St Agnes Place was a

squatted Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building (usually residential) that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there wer ...

street in

Kennington Kennington is a district in south London, England. It is mainly within the London Borough of Lambeth, running along the boundary with the London Borough of Southwark, a boundary which can be discerned from the early medieval period between th ...

south London South London is the southern part of Greater London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, Lon ...

, which resisted

eviction Eviction is the removal of a Tenement (law), tenant from leasehold estate, rental property by the landlord. In some jurisdictions it may also involve the removal of persons from premises that were foreclosure, foreclosed by a mortgagee (often ...

orders for more than 30 years. When a number of derelict houses were scheduled for demolition to extend

Kennington Park Kennington Park is a public park in Kennington, south London and lies between Kennington Park Road and St. Agnes Place. It was opened in 1854 on the site of what had been Kennington Common, where the Chartists gathered for their biggest " ...

in 1969, squatters occupied the properties and a High Court injunction prevented the demolition. The street was run by a

housing cooperative A housing cooperative, or housing co-op, is a legal entity which owns real estate consisting of one or more residential buildings. The entity is usually a cooperative or a corporation and constitutes a form of housing tenure. Typically hou ...

until 2005, when

Lambeth London Borough Council Lambeth London Borough Council, which styles itself Lambeth Council, is the local authority for the London Borough of Lambeth in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of the 32 in London. The council has been under Labour ...

obtained an eviction order. Demolition was completed in 2007.

History

On 1 June 1969, house number 54 was the first to be squatted. The council had acquired the unit and planned to demolish it for the extension to

. The derelict buildings were completely rebuilt by the squatters. An attempt to evict it in 1977 was successfully resisted. An emergency High Court injunction, obtained by solicitors in Lambeth Law Centre, ordered the demolition to stop. The resulting furore and publicity on a national scale prevented further demolition and led to the Conservative leader of the council stepping down. A block of buildings were demolished either side of the road, and some were badly damaged and scaffolded. But a large central block on both sides of the road were completely untouched, and were in occupation on the day of the attempted demolition, and thereafter. Some damaged ones were renovated again by the residents, and made habitable i.e. one was re-roofed, and several were re-wired and had basic services restored. The residents of St Agnes paid utility bills and for several years were run by a

with diverse occupancy. In November 2005,

finally obtained a

High Court of Justice The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal (England and Wales), Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Courts of England and Wales, Senior Cour ...

order to evict the residents of 21 properties. This mass eviction was completed on 30 November 2005.

Community

According to a resident in 2005: "It's evolved into a unique community in London. You can walk in and out of people's houses here. It's a safe street. There's no mugging here. I think there is a lot of things society as a whole could learn from the way we live here." There were several community projects at St Agnes Place: * Housing the homeless * A

social centre A community centre, community center, or community hall is a public location where members of a community gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may be open for the whole community or for a sp ...

at house #60 *

Free parties A free party is a party "free" from the restrictions of the legal club scene, similar to the Free festival, free festival movement. It typically involves a Sound system (DJ)#Free party, sound system playing electronic dance music from late at ...

* Studios for

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

s and

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

s * Radio: The street hosted Wireless FM, and a

pirate radio Pirate radio is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license, whether an invalid license or no license at all. In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are rec ...

station Rasta FM which was raided by

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...

in October 2005. *

Rastafari Rastafari is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by Religious studies, scholars of religion. There is no central authori ...

community (at least a third of the residents were Rastafari).

Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981) was a Jamaican singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, he fused elements of reggae, ska and rocksteady and was renowned for his distinctive voca ...

stayed at the street on several occasions in the 1970s. * Rastafari Temple (also known as Negusa Negast) *

Ethiopian World Federation The Ethiopian World Federation, Incorporated (EWF) is an intergovernmental organization that was founded on August 25, 1937 in New York City under the advice of Emperor Haile Selassie I by Dr. Malaku Emanuel Beyen and Princess Dorothy Bayen; Dr ...

London headquarters

Eviction

Lambeth Council obtained a possession order in 2003 and the squatters failed in their attempt to gain

adverse possession Adverse possession in common law, and the related civil law (legal system), civil law concept of usucaption (also ''acquisitive prescription'' or ''prescriptive acquisition''), are legal mechanisms under which a person who does not have title (p ...

. Some squatters were threatened with 30 years of Council Tax, with the Council claiming it had lost over £4million in unpaid rent and taxes. There were a few dates given to the squatters in the summer of 2003 for them to leave when

bailiff A bailiff is a manager, overseer or custodian – a legal officer to whom some degree of authority or jurisdiction is given. There are different kinds, and their offices and scope of duties vary. Another official sometimes referred to as a '' ...

s would be arriving. Many of the residents moved out and a number of protesters associated with

anti-capitalist Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and Political movement, movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists seek to combat the worst effects of capitalism and to eventually replace capitalism ...

environmentalist Environmentalism is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of Green politics, g ...

and travellers movements moved in.

