Since my squatting experience back in the 1980s, the practice has gone somewhat out of fashion. Squatting laws in the UK have become much stricter, and eviction by police and landlords is easier. Spanish squatters have it relatively good at the moment, with criminal gangs targeting second homes in Spain, claiming to be homeless and using their young children to make eviction far more difficult.
I recall my time squatting in a large, ramshackle terraced house in Surrey Docks, south London, when I first moved to London from Yorkshire. I was in my early twenties, claiming benefits, doing political activism, with no bank account or savings and I urgently needed somewhere to live.
The squat had been advertised in the window of the radical bookstore in Brixton. ‘Lesbian? Feminist? No boy children? Need a place to live? Low income? Vegetarian/vegan? A room in a large, comfortable squat with other like-minded women is available.
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