Squatting London: The Politics of Property

Squatting in London has a rich and diverse history. Today squatters live a marginalised stigmatised and criminalised existence yet they persist. Behind the glittering façade of shiny new buildings London is a network of vacant offices boarded-up shops and dilapidated pubs that host some of the city's poorest and most determined citizens exiled and increasingly pushed to the margins. This book is an account of the real lives of the city's squatters: their ambitions and struggles. Squatting is a challenge to the logic of property which underpins the city. By finding refuge staying put creating spaces and participating in counter-cultures squats are political acts. They sit in direct opposition to the speculation gentrification and regeneration that controls London today. From wasted office blocks transformed into a life-saving homeless shelter to temporary art exhibitions and raves; from an empty doctor's surgery to a library closed by cuts; from mutual aid networks set up during the pandemic to restaurants shops offices and pubs - Squatting London is an alternative underground and rebellious ethnographic account of a city you thought you already knew.