Barricade Barricade (from the French ''barrique'' - 'barrel') is any object or structure that creates a barrier or obstacle to control, block passage or force the flow of traffic in the desired direction. Adopted as a military term, a barricade denotes ...

s were built and the bailiffs came and left making no attempt to evict anyone. Nothing more happened regarding the eviction until Autumn 2005 when firstly, the council obtained a demolition order for the street. Secondly, a new

court order A court order is an official proclamation by a judge (or panel of judges) that defines the legal relationships between the parties to a hearing, a trial, an appeal or other court proceedings. Such ruling requires or authorizes the carrying o ...

was issued by the council: The possession orders obtained in 2003 were still valid but the

warrants Warrant may refer to: * Warrant (law), a form of specific authorization ** Arrest warrant, authorizing the arrest and detention of an individual ** Search warrant, a court order issued that authorizes law enforcement to conduct a search for eviden ...

to execute the court order had expired. This new court case was to firstly issue fresh warrants and secondly to have the execution of these warrants handled by the High Court rather than the County Court. This meant that they could use

riot police Riot police are police who are organized, deployed, trained or equipped to confront crowds, protests or riots. Riot police may be regular police officers who act in the role of riot police in particular situations, or they may be separate unit ...

instead of a handful of bailiffs. A massive eviction happened on Tuesday 30 November 2005 by two hundred bailiffs and

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

wearing riot gear. There was not much resistance and most people just wanted to avoid any confrontation but wanted to be thrown out rather than leave as a matter of principle. The street was swept and tidied by residents prior to the arrival of the police and banners put up criticising the council, particularly

Liberal Democrat Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic Liberal Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties have usually followed liberalism as ideology, although they can vary widely from very progr ...

councillor Keith Fitchett who described the residents as "parasites".

Temple

The Rastafari temple, one of the squats on the far end of the street, was first squatted in 1972. It was made up of a number of dwellings and at one point was the London headquarters of the

. It outlived the 2005 eviction and stayed for another year and a half. It was separated by a large gap from the other houses in the street. The council expressed the intention of coming to some sort of agreement with the occupiers. On 12 April 2007 police raided the temple because it was allegedly being used to sell

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...

and

crack cocaine Crack cocaine, commonly known simply as crack, and also known as rock, is a free base form of the stimulant cocaine that can be Smoking, smoked. Crack offers a short, intense Euphoria (emotion), high to smokers. The ''Manual of Adolescent Sub ...

. The police claimed the managers had told them about the

drug dealing The illegal drug trade, drug trafficking, or narcotrafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types ...

and gangsters because the temple had been overrun. After the raid, three people were charged with possession with the intent to supply a Class C drug. Nobody was charged with possession of crack cocaine, and cannabis has religious significance for Rastafari. Lambeth Council stated their intention of helping the temple elders find new premises to rent. By July 2007 the site was demolished. On 5 April 2008, the trial collapsed and all defendants were found not guilty.

Future development

Work on demolishing the houses in the street began immediately after the eviction - fencing and 24-hour security made sure the houses were not re-squatted before they got the chance to demolish. Demolition was completed in 2007. In 2010 Lambeth Council and two housing associations,

London and Quadrant L&Q (London & Quadrant Housing Trust) is a housing association operating in Greater London, the South East, East Anglia, and parts of the North West (under its subsidiary company Trafford Housing Trust). L&Q's registered office is based in Strat ...

and

Family Mosaic The Peabody Trust was founded in 1862 as the Peabody Donation Fund and now brands itself simply as Peabody.

, put forward planning proposals for the land to be used for housing, 50% of which would be social/affordable housing, together with a re-sited

adventure playground An adventure playground is a specific type of playground for children. Adventure playgrounds can take many forms, ranging from "natural playgrounds" to "junk playgrounds", and are typically defined by an ethos of unrestricted play, the presence o ...

and One O'Clock Club. In 2024 an exhibition ''Echoes Within These Walls'' was held at

Brixton House Brixton House is an Off-West End theatre in Brixton in the London Borough of Lambeth, located at 385 Coldharbour Lane, London, SW9 8GL. It is the successor to Ovalhouse at Kennington, and opened in 2022. Ovalhouse The roots of Brixton Hou ...

celebrating the temple and it's memory, including oral histories from former residents.

References

External links

St.Agnes Place Update
from Indymedia.org.uk

from Indymedia.org.uk
'Oldest squat' residents evicted

Police raid St. Agnes Place
{{SquatE&W DIY culture History of the Metropolitan Police Pirate radio Rastafari Streets in the London Borough of Lambeth Intentional communities in the United Kingdom Evicted squats Squats in the United Kingdom