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Mayfair squatters say come and live at £6.5m house
Benedict Moore-Bridger and Terry Kirby07.11.08
THIS elegant five-storey Mayfair house is owned by one of Britain's richest men and its distinguished former occupants include MPs, barons, viscounts and industrialists.
Today, the latest people to call the £6.25 million building home are the Da! Collective, a ramshackle bunch of young people and artists who have been squatting there for almost a month.
The spacious rooms, which once hosted sparkling gatherings of London's wealthy and titled, have been redesignated as an "organic project space" - a live-in art installation to which all-comers are welcome.
One of the Da! Collective, Stephanie Smith, 21, an artist and squatter for the past three years, said they were improving the dilapidated property which had been abandoned by its previous tenants and left to rot.
Miss Smith, originally from north London, said the squatters had not heard anything from the building's tenants, a company called Deltaland Resources Ltd, which leases it from the Duke of Westminster's Grosvenor estate.
She said: "Other people can come here. We want people to use it as project space. It is organic - people can work here, stay wherever they want."
Miss Smith said her parents did not criticise her choice of lifestyle. "It took a bit of getting used to but they have been round and this is their preferred one. The building has been left to rot, but I love living in dust and dirt."
The collective says it survives by plundering the rubbish bins of central London. Tom Crouse-Smith, 20, said they lived a "freeganistic" lifestyle. "We do get food from bins. The whole place is a very rich experience - it is cultured. We are just trying to learn from each other."
The Grade II-listed house in Upper Grosvenor Street in the heart of Mayfair is one of a number of large central London properties the group have occupied in the past, including addresses on Kensington High Street, in Tottenham Court Road and the former Iraqi consulate in Knightsbridge.
If the group remain for 12 years they would legally be able to own the house if the owner does not try to reclaim it. They have had a mixed reception from neighbours, who include the American Embassy and Claridge's.
Michelin-starred chef Richard Corrigan's new restaurant, Corrigans Mayfair, is on the opposite side of the road. Jacques Dejardin, the manager, said: "It's rather bewildering. When you move into an address like this you don't expect to have squatters as neighbours."
Built in the 1730s, the house has been home to the landowner and politician, Baron de Dunstanville, Baron Rolle, who was a supporter of William Pitt the Younger, F.Wooton Isaacson, a colliery owner and former MP for Tower Hamlets and Sir Victor Warrender, a prominent Scottish landowner and Conservative politician, later Baron Bruntisfield, who lived there between 1924 and 1928.
Deltaland Resources, which is registered in the British Virgin Islands, has employed Macfarlands, a City law firm to deal with the matter.
Reader views (13)
there are squats in almost every city worldwide,legal or otherwise,INCLUDING PARIS, a good friend lived in a squat in paris for almost two years. this is not something new.
- Angus, london
A person who owns more houses than they can make use of is guilty of theft from the homeless. Well done Da! Collective. Hang in there guys.
- Will, Shetland
Excellent, It doesn't take much to expose this disgusting side of extreme wealth. We still have Children in this country living below the poverty line and people facing this winter on the streets.
Eat the Rich.
- Good Onyah, LOndon
Fair play to the squatters, making use of an unused premisis which will be left to rot, if there gonna maintain and look after the house then whats your problem Dean london!!
- Chris M, KETTERING
Paris? whats that got to do with it,were in London.Property like that left empty? thats the crime,good luck to em.
- Kev, London
Good for them.
- P I Staker, London
Maybe its a dodgy company that owns it and thats why they are not coming foward!!!!
Big up the squatters...
- Dean, London
The police should throw them out into the street. People such as 'the squatters' have been taking the p*** out of this country for far too long. They should pay their dues to society or emigrate - I would like to see them try to squat in Paris.
- Ian Bennett, London
What ever happened to the right of a property owner to do what he wishes with his property as long as it is not illegal? If he chooses not to use it then what gives someone else the right to take it over. Archaic laws and acceptance by some mind numbing idiots as evidenced by the preceding posts.
- Apointofview, USA
Among the neighbours is the American Embassy, no stranger to disruption in that area.
- Frank H., London.
Sooner them there than some Russian oligarch 'living' in it three weeks a year.
- Spud, London
If any landlord allows his/her/their property to fall into disrepair and completely neglect it over a LONG period of time, it appears only correct, if squatters move in.
In my opinion the landlord has by then forfeited his rights of ownership, as ownership is always coupled with responsibility (I must stress that I am a property owner myself).
If these squatters then beautify and repair a previously delerict house, there is even more reason to keep them in, as long as no illegal activities take place (drug dealing, terrorist activities etc.) or illegal migrants live in there.
The property should then fall to the local council, who might want to rent it out to original squatters, who will become tenants in due course. Their repair and maintenance work should be taken into account, when determingin the monthly rent figure.
- Weddigen, London SW6
Good for them! They sound fun and at least they are doing something to protect the fabric of the abandoned building. Let us hope their party isn't too disrupting for the neighbours; on the other hand, many of those neighbours have no qualms about hosting their own events in residential areas either in the Uk or elsewhere.
- Helen, norwich
