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Squatters set up home a few doors down from Thatcher
Peter Dominiczak29.09.09
Squatters have taken over a three-storey house doors away from the home of Margaret Thatcher.
The seven squatters moved into the four-bedroom house near the former prime minister's home in Chester Square in Belgravia, which has also been home to celebrities and billionaires including Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea football club.
A house in the garden square recently sold for more than £20 million, and the average price of a house there is thought to be £7 million. Baroness Thatcher bought her home there in 1991 for about £700,000.
The squatters, many of whom were last week evicted from the 80-room former Sudanese embassy in Rutland Gate, Kensington, said they targeted properties in west London owned by foreigners who left the buildings empty. They have previously occupied a £4.5 million house near Harrods.
The squatters said they entered the house legally through a broken window and claim it had been unoccupied for more than three months.
One of the group, a builder who gave his name as Jake Tag, said: “We knew it was really close to Margaret Thatcher's house. It's hard to believe we've ended up living so near someone like that.
“This is the richest place to live in London. Living here is a dream come true. We're going to keep the place clean and tidy and we won't do any damage. It's all perfectly legal and we just want to set up a nice home in an abandoned house.”
Film maker Mark James, 44, from Knightsbridge, has been producing a documentary about the squatters.
He said: “Margaret Thatcher has a 24-hour diplomatic security detail and nobody has noticed these squatters moving in so close to her house. These squatters come from all over the world and are here because they can't afford rent. They target homes in Belgravia, Kensington and Chelsea because rich people own them and just sit on a beach in another country.
“I'm sure residents including Margaret Thatcher won't be entirely happy with their new neighbours but these people are not going to do any damage, will keep the place tidy and are there entirely legally.
“If they get evicted from this house by the owners, they have other addresses in mind. There are lots of empty properties in this area.”
A group of squatters known as The Oubliette took over the former Mexican embassy in Mayfair and the former Tanzanian high commission next door earlier this month.
Reader views (5)
Barry L-Smith, London - with people's attitudes like your's it seems that the security detail would be a necessity. Cheap shot insults aren't clever - just cheap.
And for the terminally dense, it isn't just Joe Bloggs the builder from down the road who uses the squatting rights to move in on these neighbourhoods, it is also foreigners & home grown political radicals. It only takes one who is a terrorist to move in and it's a whole new game. These people pick high profile targets for their news appeal. 1+1=2.
- Rogan, Irving
NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD CHOOSE TO LIVE ANYWHERE WITHIN A MILLION MILES OF PARASITE THATCHER.
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR
Why haven't these archaic squatters laws been changed, they were a problem when I was a kid 30 years ago.
No one else in Erope has them, that I know of.
- P Staker, Londonistan.
How much does the old bag's '24hr diplomatic security' cost everyone then?
- Barry L-Smith, London
AMAZING, The Police must have been asleep again, yawwwwwwwwn!!!
- Robert Jackson, London
