Hoxton squatters in standoff with officers as police station occupiers face eviction
Occupied: the now-closed Hackney Central Police Station. Photograph: Hackney Citizen
Squatters occupying a building controversially earmarked for a free school are bracing themselves for eviction.
The Olive School, a Muslim free school currently based in temporary accommodation in Stoke Newington, wants to move into the Grade II listed Hackney Central Police Station building in Clapton – but the site has been occupied by squatters since around April.
A district judge last month rejected the squatters defence against a possession order – but bailiffs are yet to take action.
A spokesperson for the squatters said: “Every morning people expect the door to be kicked in. The authorities have been aggressive and unpleasant and their action is completely unnecessary.
“Everyone living there is a vulnerable person as they are homeless.”
Looking out: a squatter on a balcony of the now-closed Hackney Central Police Station earlier this year. Photograph: Hackney Citizen
They added: “We told them that we would need a little time to make sure we could find alternative accommodation for everyone so that people weren’t forced to sleep on the streets.
“They replied that they do not care about the needs of those inside the building and that we were ‘very lucky’ our court case was before the weekend as they have applied for high court bailiffs to evict us as soon as possible.”
The Department for Education was “pushing for a fast eviction,” they said, and was “calling all the shots”, despite the Tauheedul Trust being the registered owners.
The police station site was sold off by the Mayor’s Office of Policing and Crime last year.
Its headteacher Julie Bradley said she had no knowledge about the progress or outcome of the eviction process.
The Department for Education said only that it was taking “appropriate action”.
Yesterday squatters occupying another building – Hoxton’s Gainsborough Car Wash – were involved in a standoff with police and bailiffs. The site is believed to be owned by Royal Mail.
Police at the Gainsborough Car Wash site. Photograph: Peter Yeung
A crowd of up to thirty bystanders gathered along New North Road in the late afternoon, as one of the squatters, pursued by a bailiff, stood shouting on the roof of the single storey building, with many cyclists and motorists watching in the slow-moving traffic.
Police at the site in Hoxton. Squatters at the Hackney Police Station building in Clapton are also facing eviction. Photograph: Peter Yeung.
The young man on the roof could be heard saying: “He has come into my home: that is a criminal offence.
“These men ripped my repairs off the roof. I am afraid for my life, but the police stand there in silence.”
The Hackney Citizen is awaiting a comment from Royal Mail and Hackney Police.
I live in the area and I noticed someone was living there from hearing dogs barking, and they didn’t sound too happy so I started paying a bit more attention to the building , and its massive courtyard, and have seen some of the new residents going in and out.
They don’t seem to be especially vulnerable, but look perfectly fine and healthy, well dressed, and totally aware of when to exit and enter the building. To me , that looks more like professional squatters than vulnerable down and out people.
I don’t mind squatters per se, but in this situation I think there are others that could benefit from getting help from the police, and the society, but wont because time and money are being spent on the this instead.
To the comment above: nearly all squatters, regardless of how “well dressed” they appear, are dependent on squatting to provide shelter for themselves. This makes them inherently vulnerable. A squatters’ life is often insecure, and can involve violence. To use this place on New North Road as an example, the squatters ended up being illegally evicted by security, who had complete protection from the police. People were assaulted by the security. This is a traumatic situation for anyone. It is only because of a network of people helping each other that these squatters can survive in the interim between places. They receive no help apart from these self-organised networks. Please do not use how the dress, how educated they appear, as a marker for vulnerability.
Well said, Saul. We are past the days when we should judge people by how they dress or how they appear.
The fact is that the security came with no appropriate documentation to support their actions and failed to produce this even when asked by the police. That makes their actions in breaking in to the building and forcibly evicting people absolutely unlawful.
What’s worse is that some of the police officers were prepared to turn a blind eye to this illegal action because it was easier for them.
Regardless of whether you agree with squatting or not you cannot agree with a system that allows big companies to forcibly do whatever they want simply because they can afford to. This could be your bank and your mortgage and your house. You would not want the police to turn a blind eye if it was you involved.
After reading a few comments published recently relating to squatting I feel quite overwhelmed by the judgmental and bigotted attitudes of people towards anyone that does not wish to make their lives be about playing the game of modern western consumer capitalism. We are told in school that we need to achieve, get a job, borrow money, acquire possessions, and that is what life is about. I have no problem with people living that way but accept that some people just want to live in a more natural and traditional way and many of us end up in squats because we don’t want to be part of the current system. Many people find aspects of the system immoral or unpleasant and maybe they end up in a squat for that reason. Who is anyone to say people have to live in one way or another, that they can’t follow their beliefs, and why are people who claim to believe in democracy and freedom the ones telling people how to live their lives (people who feel so strongly about it they are happy to murder people on the other side of the world that they don’t even know, apparently for that aim) . If people are hurting no one why can’t they just get on with living their lives the way they want to. Of course people will say they are hurting the multi millionaire land owners but aren’t these people the real criminals? Everyone should be able to live somewhere affordable which is often not possible in london and who’s fault is that? The laws of this country are designed to allow a certain minority to become rich while the rest of us are essentially slave labour for them. They lack little moral validity. The old common law is one thing but modern statutes give a complex and therefore essentially secret mandate to a few to exploit the rest. We don’t have to accept it but unfortunately many of our fellows are so wrapped up in what they are told it seems like they can’t handle seeing people just enjoying life in a peaceful and relaxed way. The comments of late regarding squatters, migrants, romas, travellers, refugees reflect only ignorance and bigotry. It’s time people got some perspective on things and realised that others are, at least morally, equally entitled to live a happy and peaceful life. You will never get the whole population submitting to your way of life, especially since the banking bailout. You can just accept it and get on with your life and leave other people in peace. The land is there for all of us to enjoy, not for a certain few to hoard.
There’s some graffiti on a wall in Shoreditch saying, “we ask for nothing, we demand nothing, we will take”. It is written by the Occupy movement and it sums up the attitude of squatters. They are thieves, corrupting English law to take possession of something that doesn’t belong to them. They dress it up as ideology or “alternative living” but it isn’t – it’s plain theft based on a warped sense of entitlement. It’s the notion you can do nothing, take drugs, party and short-circuit consensual societal routes to achievement such as education, careers and earned benefits – in fact falsely accusing those that have earned such benefits of being greedy criminals or grasping capitalists. It’s pathetic and infantile – and very very selfish. How do I know all this: cos I used to be one – squatting in South London and Manchester in the 1980s. Please stop hiding behind some convenient ideology that you half understand. Please kill the faux outrage and invented sense of victimhood. And please grow up.