St Agnes Place

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1977 eviction fails

St Agnes Place was a squatted street in Kennington, South London, which had been resisting eviction orders for 30 years.

1 History
2 Gallery
3 The Eviction
4 The Future of this Street
5 External links

[edit] History

It was first squatted in 1969, after the council acquired it and planned to demolish it for the extension to Kennington Park (Then Kennington District Park). The derelict buildings were completely rebuilt by the squatters. An attempt to evict it in 1977 was successfully resisted on the rooftops although many buildings were demolished. Most were badly damaged. The residents rebuilt them again. In November 2005, Lambeth Council finally obtained a High Court order to evict the residents of 21 properties. This mass eviction was completed on 30th November 2005.

Bob Marley stayed there on several occasions in the 1970s; St Agnes Place has a Rastafari movement community and has a Rastafari temple along with other related social centres.

There were several community projects at St. Agnes Place.

housing the homeless
Social center (#60)
free party
Rastafari community
musicians, radio and artists

St. Agnes Place was responsible for producing music and radio:

One resident said: "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."

[edit] Gallery

[edit] The Eviction

Police in riot gear

Lambeth Council managed to get a possession order in 2003, the squatters failed in their argument for adverse possession, and some were threatened with 30 years of council tax bills.

There were a few dates given to the squatters in the summer of 2003 for them to leave when bailiffs would be arriving. Many of the residents moved out and a number of protesters associated with anti-capitalist, environmentalist and travellers movements moved in. Barricades 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 was issued by the council: The possession orders obtained in 2003 were still valid but the warrants 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 instead of a handful of bailiffs.

A massive eviction happened on Tuesday, 30th of November 2005 by two hundred bailiffs and police 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, in particular Councillor Keith Fitchett who has since resigned amid some sort of housing corruption scandal.

However: One of the squats on the far end of the street remains today - separated by a large gap from the other houses in the street, the Rastafari temple, said to have been visited by Bob Marley in the late 70's and a place of genuine religious significance for Rastafari. The council expressed the intention of coming to some sort of agreement with the occupiers vis a vis rent / housing benefit. Whether or not this has been achieved remains to be seen.

As for the evictees, there was no attempt by the council to rehouse them - the line was that if they are eligible for housing benefit they can apply just like everyone else, ie. no special favours. A pack of leaflets were delivered to each house giving variety of advice with housing, surprisingly including one from a local estate agent !

[edit] The Future of this Street

Possible redevelopment

Work on demolishing the houses in the street began immediately after the eviction - ten-foot high fencing and 24 hour security made sure the houses were not resquatted before they got the chance to demolish. Demolition was completed by early 2006.

The council have suggested that the land be used for housing, a percentage of which would be social/affordable housing but there is nothing committing them to this.