{{cite book |last=Watkinson |first=David |url=https://en.squat.net/wp-content/uploads/en/2013/01/wates-wolmar-squatting-real-story.pdf |title=Squatting: The real story |date=1980 |publisher=Bay Leaf Books |isbn=0-9507259-1-9 |editor1-last=Wates |editor1-first=Nick |location=London |chapter=The erosion of squatters rights |editor2-last=Wolmar |editor2-first=Christian}}</ref>{{rp|159}}<blockquote>Most empty houses had open windows, doors or other means of access. If squatters secured the property (for example by putting a lock of their own on the door thus making it impossible for the owner to enter except by force), then the owner could not enter and carry out an eviction without breaking the criminal law which few owners were prepared to do.</blockquote>Although seemingly confirmed by the Forcible Entry Act 1623, it is not clear that the courts, at any time, consistently construed the 1381 law in this way.<ref>Aldrige, paragraph 71</ref> The issue was rendered mute by passage of the Criminal Law Act 1977, which abolished the offence of forcible entry and initiated the development of criminal trespass law.
===Criminal Law Act 1977=== In 1972, the Law Commission's was given a brief "to examine the statutes of forcible entry 1381 to 1623 and relevant common law defences and to consider in what circumstances entering or remaining upon property should constitute a criminal offence or offences". Its initial recommendation was to make trespass criminal if the trespasser "failed to leave as soon as reasonably practicable after being ordered to do so by a person entitled to occupation". This faced not only opposition, mobilised by the Campaign Against a Criminal Trespass Law, from labour and student unions wary of the implications for on-site picketing and sit-down protest, but also express reservations on the part of the GLC and the Association of Chief Police Officers. The eventual act was informed by substantially modified proposals.<ref name="Book28" />{{rp|159}}
Section 6 of the Criminal Law Act 1977 covers the occupation of property. While repealing the Forcible Entry Acts, it did rule that, unless it is in the execution of a possession order, "violence for securing entry" is an offence if "there is someone present on those premises at the time who is opposed to the entry which the violence is intended to secure".<ref name="Criminal Law Act 1977">{{Cite web |title=Criminal Law Act 1977 |url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1977/45/section/12 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124104612/http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1977/45/section/12 |archive-date=24 November 2010 |access-date=18 August 2011}}</ref> The act did not distinguish for this purpose between violence to persons or property (e.g. breaking a door down).<ref name="Book28" />{{rp|161}}
But the act then created four further offences:<ref name="Book28" />{{rp|161}}
* Being on premises as a trespasser and failing to leave when asked "by a person claiming to be or to act on behalf of a protected intending occupier of the premises" (Section 7)<ref name="Criminal Law Act 19772">{{Cite web |title=Criminal Law Act 1977 |url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1977/45/section/12 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124104612/http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1977/45/section/12 |archive-date=24 November 2010 |access-date=18 August 2011}}</ref> * Trespassing with a weapon (Section 8) • * Trespassing on embassy or consular property (Section 9) * Resisting or obstructing a bailiff or sheriff executing a possession order (Section 10)
The act was a "compromise": it made squatting “more difficult but not impossible". The Section 6 replacement of the offence of forcible entry, did mean that, unless they were physically present, squatters could be put out. At the same time, sections 7-10 made the squatters' initial entry more hazardous by establishing grounds for regarding their trespass (or conspiracy to trespass) as potentially criminal.<ref name="Book28" />{{rp|159}}
In London, the introduction of new law coincided with the determination of the new Conservative-elected GLC to end the council's role as a provider of council housing for rent. Council housing was either transferred to the London boroughs or sold off.<ref name=":6" />{{rp|85}}
=== Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 === The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 qualified Section 6 of the Criminal Law Act 1977 by giving the right of entry to "displaced residential occupiers", "protected intending occupiers" (someone who had intended to occupy the property, including some tenants, licensees and landlords who require the property for use), or someone acting on their behalf. Such people may legally enter an occupied property even using force as the usual section 6 provision does not apply to them, and may require "any person who is on [their] premises as a trespasser" to leave. Failure to leave is a criminal offence under section 7 and removal may be enforced by police.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=Wendy |url=https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN00355/SN00355.pdf |title=Briefing Paper 0355, Evicting Squatters |date=9 June 2017 |publisher=House of Commons Library}}</ref>{{rp|7-9}}
===Civil Procedure Rules=== In 2001, the Civil Procedure Rules introduced new processes for civil repossession of property and related processes, under section 55. These include a fast track process whereby the legally rightful occupier can obtain an interim possession order (IPO) in a civil court which will enable them to enter the premises at will.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=Wendy |url=https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN00355/SN00355.pdf |title=Briefing Paper 0355, Evicting Squatters |date=9 June 2017 |publisher=House of Commons Library}}</ref>{{rp|5-7}} Unlawful occupiers who refuse to leave after the granting of an IPO are committing a criminal offence<ref name="Criminal Law Act 19773">{{Cite web |title=Criminal Law Act 1977 |url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1977/45/section/12 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124104612/http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1977/45/section/12 |archive-date=24 November 2010 |access-date=18 August 2011}}</ref> and can be removed by police.<ref>{{Cite web |title=PART 55 – POSSESSION CLAIMS – Civil Procedure Rules |url=https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part55 |access-date=2025-06-07 |website=www.justice.gov.uk |language=en-GB}}</ref>
===Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012=== {{main|Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012}}
