Squatting London. The Politics of Property

Squatting in London has a rich and diverse history. Currently, squatters live a marginalized, stigmatized, and criminalized 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 accounts for 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. Squats are political acts by finding refuge, staying put, creating spaces, and participating in counter-cultures. They directly oppose 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 knew already.