London has about 250 000 empty houses and about a quarter of them are squatted. According to the Empty Homes Agency there were 804 000 empty homes in the UK in April 1998. The recently famous case of squatting in London is that of squatters living in an uber-posh £22.5 mln building in London’s Mayfair. They were known from the past for squatting a £6.25 mansion just around the corner from the current squat, which they left upon eviction. The owners of the house saw a Christmas tree there last December and from then the artist squatters are yet again facing moving on. Squatting is not exactly illegal in the UK. So long as the entry to a building is not forced and the inhabitants do not damage the property, they aren’t committing a criminal offense. Squatters actually enjoy legal protection where the owner must first take them to court in order to get them out of his or her property. If squatters stay at a place for 12 years they gain some ownership rights to the property.
Whether the eviction threat was a push to open the squat to the public, I don’t know, but it’s sure an interesting case. The squat is currently hosting an open school that holds free lectures and classes in anything from book binding and Polish history to cooking and life drawing. The Temporary School of Thought is based on mutual sharing of skills and knowledge by anyone who’s willing to bring them there. According to the squatters themselves, it’s ‘a space where people come together to share knowledge, non-descript skills, tactical imagination, creationism, passive action. A week long event of mutual learning, leftwing bias, free lectures, inert radicalism, workshops, discussion and film screenings.’ If you want to attend any classes, you can check the timetable here.
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