The 13th (2009) edition of the ''Squatters Handbook'' still felt able to advise that, "with few exceptions, if you can get into an empty building without doing any damage and can secure it, you can make it your home".<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://donostialdeaokupatu.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/squatter-s-handbook-england-13th-edition.pdf |title=Squatter Handbook, 13th Edition |date=2009 |publisher=Advisory Service for Squatters |location=London}}</ref>
In March 2011, Mike Weatherley, Conservative MP for Hove, proposed an Early Day Motion to put a definitive end to this situation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Early day motion 1545 |url=http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2010-11/1545 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110502033247/http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2010-11/1545 |archive-date=2 May 2011 |access-date=24 May 2011}}</ref> His campaign to criminalise squatting was supported by a series of articles in the ''Daily Telegraph'' in which Justice Secretary, Kenneth Clarke, and Housing Minister, Grant Shapps, were reported as backing the move.<ref>{{Citation |last=Howie |first=Michael |title=Squatting to be made illegal, vows Clarke |date=2011-03-19 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8388795/Squatting-to-be-made-illegal-vows-Clarke.html |access-date=2011-05-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170815072930/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8388795/Squatting-to-be-made-illegal-vows-Clarke.html |archive-date=15 August 2017 |url-status=live |location=London |publisher=Daily Telegraph}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Romero |first=Roberta |title=Coalition to make squatting a criminal offence |date=2011-05-24 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8392571/Coalition-to-make-squatting-a-criminal-offence.html |access-date=2011-05-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170811001854/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8392571/Coalition-to-make-squatting-a-criminal-offence.html |archive-date=11 August 2017 |url-status=live |location=London |publisher=Daily Telegraph}}</ref>
The Government opened a public consultation entitled "Options for dealing with squatters".<ref name="consultationamendment2">{{Cite web |title=Options for dealing with squatters |url=http://www.justice.gov.uk/consultations/dealing-with-squatters.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111104182514/http://www.justice.gov.uk/consultations/dealing-with-squatters.htm |archive-date=4 November 2011 |access-date=8 November 2011}}</ref> The campaign group Squatters' Action for Secure Homes (SQUASH), a coalition of housing charities such as Shelter and Crisis, activists, lawyers and squatters,<ref>{{Cite web |title=New Coalition to be Launched in Parliament to SQUASH Anti-Squatting Legislation |url=http://www.squashcampaign.org/squash-launch-in-houses-of-parliament.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110521034332/http://www.squashcampaign.org/squash-launch-in-houses-of-parliament.html |archive-date=21 May 2011 |access-date=24 May 2011}}</ref> noted that "over 90% of responses argued against taking any action on squatting."<ref name="squash3">{{Cite web |title=Campaign lobbies against rush to criminalise |url=http://www.squashcampaign.org/2011/10/campaign-lobbies-against-rush-to-criminalise/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111102023035/http://www.squashcampaign.org/2011/10/campaign-lobbies-against-rush-to-criminalise/ |archive-date=2 November 2011 |access-date=8 November 2011}}</ref> Kenneth Clarke, who had taken position that "there are no valid arguments in defence of squatting",<ref>Hansard [https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1991/oct/15/squatting HC Deb 15 October 1991 vol 196 cc151-65] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121227140409/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1991/oct/15/squatting|date=27 December 2012}}</ref> nonetheless, moved an amendment to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill which became Section 144 of the act.<ref name="legalaidbill2">{{Cite web |title=Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill |url=http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/bills-and-acts/bills/legal-aid-and-sentencing-bill.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111108032331/http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/bills-and-acts/bills/legal-aid-and-sentencing-bill.htm |archive-date=8 November 2011 |access-date=8 November 2011}}</ref>
Section 144 states that "the new offence will be committed where a person is in a residential building as a trespasser having entered it as a trespasser, knows or ought to know that he or she is a trespasser and is living in the building or intends to live there for any period."<ref name="consultationamendment2" /> It came into force on 1 September 2012, making squatting in a residential building a criminal offence,<ref name="bbc.co.uk2">{{cite news |date=2012-08-31 |title=Squatting set to become a criminal offence |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19429936 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190920135547/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19429936 |archive-date=20 September 2019 |access-date=20 June 2018 |work=BBC News}}</ref> subject to a fine of £5,000, 6 months in prison, or both.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Squatting and the law |url=https://www.gov.uk/squatting-law |access-date=2025-06-01 |website=GOV.UK |language=en}}</ref>
At the same time, the 2012 Act reduced or withdrew funding for the legal aid that enabled people facing eviction to seek relief through the courts.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vasudevan |first=Alexander |url= |title=The Autonomous City: A History of Urban Squatting |date=2017-05-16 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78168-786-4 |pages= |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|65}}
=== Adverse possession === {{main|Adverse possession}}
There remains a common law right (known as "adverse possession") to claim ownership of a dwelling after continual unopposed occupation of land or property for a given period of several years or more.<ref>Adverse possession is defined as, "An open, notorious, exclusive and adverse possession for twenty years operates to convey a complete title...not only an interest in the land...but complete dominion over it." Sir William Blackstone (1759), Commentaries on the Laws of England, Volume 2, page 418.</ref> Law in England and Wales allows for adverse possession claims range after 10 to 12 years, depending on whether or not the land is registered. In practice, adverse possession can be difficult. For example, St Agnes Place in London had been occupied for 30 years until November 2005, when Lambeth Borough Council evicted the entire street.<ref>{{Cite news |date=29 November 2005 |title='Oldest squat' residents evicted |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/4481284.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080420105306/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/4481284.stm |archive-date=20 April 2008 |access-date=24 May 2011}}</ref>
