Tonight:
9°c
Quiet please, we hold squatting masterclasses in this library
Rashid Razaq and Peter Dominiczak16.02.09
Squatters have occupied a public library building and turned it into a base for radical political groups.
The activists moved into the Lambeth council-owned Library House in Camberwell in September and are using it to hold squatting masterclasses and organise anti-Israel protests.
The 19th century two-storey property in Knatchbull Road, which adjoins Minet Library, originally constituted the librarian's home and an archive for local government and genealogy records.
Lambeth council had most recently been using it to provide social housing but it had been vacated for renovations.
Yet construction work has not been able to get under way and the squatters have refused repeated pleas to leave during the last six months. The council now faces a legal battle to obtain a court eviction order.
The group of eight people, mostly French and Italian students, set up camp after they were evicted from a former café in nearby Warham Street. It took more than five months and repeated court summons to make them leave.
Billed as a centre for "radical social movements", the Library House building has become a meeting place for anti-capitalist groups.
The organisers of the Camp for Climate Action, who are planning to bring the Square Mile to a standstill during the G20 summit on 1 April, were due to have held a planning meeting there on Saturday.
One of the squatters, who gave his name as Simon, 30, from Rome, said: "When we arrived, it was in a real mess. We cleaned up the garden and fixed all the rooms. There were squatters here before us who sold drugs. We are not interested in any of that. We do live an alternative lifestyle, but all we want to do here is something for the community.
"People might be angry that we are living here for free, but we are not selfish. We are trying to do something special in this house and work with the local community to make the area better."
Minet Library and Library House were bequeathed to the public by William Minet in 1890 along with his personal collection, which formed the core of the Lambeth archives.
Services have been unaffected at the local lending library and its books and records are not under threat.
However the ancilliary building has now been made into a space where "people can come together to create, conspire, communicate and offer a collective challenge against capitalism", according to the squatters' website.
Three rooms holding more than 60 people are used to host "South London Squatters Network" meetings, which are open to "every squatter living south of the river" to "come along to support each other, to share skills and...find people to squat with."
A Lambeth council spokesman said: "We are currently going through the legal process to evict squatters at this property. Lambeth council takes a zero-tolerance approach to squatting.
"We owe it to the law-abiding tenants and residents of the borough to ensure that social housing is not abused by freeloading squatters, but goes to families in desperate need of a home."
Reader views (17)
There are so many properties lying empty, many of them not residential ones, such as the Library in question. The people concerned have turned an unused building into one with a use though their initiative. It's ridiculous to say they are depriving other people of a home, just revealing the prejudices of those making these comments.
Lambeth Council is notorious for inefficiency, and they have clearly left the building empty for too long. The nationality of the squatters should not be an issue, or is this thinly discguised xenophobia ?
good on them for taking an initiative and yes, the capitalist system is ripe for some criticism at the moment.
- Steve, London UK
I live near here. I am a home owner, etc. I like these people, they have tidied the house and provide welcoming community events. Squatting isn't what people think it is.
- John Welland, Brixton
I bet these squatters have cash to pays for booze, cars, movies, restaurants, Ipods, television, computers etc..
- Peter Noterfed, paris, France
GET THEM OUT - CALL THE COPS - MOVE THEM ON.
To have a seminar on squatting is quite ridiculous and the MP's should quickly, VERY QUICKLY, enact some kind of law that deters this kind of behaviour.
IT'S A DANGEROUS HABIT TO GIVE IN TO THESE TYPES.
- Rosie, Arizona,,, USA
At this rate, it will be years before Lambeth will get possession, but the council employees responsible will drag it out to preserve their essential jobs, forget service/value for money for the rate payers.
If they were on the ball, the squatters would have been out 4 months ago!
- Hugh, Middx
To Kev from London - How is encouraging others like them to break the law and invade other people's property "making a contribution"? All they are doing is delaying deserving families from having a home of their own. Perhaps women who've been victims of domestic violence or families with children, living in squalid and overcrowded conditions in bed and breakfast accommodation. You know nothing of these squatters and they could well be middle-class kids doing this as a bit of "rebellion" before they knuckle down and start working. They are not even from this country for heavens sake! Your comments are extremely naive.
- M Farbiash, Highgate
Dear Margaret Saliafrio,There not squatting in anybody's house,It is a old trick used by every council to claim that a squatted property is going to be turned into homes,it serves them in order to turn public opinion against the squatters and it helps them gain a possession order by getting the sympathies of the judge,this is born out by numerous reports into the amount of empty council properties left to rot in the country,most councils will admit to not having the financial resources to renovate empty properties.I judge not, but as i lived on a council estate many years ago that was my observation,i accept people are in housing need for many reasons i did not use the word all, but the points system favours those with many siblings indeed councils have a legal obligation to house such people this i believe leads to abuse of the system and encourages there children to do the same as opposed to single people who have no such rights,disabled and people in ill health score less points than those with children this has the effect of filling social housing with families with lots of children in my opinion having children is a decision being ill or disabled is not.of course the answer is to build more social housing but then were into the political arena,unfortunately Thatchers right to buy policy has not been rescinded.
- Kev, London-UK
Dear Kev - Would you feel the same way if it was your house they were squatting in? Also, there are many different reasons why people get into housing need, ordinary decent people, not just the scrounging rabbits. You should not be so quick to judge.
- Margaret Salafrio, St John's Wood
Good old London an absolute paradise for all of the drop-outs in the world !! No wonder the worlds freeloaders turn up there.
- Nick Holland, glasgow
Good to see people with a bit of initiative,at least there not sat around waiting for the council to provide them with housing, and by the sound of it there making a positive contribution to the community as opposed to most council house dwellers who once thay have been housed just sit back and take all and give nothing back to there community,unless of course your idea of giving something back to the community is to bang out as many foul mouthed children as you can to maximise your child benefit entitlement
- Kev, London-UK
The Squatters Rights laws need repealing. It should be a case of occupy a property and you are committing trespass. Leave or we send the boys with the baseball bats in. That'll sort them.
- Marc, Harrow, UK
Why do we have these stupid squatters rights laws in the UK?
In Spain if the same happened, the police would just come round and literally drag them out, as they should be allowed to here.
These squatters are also stopping someone that needs this home being able to move in.
- P I Staker, London, SW8
'Lambeth council takes a zero-tolerance approach to squatting' ... that must be a joke. A flat in our block in SE5, around the corner from the Minet Library, has been squatted for months! Despite Lambeth Housing being made aware of the problem no action has been taken, nor have we received a response from the council in regards to our request. I am not sure anyone cares unless the press is involved when meaningless statements which are not followed through are released. Utter shambles!
- Carsten, London
"People might be angry that we are living here for free, but we are not selfish" he says?
Oh, yes, you are very, very selfish, if you think you can just waltz into any property you like and deny people who've been on council housing lists the right to a home that they are in real need of. I am also intensely sceptical about the extent of the cleaning up of the rooms and gardens that they claim to have done.
- Sarah Bradshaw, Enfield, Middx
How fabulous that young people with passions and interests so pertinent to the strange times in which we live,have transformed a run down building into a home and a social centre.
With unemployment and home repossessions soaring, it's brilliant that people find a way to survive and thrive that doesn't cost us money in terms of housing benefit etc.
As for Climate Camp closing down the square mile. Wow! About time some activists stood up to the banking system. We want jobs and homes, not bailouts and bonuses for bankers. BANKERS are the scourge!
- Cristabel, UK
good on em,liberating themselves from the crackberry culture, Bishop Chartres would be proud of them, now there's an alternative for you and don't we need alternatives right now.
- Kev, London-UK
The social leaches are at it again then.
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
