Squatting in Brixton

[AnnO'Neemus]

Well just to set the record straight, I have worked my ass off for the last three years, sacrificing everything else and putting every penny into a fund to be able to do conservation research in Madagascar, rather than 'swanning off' to go travelling or on holiday... and I am totally unsupported my parents, or anyone else for that matter. All the money I have is in that fund because I believe that what I am doing will contribute something positive and worthwhile towards conservation.

So I'm sorry if I don't 'qualify' for squatting because I have some money saved. I was under the impression that people involved in squatting might be open minded, but some of the attitudes expressed here suggest otherwise. I hope they are a minority.

Thanks to the people that have been helpful and welcoming...

And, for the record, I didnt get a gap year either!

Don't you think you might have received a different response if you'd explained that in your original post, instead of popping up and saying:

I haz need of free room lolz

Just a thought, like. How do you think your original post came across? You're quite keen to defend yourself now, and assert that you're not just pissing off on your jollies, but did it not occur to you that that's how it would come across? Well, obviously, it didn't, but I'm sure you get my drift.

And you also didn't do yourself any favours by treating it like an hotel booking with dates. And saying it would be "awesome" if you could return after Christmas too.

A fairly fleeting visit for six weeks, and then popping back after Christmas to stay again? That's got "swanning off" written all over it, really, hasn't it?

 

[gabi]

I don't get this thread

A lot of vitriol and judgemental attitudes towards someone who wasn't offensive, perhaps a little naive, who admitted they didn't know how to go about finding a squat.

Unfortunately the squat 'scene' can be as 'sceney' as the 'scenes' they purport to shun ime.

 

[Yelkcub]

Just a thought, like. How do you think your original post came across? You're quite keen to defend yourself now, and assert that you're not just pissing off on your jollies, but did it not occur to you that that's how it would come across? Well, obviously, it didn't, but I'm sure you get my drift.

Yeah, why didn't she prejudge the people who were likely to respond as being prejudiced?!!

 

[43mhz]

I don't think many squatters accept third party internet bookings from busy globetrotters.

Could be a good business plan to generate extra income

 

[wiskey]

I think you're all being a bit harsh tbh.

As pieface says, if you don't ask you don't get and this would seem to be the place to ask if you google squatting in brixton.

 

[gabi]

OP, maybe have a look around on www.squatjuice.com - its mainly party announcements/chat etc but you may meet some likelier souls on there..

 

[Winot]

Could be a good business plan to generate extra income

Lastminutesquat.com

 

[Wolveryeti]

So for me, Personally.. The idea of an individual asking on the forum of this here site, if there was any chance of maybe finding a room in a squat in Brixton & then being ridiculed for being a freeloader very ironic indeed..

I guess my idea of ironic is ill placed in this community so I'll hang my head in shame.

I thought you meant it was ironic that a community that uses house owners as a 'free hotel resource' would complain about someone using them as a free hotel resource

 

[tarannau]

Jesus christ, if it's not bad enough that people keep bandying about 'irony' about wrongly, now numpties are getting confused between hotel rooms and squats. Note to the simpletons: most squats aren't distinguished by short stays, no maintenance on the properties and housekeepers coming to change the sheets in the morning.

 

[Wolveryeti]

oh fuck off, it was a joke.

 

[tarannau]

oh. Ha ha ha (etc)

 

[Thora]

Unfortunately the squat 'scene' can be as 'sceney' as the 'scenes' they purport to shun ime.

Tbf I don't think any of the people having a go on this thread are actually squatters.

 

[tarannau]

I know at least some of the contributors have mind, even if they're not actively squatting now. Equally a hefty chunk of us have mates squatting in Brixton - it's a bad time to be a squatter around here to be fair. Many of the big central squats have eviction hanging over them and not in a pre-agreed sense - whole roads are baricaded off as baliffs and police go in on large St Agnes style raids unexpectedly. A few mates have never recovered their possessions since the last round of Rushcroft evictions

 

[Pip]

I know at least some of the contributors have mind, even if they're not actively squatting now. Equally a hefty chunk of us have mates squatting in Brixton - it's a bad time to be a squatter around here to be fair. Many of the big central squats have eviction hanging over them and not in a pre-agreed sense - whole roads are baricaded off as baliffs and police go in on large St Agnes style raids unexpectedly. A few mates have never recovered their possessions since the last round of Rushcroft evictions

Exactly this. When people close to you have fought tooth and nail for their squats years, and appear to be getting nowhere, the idea that some squirt can skip in and try and book one puts your back up.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Tbf I don't think any of the people having a go on this thread are actually squatters.

No, I'm not, but I still reserve the right to respond to spam in the usual derisory fashion. Even if it is spam from a naive freeloader.