In 2007, the hermit Harry Hallowes won possession of a half-acre plot on Hampstead Heath in London.<ref name="Hallowes2">{{cite news |date=18 June 2018 |title=Hampstead Heath hermit's land sells for £154k at auction |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-44498228 |access-date=28 April 2021 |work=BBC News}}</ref> When In 2014, Keith Best, a builder, sought to do the same, and register title to a house Ilford, east London, which he had occupied for ten years, his application was denied on the basis that, since the introduction of Section 144 in 2012, he had been committing an offence.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Snell |first=James |date=2025-02-02 |title=Squatter sells £540,000 London home after decades-long court battle |url=https://www.westernstandard.news/international/squatter-sells-540000-london-home-after-decades-long-court-battle/61736 |access-date=2025-06-14 |website=Western Standard |language=en}}</ref> In a landmark ruling, the High Court reversed the decision, and granted the application: intended to help people, "like those who went on holiday and found that squatters had moved in to their home in their absence", 144 did not overrule established (adverse possession) law.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2014-05-07 |title=Judge rules in favour of squatter |url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/judge-rules-in-favour-of-squatter/30252847.html |access-date=2025-06-07 |work=BelfastTelegraph.co.uk |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}}</ref>
==After criminalisation: squatting in the 21st century==
===2000s=== In 2003, it was estimated that there were 15,000 squatters in England and Wales.<ref>Fallon A ''Squatters are back, and upwardly mobile'' in ''The Independent on Sunday'' 12 October 2003</ref> In 2012, the Ministry of Justice believed the figure to be 20,000.<ref name="consultationamendment">{{Cite web |title=Options for dealing with squatters |url=http://www.justice.gov.uk/consultations/dealing-with-squatters.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111104182514/http://www.justice.gov.uk/consultations/dealing-with-squatters.htm |archive-date=4 November 2011 |access-date=8 November 2011}}</ref>
==== Social centres and community gardens ====
Linked through the UK Social Centre Network, in the 2000s there were squatted social centres in a number of communities. Among them were the OKasional Cafe in Manchester;<ref>{{Cite web |date=20 December 2009 |title=Okasional Cafes |url=http://radicalmanchester.wordpress.com/2009/12/20/okasional-cafes/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017013109/http://radicalmanchester.wordpress.com/2009/12/20/okasional-cafes/ |archive-date=17 October 2013 |access-date=10 January 2013}}</ref> the RampART Social Centre in Whitechapel, London and, part of Occupy London, the Bank of Ideas in Hackney,<ref>{{cite news |author=Paul Owen and Peter Walker |date=2011-11-18 |title=Occupy London takes over empty UBS bank |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/blog/2011/nov/18/occupy-london-takes-over-empty-ubs-bank-live |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131001063554/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/blog/2011/nov/18/occupy-london-takes-over-empty-ubs-bank-live |archive-date=1 October 2013 |access-date=21 January 2012 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> and a Wombles initiative, the "Ex Grand Banks Occupied Social Centre" in Tufnell Park. Opened in March 2004, Wombles resisted eviction in May, and again in July, thanks to support from the local community and its school children.<ref name=":17">{{Cite web |date=2 September 2004 |title=Ex Grand Banks eviction - Sept 2004, London s0409031 |url=https://www.wussu.com/squatting/s0409031.htm |access-date=2025-12-21 |website=UK Squatting Archive: www.wussu.com}}</ref><ref name=":18">{{Cite web |date=2016-03-04 |title=Today in London's squatting history: Ex-Grand Banks social centre opens, 2004 |url=https://pasttense.co.uk/2016/03/04/today-in-londons-squatting-history-ex-grand-banks-social-centre-opens-2004/ |access-date=2025-12-21 |website=LONDON RADICAL HISTORIES |language=en}}</ref> One of those running the social centre explained its importance: <blockquote>During a period of increasing privatisation, gentrification and desire for an easy profit, where community resources are being closed down and sold off by the council, and the closure of youth clubs coupled with the new Anti-social behaviour curfews mean kids have nothing to do and nowhere to go, there is an urgent need to reclaim our spaces from greedy property developers and run them ourselves to meet our real needs.<ref name=":17" /></blockquote>During its short life, the Tufnell Park centre hosted concerts and gigs, movement meetings, talks and discussions, an anti-copyright cinema, free Radio skill sharing and screen-printing workshops, free lunches for students, children's' days, English lessons, and a fair trade café supporting Zapatista communities in Mexico. Due to the involvement of some of the collective in organising against the G8 summit, it had come to the attention of the Met's Forward Intelligence Team who filmed and documented the centre's eviction from the former bank building in September.<ref name=":17" /><ref name=":18" />
Groups also squatted land as community gardens. Three such London projects were the Spike Surplus Scheme in Peckham,<ref name="Spike">{{cite journal |last1=Dee |first1=E.T.C. |date=1 January 2016 |title=Squatted Social Centers in London |journal=Contention |volume=4 |issue=1 |doi=10.3167/cont.2016.040109 |doi-broken-date=12 July 2025}}</ref> Kew Bridge Ecovillage and the Hounslow community land project.<ref>{{Cite web |title=- The Hounslow and Brentford Times - Eco Villagers prepare to leave after court ruling |url=http://www.hounslowandbrentfordtimes.co.uk/news/8179989.Eco_villagers_prepare_to_leave_after_court_ruling/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727154327/http://www.hounslowandbrentfordtimes.co.uk/news/8179989.Eco_villagers_prepare_to_leave_after_court_ruling/ |archive-date=2011-07-27 |access-date=2010-05-27}}</ref> In Reading, "Anarcho-squatters", occupying a former women's information centre, left derelict by the council, opened a garden called Common Ground in 2007. Evicted, they re-claimed the property following year as part of the April 2008 days of action in support of autonomous spaces.<ref>[http://www.afed.org.uk/org/issue69/common_ground_post_eviction.html 'Creating Common Ground: A squatted community garden as a strategy for anti-capitalists'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130514030621/http://www.afed.org.uk/org/issue69/common_ground_post_eviction.html|date=14 May 2013}} in Organise issue 69</ref> Raven's Ait, an island in the River Thames, was occupied in 2009. The squatters declared their intention to set up an eco conference centre. They were evicted by police using boats and specialist climbing teams.<ref>Didymus, M. [http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/topstories/4335795.Update__Raven_s_Ait_squatters_evicted/#show 'Police evict squatters from Raven's Ait island'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120218034403/http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/topstories/4335795.Update__Raven_s_Ait_squatters_evicted/#show|date=18 February 2012}} 1 May 2009</ref>
