Last remaining squatter evicted from former Hackney Central Police Station
Former police station on Lower Clapton Road. Photograph: Hackney Citizen
The last squatter occupying the former Hackney Central Police Station on Lower Clapton Road has been evicted from the premises by bailiffs.
The grade II listed building, sold for 7.6 million for use as a free school after the police station closed last July, has been occupied by squatters since April.
Police confirmed that they attended the former Police Station at 8:30am on Monday June 16 to assist bailiffs with the eviction. Only one person was found at the property and no arrests were made.
A protective cage has now been fitted over the door on the side entrance to the building and the flags which had been flying from the windows have been removed.
Does anyone know when the proposed school moves in? I emailed the head teacher / Olive School organisation asking what provision they were making for a playground (or do they intend to use the local public areas?), and how the ‘school run’ would be managed in terms of traffic. Surely there will be gridlock, and the lives of people living in St John’s Church Road will be severely disrupted (it is after all a cul de sac). I didn’t receive a reply. There seems to be a wall of silence, or perhaps just a sense of entitlement – which is probably fitting when you’re only answerable to the secretary of state for eduction. It would be good to know when the school leadership are going to introduce themselves to the local community, and answer questions about the impact the school will have – not least the massively accelerated polarising of education in Hackney by religion and (by extension) ethnicity.
I should have recorded a ‘thanks’ to the squatters. Whatever their own reason for being there, in a situation stripped of democracy and local accountability they were the only mechanism for delaying this school. Or were they?