 

[Brainaddict]

This isn't the first time I've seen a few urbanites make the assumption that any young person who travels to exotic parts must be particularly privileged and/or have parental help. It takes, say, a thousand pounds to get started, and perhaps a few hundred for setting yourself back up again when get back home. If you can earn £14,000 a year and live on £12,000, then you can go travelling in exotic parts. If you have kids it's a different matter of course, but if not, it's pretty much always possible - you just have to control your spending and want it enough. And plenty of people do.

Incidentally all the middle class kids I know who took gap years earned the money themselves. They mostly had parents who were able to let them live at home rent-free or cheap, but that's the only help they got. When people talk about gap years on here they always talk sneeringly about parental money. I'm sure it's true for some people but not all by a long way, and probably less than certain people on here like to assume.

Brainaddict: criss-crossing the class divide since 2001

And MonkeyLover, as someone else said, the ASS noticeboard is probably your best bet, but it's more likely to have places in Hackney/East End than Brixton.

 

[dum dum]

I have a small amount of experience opening up squats around Brixton. My advice to you is to stop asking advice and go buy an angle grinder and fill your boots. Squatters often 'reserve' squats for their friends so you need a thick skin if you're interupted.

Best of luck

 

[Onket]

U75 posters slag off a newbie, shocker!

 

[George & Bill]

As many have said, squats, especially in a rapidly gentrifying area like brixton, are not easy to come by, even for people who know the area well, or who've squatted there for years. Therefore it would seem reasonable for people to respond along the lines of 'you'd be lucky to find anything without a long wait and plenty of leg work.' As someone who has squatted close to brixton, this would be my advice.

But most of the people who've had a go here - Editor, Mrs M, Pip - come across overwhelmingly as just desperate to have a go at someone who happens to be less familiar with the particulars of the present situation in a given place than they happen to be. It really does look pathetic. Even someone as young and modestly traveled as I can easily imagine a place and time in which a request such as the one in the OP would be quite reasonable. Brixton, 2009, is neither that place nor that time - but I get the feeling that, if told so politely and matter-of-factly, the OP would have acknowledged as much.

All this talk from Tarannau and Pip about the long-sufferingness of old-time squatters is irrelevant self-aggrandising guff: many of those old-timers began living in squats as over-enthusiastic kids, and their present predicament doesn't conflict in any way with the current generation of kids who are interested in squatting. IME when it comes to life inside actual squats, the line between those who began out of pure necessity, and those who chose to squat for whatever reason, is obscure. It is generally former squatters, or those who now live a more conventional life than they once did, who are eager to renew their credentials by pouring scorn on those with the wrong motives, background, or approach.

From the information on offer, we should not discount the chance that the OP is some moronic rich kid who wants to have some fun with drugs before joining a graduate scheme in the City. But those who have rushed to pursue such a conclusion say more about the image they desire for themselves than they do about the OP.

 

[Pip]

If you say so mate.

 

[George & Bill]

if you say so sweatheart

 

[Pip]

Slowjoe, you're doing exactly what you're accusing me, editor and tarranau of doing, but trying to disguise it as moralistic old crap.

 

[phildwyer]

Can't you just simply find a vacant house and squat it? That's what I did.

 

[George & Bill]

Slowjoe, you're doing exactly what you're accusing me, editor and tarranau of doing, but trying to disguise it as moralistic old crap.

any explanation, or only accusation?

I would suggest that there is no moral POV expressed in my post - unless you can explain otherwise...

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

To be honest, my hackles raised with this post because someone swans in and with their first post is wanting free housing before she swans off to Madagascar.
I think urban is at its best when the community pulls together and gives support and help but this poster does seem a) presumptuous and b) a bit of a freeloader.

Definitely.

To start with I thought it was some Daily Mail reader taking the piss out of the stereotypical freeloading middle class squatter sort of thing....

 

[tarannau]

any explanation, or only accusation?

I would suggest that there is no moral POV expressed in my post - unless you can explain otherwise...

No moral POV? You can't bandy about descriptions like 'long-sufferingness,' 'self-aggrandising guff' and 'pouring scorn' in a post without implying a moral viewpoint, can you? Juicy fat hypocrisy.

FWIW, I think I've been fairly dispassionate about monkeylover. I've not made Brixton squatters out to be some special breed, nor slagged ML off, more explained some of the current difficulties of squatting in Brixton and why people may not be keen to help. Those drawing other conclusions and trying to gain the moral high ground can fuck off frankly.

 

[rover07]

How mant squats are there in Brixton?

And how many squatters?

 

[rover07]

Anyone know? Just wondered... 10... 20 ...more?

 

[Thora]

That's pretty difficult to guess at.

 

[editor]

One thing's for sure: there's a whole load less than there was ten years ago, and what ones are left are going fast too.