==== Squatting and the arts ==== In the face of rising rents and reduced arts funding, young artists continued to occupy abandoned buildings.<ref name="The artists who are hot to squat">[https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/apr/12/artists-collectives-squats/print] ''The artists who are hot to squat...'' Hoby, Hermione, <u>The Observer</u>, April 2009</ref> Among the resulting artist-run spaces were the 491 Gallery in Leytonstone,<ref name="threat">{{cite news |author=Figen Gunes |date=2012-07-26 |title=Community art space under threat |url=http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/wfnews/9839388.LEYTONSTONE__Community_art_space_under_threat/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304053916/http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/wfnews/9839388.LEYTONSTONE__Community_art_space_under_threat/ |archive-date=4 March 2016 |access-date=2012-07-26 |publisher=Waltham Forest Guardian}}</ref> and Lyndhurst Way in Peckham.<ref>[http://www.timeout.com/london/art/features/2885/Peckham_art_squats.html 'Peckham Art Squats'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101010082513/http://www.timeout.com/london/art/features/2885/Peckham_art_squats.html|date=2010-10-10}} Time Out magazine, 04.2007</ref> The Da! art collective received national attention in 2008 when in Mayfair, central London, they squatted in a £6.25 million, 30-room, grade II-listed mansion owned by the Duke of Westminster. After being evicted, they moved to a £22.5m property nearby in Clarges Mews.<ref>{{cite news |last=Pidd |first=Helen |title=Posh-squat artists take Mayfair mews |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2009/jan/09/squat-artists-mayfair |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140810173511/http://www.theguardian.com/society/2009/jan/09/squat-artists-mayfair |archive-date=10 August 2014 |access-date=4 August 2014}}</ref>
The progressive crackdown squatting was closing what may have been "a critical avenue enabling artists, musicians, filmmakers and writers to start out, compromising on secure housing for time, finances, space and community". With "the broke-artist lifestyle increasingly out of reach",<ref>{{Cite web |last=Eason |first=Ella Benson |date=2024-08-25 |title=How the crackdown on squatting cramped British creativity |url=https://www.redpepper.org.uk/society/housing-architecture/how-the-crackdown-on-squatting-cramped-british-creativity/ |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=Red Pepper |language=en-GB}}</ref> in the new century there appears to have bee a marked reduction in the number of arts workers from working-class backgrounds.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Panic! Social Class, Taste and Inequalities in the Creative Industries - Create London |url=https://createlondon.org/event/panic-paper/ |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=createlondon.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Healy |first=Rachael |date=2024-05-18 |title=Fewer than one in 10 arts workers in UK have working-class roots |url=https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/article/2024/may/18/arts-workers-uk-working-class-roots-cultural-sector-diversity |access-date=2026-02-09 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
=== 2010s ===
==== Arrests and prosecutions ==== [[File:Topple the Tyrants occupation.jpg|thumb|300px|'Topple the Tyrants' occupy a London residence of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi in March 2011.<ref>{{cite news |author=Esther Addley |date=9 March 2011 |title=Squatters take over Saif Gaddafi's London home |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/mar/09/libya-muammar-gaddafi |access-date=2011-03-10 |work=The Guardian}}</ref>]]In September 2012, Alex Haigh was the first squatter imprisoned under Section 144 of the 2012 Act, receiving a sentence of 14 weeks for occupying a housing association property in London.<ref name="alex2">{{cite news |last=Bowcott |first=Owen |date=27 September 2012 |title=First squatter jailed under new law |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/sep/27/first-squatter-jailed-new-law |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170104061740/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/sep/27/first-squatter-jailed-new-law |archive-date=4 January 2017 |access-date=13 December 2016 |work=The Guardian |location=London}}</ref> By May 2016, SQUASH was reporting that under Section 144 there had been "at least 738 arrests, 326 prosecutions, 260 convictions and 11 people imprisoned.<ref>{{cite news |date=May 2016 |title=Squatting Statistics 2015 – version 2.0 |url=http://www.squashcampaign.org/repeal-law/report-squatting-statistics-2015/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160831004424/http://www.squashcampaign.org/repeal-law/report-squatting-statistics-2015/ |archive-date=31 August 2016 |access-date=7 September 2016 |publisher=SQUASH}}</ref>
The introduction of criminal trespass, coincided with the post-2010 austerity which drastically reduced central government contributions to local council capital budgets. This prompted local authorities to raise revenue by intensifying the sale of their remaining short-life properties.<ref>Ferreri, M. & Vasudevan, A., (2019). "Vacancy at the edges of the precarious city". ''Geoforum'', Volume 101, pp. 165-173.</ref>
==== Continued occupations and protest ==== In April 2011, a riot in Bristol was reportedly triggered by a police-assisted eviction of squats which had "created a space for parties, performances and exhibitions" in the Telepathic Heights area of Stokes Croft.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bateman |first=Jessica |date=2016-10-16 |title=Memories of Bristol's Best-Loved Squats |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/bristol-squats-magpie-telegraphic-heights-riots-demolition-diner/ |access-date=2025-06-30 |website=VICE |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Dutta |first1=Kunal |last2=Duff |first2=Oliver |date=2011-04-23 |title=Police raid over 'petrol bomb plot' sparks Tesco riots |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-raid-over-petrol-bomb-plot-sparks-tesco-riots-2273727.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180312190129/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-raid-over-petrol-bomb-plot-sparks-tesco-riots-2273727.html |archive-date=12 March 2018 |access-date=2011-04-27 |work=The Independent |location=London}}</ref> A week later, police raided five squats in London, one, part of the Transition Towns movement, set up in protest against the building of a third runway at Heathrow.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Laville |first=Sandra |date=2011-04-28 |title=Police raid five squats before royal wedding |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/apr/28/police-raid-squats-royal-wedding |access-date=2025-06-05 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/royal-wedding/8481261/Royal-wedding-Twenty-arrested-as-squats-raided-across-London.html Royal wedding: Twenty arrested as squats raided across London] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171206005333/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/royal-wedding/8481261/Royal-wedding-Twenty-arrested-as-squats-raided-across-London.html|date=6 December 2017}} ''Daily Telegraph'' 28 April 2011</ref> Alleging unnecessary and illegal pre-emptive action was taken against them, the squatters requested a judicial review of the policing tactics.<ref>{{Cite web |title='Royal wedding raids' judicial review |url=http://www.transitionheathrow.com/2012/05/royal-wedding-raids-judicial-review/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919102344/http://www.transitionheathrow.com/2012/05/royal-wedding-raids-judicial-review/ |archive-date=19 September 2015 |access-date=11 January 2013}}</ref> left|thumb|''Gremlins'' on the roof of the squatted Spin Bowling building in Cardiff, 2012 Following the 2012 criminalisation of squatting in residential property, in Cardiff there were contested occupations of a vacant hotel,<ref name="butedock2">{{cite news |date=21 November 2012 |title=Masked squatters move into Bute Dock Hotel |url=http://yourcardiff.walesonline.co.uk/2012/11/21/masked-squatters-move-into-bute-dock-hotel/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121201105242/http://yourcardiff.walesonline.co.uk/2012/11/21/masked-squatters-move-into-bute-dock-hotel/ |archive-date=1 December 2012 |access-date=6 November 2015 |work=Wales Online}}</ref> bowling alley and pub. Police and bailiffs were defied with the assistance of The Gremlins, a local anarchist group who linked their actions to the enforcement of Section 144 against Alex Haigh in London.<ref name="spin2">{{cite news |date=6 October 2012 |title=Activists occupying former Cardiff bowling alley pledge to 'stay put' |url=http://www.walesonline.co.uk/cardiffonline/cardiff-news/2012/10/06/activists-occupying-former-cardiff-bowling-alley-pledge-to-stay-put-91466-31976722/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130311122724/http://www.walesonline.co.uk/cardiffonline/cardiff-news/2012/10/06/activists-occupying-former-cardiff-bowling-alley-pledge-to-stay-put-91466-31976722/ |archive-date=11 March 2013 |access-date=6 November 2015 |work=Wales Online}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Malone |first1=Sam |date=8 August 2013 |title=Masked squatters barricade themselves inside pub to avoid eviction |url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/masked-squatters-barricade-themselves-inside-5680263 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414222851/https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/masked-squatters-barricade-themselves-inside-5680263 |archive-date=14 April 2019 |access-date=14 April 2019 |work=Wales Online}}</ref>
Due to the increased in the squatting of business premises, there were renewed calls from Conservative MPs to extend the criminalisation of squatting to non-residential property.<ref name="tories2">{{cite news |last=Bowcott |first=Owen |date=30 November 2012 |title=Criminalise squatting in commercial premises, say Tory MPs |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/nov/30/criminalise-squatting-commercial-property |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170830110343/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/nov/30/criminalise-squatting-commercial-property |archive-date=30 August 2017 |access-date=13 December 2016 |work=The Guardian |location=London}}</ref>
In London, a group calling themselves the Autonomous Nation of Anarchist Libertarians (ANAL) squatted a series of luxury mansions in order to bring attention to the housing crisis and the scandal of empty buildings. When they occupied the seven storey former Institute of Directors in Pall Mall, in March 2015, they claimed it was the seventeenth building in the area they had stayed in.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Amrani |first1=Nadira |date=20 March 2015 |title=A Group of London Squatters Called ANAL Have Moved in Next to the Queen |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/pall-mall-squat-the-queen-london-558/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190415062412/https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/yvqawy/pall-mall-squat-the-queen-london-558 |archive-date=15 April 2019 |access-date=14 April 2019 |work=Vice}}</ref> Over the next two years, they were successively evicted from Admiralty Arch,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Amrani |first1=Nadira |date=8 April 2015 |title=Inside the Brief Occupation of the Luxury Squat Opposite Buckingham Palace |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/anal-squat-admiralty-arch-381/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190415001751/https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/exqg84/anal-squat-admiralty-arch-381 |archive-date=15 April 2019 |access-date=14 April 2019 |work=Vice}}</ref> from a £15 million mansion in Eaton Square, Belgravia, which they opened up to rough sleepers,<ref>{{cite news |last1=England |first1=Charlotte |date=29 January 2017 |title=Anarchist squatters take over £15m London mansion owned by Russian billionaire |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/anarchist-squatters-15-million-london-mansion-russian-billionaire-oligarch-andrey-goncharenko-eaton-a7549136.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414231910/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/anarchist-squatters-15-million-london-mansion-russian-billionaire-oligarch-andrey-goncharenko-eaton-a7549136.html |archive-date=14 April 2019 |access-date=14 April 2019 |work=Independent}}</ref> and from a £14m mansion opposite Buckingham Palace.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Taylor |first1=Diane |date=24 February 2017 |title=Serial squatters face eviction from £14m London mansion |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/feb/24/serial-squatters-face-eviction-from-14m-london-mansion |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414232045/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/feb/24/serial-squatters-face-eviction-from-14m-london-mansion |archive-date=14 April 2019 |access-date=14 April 2019 |work=Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Broomfield |first=Matt |date=2017-02-01 |title=Resisting Eviction with London's Anti-Capitalist Squatters |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/resisting-eviction-with-londons-anti-capitalist-squatters/ |access-date=2025-06-28 |website=VICE |language=en-US}}</ref>
Large scale evictions of social housing led to the use squatting in support tenants at risk of being decanted.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Cosslett |first1=Rhiannon Lucy |author-link1=Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett |date=22 August 2015 |title=Generation rent v the landlords: 'They can't evict millions of us' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/global/2015/aug/22/renters-fight-rogue-landlords-rhiannon-lucy-cosslett |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414221333/https://www.theguardian.com/global/2015/aug/22/renters-fight-rogue-landlords-rhiannon-lucy-cosslett |archive-date=14 April 2019 |access-date=14 April 2019 |work=Guardian}}</ref> In 2014, 29 young mothers living in Newham, east London, given notices of eviction from their hostel, refused accommodation in other cities such as Birmingham or Manchester and instead, forming themselves as the campaign group Focus 15, squatted empty flats in the Carpenters Estate.<ref name="Amara2">{{cite news |last1=Amara |first1=Pavan |date=28 September 2015 |title=E15 'occupation': We shall not be moved, say Stratford single parents fighting eviction after occupying empty homes |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/e15-occupation-we-shall-not-be-moved-say-stratford-single-parents-fighting-eviction-after-occupying-9761186.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190329175402/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/e15-occupation-we-shall-not-be-moved-say-stratford-single-parents-fighting-eviction-after-occupying-9761186.html |archive-date=29 March 2019 |access-date=12 April 2019 |work=Independent}}</ref> In 2015, one of the Focus E15 activists was arrested when she squatted a council flat in Stratford, in support of a mother who had been evicted.<ref>{{cite news |last=Booth |first=Robert |date=2015-03-14 |title=Focus E15 housing activist arrested on suspicion of squatting |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/14/focus-e15-housing-activist-arrested-on-suspicion-of-squatting |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190329175350/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/14/focus-e15-housing-activist-arrested-on-suspicion-of-squatting |archive-date=29 March 2019 |access-date=2019-03-27 |work=Guardian |location=London}}</ref> The charges were later dropped.<ref name="Ramiro2">{{cite news |last1=Ramiro |first1=Joana |date=12 May 2015 |title=Charge dropped for Focus E15 activist |url=https://morningstaronline.co.uk/a-2571-charge-dropped-for-focus-e15-activist-1 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412232900/https://morningstaronline.co.uk/a-2571-charge-dropped-for-focus-e15-activist-1 |archive-date=12 April 2019 |access-date=12 April 2019 |work=Morning Star}}</ref> In Sweets Way in Barnet 100 squatters held out for six months in 2015 until evicted with the last council tenant, a 52-year-old wheelchair user.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Booth |first1=Robert |date=24 September 2015 |title=Sweets Way standoff ends as last remaining council tenant evicted |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/sep/24/sweets-way-last-council-tenant-evicted-mostafa-aliverdipour |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414223555/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/sep/24/sweets-way-last-council-tenant-evicted-mostafa-aliverdipour |archive-date=14 April 2019 |access-date=14 April 2019 |work=Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqIORpmudFc |title=ITV London cover eviction of political squatters from Sweets Way N20 |date=2015-03-30 |last=Barnet Bugle |access-date=2025-06-29 |via=YouTube}}</ref>
To bring attention to the "terrible crisis" in UK housing,<ref name="Eardley2">{{cite news |last1=Eardley |first1=Nick |date=31 March 2015 |title=Election 2015: Ken Loach launches 'radical' Left Unity manifesto |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32128790 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190616233245/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32128790 |archive-date=16 June 2019 |access-date=15 June 2019 |work=BBC}}</ref> in 2015, Left Unity, a political party promoted by Ken Loach, the filmmaker who in 1966 had directed Cathy Come Home, launched its manifesto at Ingestre Court, a squat in Soho.<ref name="Chakelian2">{{cite news |last1=Chakelian |first1=Anoosh |date=31 March 2015 |title=A manifesto launch with a difference: Left Unity attacks Labour from a Soho squat |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/03/manifesto-launch-difference-left-unity-attacks-labour-soho-squat |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151218183045/http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/03/manifesto-launch-difference-left-unity-attacks-labour-soho-squat |archive-date=18 December 2015 |access-date=15 June 2019 |work=New Statesman}}</ref>
In 2016, protesting cuts to government funding for domestic violence services and victims, Sisters Uncut, a feminist direct action group, reclaimed an empty council flat in Hackney as a community shelter<ref>{{Cite news |date=2016-07-11 |title=Feminists 'Reclaim' Council Flat In Protest Over Cuts To Domestic Violence Services |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/sisters-uncut-occupy-council-house-in-hackney-to-fight-gentrification_uk_57838055e4b0935d4b4b2a76 |access-date=2018-09-20 |work=HuffPost UK |language=en-GB}}</ref> and, in 2017, took over a building on the former site of Holloway Prison, demanding that the land be used for a women's centre and social housing.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2017-05-28 |title=Sisters Uncut occupy old women's prison to stop it being turned into luxury flats |url=https://metro.co.uk/2017/05/28/sisters-uncut-occupy-old-womens-prison-to-stop-it-being-turned-into-luxury-flats-6667570/ |access-date=2018-09-20 |work=Metro |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-06-01 |title=We at Sisters Uncut have occupied Holloway prison. Why? Domestic violence {{!}} Nandini Archer |url=http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/01/domestic-violence-services-occupying-holloway-prison-sisters-uncut-cuts-women |access-date=2021-02-10 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref>
Camelot Property Management, which placed so-called "property guardians" into buildings on-reduced rent contracts to prevent squatting, in 2016 had their own vacant offices in Shoreditch occupied in protest for two months.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Taylor |first1=Diane |date=27 September 2016 |title=London protesters occupy former HQ of property management firm |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/sep/27/london-protesters-occupy-former-hq-of-property-management-firm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414205810/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/sep/27/london-protesters-occupy-former-hq-of-property-management-firm |archive-date=14 April 2019 |access-date=14 April 2019 |work=Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Taylor |first1=Diane |date=1 December 2016 |title=Squatters evicted from building of company that works to stop squatting |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/dec/01/squatters-evicted-from-building-of-company-that-works-to-stop-squatting |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414210139/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/dec/01/squatters-evicted-from-building-of-company-that-works-to-stop-squatting |archive-date=14 April 2019 |access-date=14 April 2019 |work=Guardian}}</ref>
The old Cornerhouse cinema in Manchester was squatted for five months in 2017 by the Loose Space collective.<ref name="NS2">{{cite news |last1=Cashin |first1=Declan |date=24 August 2017 |title=What everyday life in a squat is like |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/b049a295-7e4f-4838-8469-4b9fdf3db8b9 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190508062430/https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/b049a295-7e4f-4838-8469-4b9fdf3db8b9 |archive-date=8 May 2019 |access-date=13 June 2025 |work=BBC}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Slater |first=Chris |date=20 August 2017 |title=Squatters removed from Cornerhouse during early morning eviction |url=https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/cornerhouse-oxford-road-station-police-13503359 |access-date=12 September 2022 |work=Manchester Evening News}}</ref> The collective, whose house rules were no hard drugs, no continuous drinking and no abuse,<ref name="NS2" /> had previously occupied the Hulme Hippodrome.<ref name="Hippodrome2">{{cite news |last1=Abbit |first1=Beth |date=2 September 2017 |title=Inside Hulme Hippodrome: How squatters have given it a new lease of life |url=https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/inside-hulme-hippodrome-how-squatters-13562709 |access-date=10 June 2020 |work=Manchester Evening News}}</ref> Theirs was one of 40 squats (including shelters and community spaces) evicted in Manchester between 2015 and 2018.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Broomfield |first1=Matt |date=16 January 2018 |title=The squatters and rough sleepers taking up the fight against homelessness in Manchester |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/welfare/2018/01/squatters-and-rough-sleepers-taking-fight-against-homelessness-manchester |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414213340/https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/welfare/2018/01/squatters-and-rough-sleepers-taking-fight-against-homelessness-manchester |archive-date=14 April 2019 |access-date=14 April 2019 |work=New Statesman}}</ref>
==== Raves and free parties ==== The 2010s saw a revival of the practice of using of abandoned buildings to stage raves and free parties, pop-up events that ignore licensing restrictions. In the early 1990s illegal warehouse parties had been virtually eradicated through the introduction under the Entertainments (Increased Penalties) Act (1990) of fines and prison terms for events organisers.<ref name=":8">{{Cite news |last=Ravens |first=Chal |date=2024-03-07 |title=Too Big to Shut Down |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n05/chal-ravens/too-big-to-shut-down |access-date=2025-06-21 |work=London Review of Books |language=en |volume=46 |issue=5 |issn=0260-9592}}</ref> Provisions in the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 were also designed to suppress illicit partying following an around-the-clock breakbeat, hardcore and techno festival on Castlemorton Common, outside Malvern, Worcestershire.<ref name="BBC">{{cite web |last=Chester |first=Jerry |date=28 May 2017 |title=Castlemorton Common: The rave that changed the law |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-39960232 |accessdate=28 May 2017 |publisher=BBC News}}</ref>
Free partying began to re-emerge in the 2000s, eliciting provisions in the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 regulating parties of more than 20 people.<ref name="2003Act">{{Cite legislation UK|type=act|year=2003|chapter=38|act=Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003|section=58}}</ref> Increasingly, however, free parties were becoming large enough (groups of 500 or more) to create potential for a riot if interrupted.<ref>{{cite news |date=5 August 2005 |title=Police back off after rave threat |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/suffolk/4192578.stm |publisher=BBC}}</ref>
In the 2010s, the closure night clubs due to growing licensing and regulatory restrictions (in the ten years to 2015 the number in the UK had nearly halved), created a new space for squat parties.<ref name=":8" /> In London, reporting on squat parties became a staple of the local press.<ref>{{cite news |date=12 September 2014 |title=Croydon death rave: No officers disciplined |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-29171610 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190424043641/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-29171610 |archive-date=24 April 2019 |access-date=14 April 2019 |work=BBC}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=21 January 2017 |title=Police attacked while stopping illegal rave in Deptford |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-38704339 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190424043657/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-38704339 |archive-date=24 April 2019 |access-date=14 April 2019 |work=BBC}}</ref><ref name="Holborn2">{{Citation |title=Riot police tackle 'illegal' rave in High Holborn |date=2010-10-31 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11660254 |access-date=2011-05-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191022003804/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11660254 |archive-date=22 October 2019 |url-status=live |publisher=BBC}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=1 November 2015 |title=Rave crowd clashes with riot police in Lambeth |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-34691392 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190413133621/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-34691392 |archive-date=13 April 2019 |access-date=14 April 2019 |work=BBC}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=3 July 2016 |title=Police injured after missiles thrown at Walthamstow rave |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-36697718 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190517233902/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-36697718 |archive-date=17 May 2019 |access-date=14 April 2019 |work=BBC}}</ref>
=== 2020s === In 2023, with soaring rents and increasing destitution, the Advisory Service for Squatters was reporting "a rise in squatting for the first time in a generation".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Rodrigues |first=Jason |date=2023-12-28 |title=Squatting is on the rise again in Britain – and in this vicious housing crisis, is anyone surprised? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/28/squatting-rise-housing-crisis-uk-vacant-properties |access-date=2025-06-12 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> In July 2023, squats were reportedly opened around the UK on a national day of housing action organised by Housing Rebellion, an initiative of the climate-justice group Extinction Rebellion.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rebellion |first=Extinction |date=2023-07-06 |title=Housing Rebellion Day Of Action: HOUSING FOR NEED - NOT GREED! |url=https://extinctionrebellion.uk/2023/07/06/housing-rebellion-day-of-action-housing-for-need-not-greed/ |access-date=2025-06-19 |website=Extinction Rebellion UK |language=en-GB}}</ref> Under the slogan “Housing For Need Not Greed”, the focus was on the further loss of social housing through the private-sector gentrification of former council estates.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Eds |date=2023-07-11 |title=Squats opened around the UK on National Day of Housing Action |url=https://freedomnews.org.uk/2023/07/11/squats-opened-around-the-uk-on-national-day-of-housing-action/ |access-date=2025-06-19 |website=Freedom News |language=en-GB}}</ref>
While there have been a number of high-profile occupations ("Princess Diana's favourite restaurant in Knightsbridge",<ref>{{Cite web |last=Donnell |first=Ellie |date=2024-06-28 |title=Squatters take over Princess Diana's favourite restaurant in Knightsbridge |url=https://www.squaremeal.co.uk/restaurants/news/squatters-restaurant-knightsbridge-san-lorenzo_10719 |access-date=2025-06-19 |website=SquareMeal |language=en}}</ref> "Gordon Ramsay's £13m London pub"<ref>{{Cite news |date=2024-04-13 |title=Squatters take over Gordon Ramsay's £13m London pub |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-68806116 |access-date=2025-06-19 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref>), a 2025 survey of the scene in London concedes that it is "not on the scale it was in the 1970s, nor as public as it was between the 1980s and the introduction of new police powers in 2012". But in a city "that is, at best, indifferent to those without money to rent or own property", squatting "keeps cropping up, igniting public debates around vacancy, ownership, housing crisis, and entitlement".<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Burgum |first=Samuel |title=Squatting in London: the Politics of Property |publisher=Pluto Press |year=2025 |isbn=978074534143-9 |pages=2–3}}</ref>{{rp|2-3}}
Even where their purpose is housing, squatters target non-residential property – empty shops, pubs, offices, cinemas, churches, warehouses – where the issue of criminal trespass does not immediately arise.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|6}}<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Abdulla |first1=Suban |last2=Thomas |first2=Natalie |date=2024-06-28 |title=Squatters take London's housing crisis into their own hands |url=https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/britain-election-housing-squatters/ |access-date=2025-06-20 |work=Reuters |language=en}}</ref> They might post notices affirming that the property is "not a 'residential building' within the meaning of Section 144", that "at all times there is at least one person in occupation", and that any attempt gain entry and remove them without a court order is "a criminal offence".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-04-02 |title=Squatters 'move into former Catford cinema' which suddenly closed six months ago |url=https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/25058200.catford-mews-cinema-becomes-occupied-squatters/ |access-date=2025-06-14 |website=News Shopper |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Dunne |first=John |date=2024-11-07 |title=Squatters move into iconic Brixton venue Dogstar just days after it closes |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/squatters-brixton-venue-dogstar-gordon-ramsay-b1192698.html |access-date=2025-06-14 |website=The Standard |language=en}}</ref>
== Notes == {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}
== See also == * Homelessness in England * Homelessness in the United Kingdom * Squatting in Scotland
== Further reading ==
=== History and surveys ===
* Bailey, Ron (1973) ''The Squatters.'' Penguin: London. {{ISBN|0140523006}}. * Ward, Colin (1976) ''[https://files.libcom.org/files/Colin_Ward_Housing_Anarchist_Approach_1976.pdf Housing: an Anarchist Approach]''. London: Freedom Press. ISBN 978-0900384127 * Burgum, Samuel (2025) ''Squatting in London: the Politics of Property''. London: Pluto Press. {{ISBN|9780745341439}} * Vasudevan, Alexander (2017) ''The Autonomous City: A History of Urban Squatting.'' London: Verso. {{ISBN|978-1781687864}} * Ward, Colin (2002) ''Cotters and Squatters: The Hidden History of Housing.'' Nottingham: Five Leaves Publications. {{ISBN|978-0907123194}} * Wates, N. & Wolmar, C. eds. (1980) ''Squatting the real story.'' London: Bay Leaf. ISBN 978-0950725918 * Watson, Don (2016) ''Squatting in Britain 1945-1955: Housing. Politics and Direct Action''. London: Merlin Press. ISBN 978-0850367287
=== Fiction ===
* Burgess, Melvin, ''Junk'' (1996), London: Anderson Press {{ISBN|978-1-78344-845-6}} * Lessing, Doris (1985) ''The Good Terrorist.'' London: Jonathan Cape. {{ISBN|0-224-02323-3}} * Freemantle, Jo, and others (1987) [https://files.libcom.org/files/BeneathTheKeyboardFinal_compressed.pdf ''From Beneath The Keyboard - a collection of stories.''] London: Hooligan Press. * Sleigh, Mark (2023) ''Squatters Rights (Those Who Were Dancing).'' Independently published: London''.'' {{ISBN|9798852416155}}
=== Memoir ===
* George, F. (2015) ''Total Shambles''. London: Influx Press. {{ISBN|978-1910312049}} * Price, Deborah (2022) ''The Peanut Factory.'' London: Guts Publishing. ISBN 978-1838471941
== References == {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== * [http://www.wussu.com/squatting/index.htm UK Squatting Archive] * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybSlijNa-ek Wasteland (UK)] – Documentary about squatting by Will Wright * ''[http://socialcentrestories.wordpress.com/ What's this place?]'' (2008) – A booklet with stories from radical social centres in the United Kingdom and Ireland
{{SquatE&W}} {{Squatting}} {{Portal bar|England|Wales}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Squatting In England}} Category:Affordable housing Category:Anarcho-punk Category:DIY culture Category:Homelessness in England Category:English civil law Category:English criminal law Category:English property law Category:Housing in England Category:Housing in Wales Category:Poverty in England Category:Poverty in Wales Category:English land law England and Wales Category:Anarchism in the United Kingdom