Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

St Agnes Place Eviction

30.11.2005 00:00 | Free Spaces | Social Struggles | London

The eviction of St Agnes Place in Kennington (South London) by Lambeth Council finally took place on Tuesday 29th, after years of court battles and previous eviction attempts [Report]. The oldest squatted street in London was swarmed with hundreds of riot police the whole day, as residents were resisting the bailiffs and specialist climbers that were emptying the street of its 150 strong community set up 30 years ago [Photos 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 and Video]. Throughout the day there were reports of police stopping people on their way to show support to St Agnes Place residents outside Oval, Kennington, Stockwell and Brixton tubes. Later in the evening there was a demonstration outside Lambeth Town Hall in Brixton to celebrate St Agnes Place community, as well as to show support to the people that has become homeless as a result of the eviction [Photos 1 and 2].

By mid-afternoon there were still three houses resisting the eviction, as residents and supporters pledged to hold for as long as they could. But later in the evening, reports came in that the last resisting squatter had been removed from the remaining occupied house in an ambulance, as the eviction was brutally completed [Video]. He was taken to hospital after he was badly beaten on the head with truncheons. Click here for St Agnes place map and location.

Latest info and Timeline of Events
Netcast from Wireless FM live here - a free radio that has been broadcasting from number 81 in St. Agnes Place for the last two years.
More info on St Agnes Place from the Indymedia archives.

Unwelcome visitors.
Unwelcome visitors.


Latest from stagnesplace.net:
Thursday 1st December
00:40: An update on the proceedings on the street - Today people were given strictly supervised access to their ex homes to collect what they could carry of their personal belongings. However one person whilst being escorted by security to the house, happened to mention that he personally felt that the eviction was unlawful. He was immediately deemed high risk and was refused access and escorted back to the cordon.

Then a long time elderly resident, who had been giving a short interview to Channel 4 journalists was collected by the security guards to fetch what he could carry. Unfortunately the Channel 4 people had not had time to remove the microphone they had pinned on him, although of course it was disconnected. When he reached the doorway of his ex home a policeman spotted the mic and pulled him over for intense questioning. The police then confiscated the microphone and removed the gentleman from the area minus any posessions.

Wednesday 30th November
6:00 pm Illegal eviction has now taken place of last house on Bolton Crescent south end of St Agnes Place. Residents here have been thrown out onto the freezing street with nowhere to go, even though their hearing for posession of the property was not scheduled until mid december. This is a totally illegal action by baliffs and police and will of course face a legal challenge. It seems that British law is not recognised by the tyrants that have ordered the actions of the last two days. Only one house now stands in the way of the bulldozer.

4:39 pm: There is going to be an illegal eviction happening to the couple that live at the south end of St Agnes Place (Bolton Crescent) at 5pm....they have not had their case heard in court yet, that is due on 16th December. They have nowhere to go and have 2 cats with 3 baby kittens They are appealing for people to come as witnesses to this illegal eviction and also desperately appealing for emergency accomodation. Measures are being taken to try and stop this illegal act but we are running out of time. PLEASE PLEASE help if you can.... offer temporary shelter or get up there and give support and witness/photograph/film/gather evidence. Obviously these people are distraught and need our help NOW.

12:20 am: Netcasting radio station Wireless Fm continues to live stream through the night while pixies continue with there magik, tune into it by pasteing the following link into your real player: http://wirelessfm.net/ram/wirelessfm.ram

Tuesday 29th November
10:50 pm: No 66 resident now concious, he is being patched up and is expected to be released from hospital where he will most certainly be transported to Brixton police station for further grilling. Heavy demolition machinery has still yet to arrive on the street.

9:15 pm: It seems that contravening any rights of the residents left on the street, the remaining people have now been pulled out in the most violent way. The resident from number 66 has been badly beaten on the head by many many blows with truncheons, he is in an ambulance right now and is in a extremely serious condition. We are attempting to get more information, will update as soon as possible.

- Homepage: http://www.stagnesplace.net/

Additions

St.Agnes Dis-Placed

29.11.2005 22:07

21 houses in St.Agnes Place, Kennington, South West London, were evicted today admist protest and resistance from local residents. The street, infamously squatted for more than 30 years has been fighting this eviction for some time now, a failed attemp took place two years previous due to public protest. This time round the residents have been taking by surprise, first being told that an eviction may take place on Nov 1st, then hearing nothing until this mourning, the occupents now finally face displacement.
Neighbours expressed their sense of loss of what surely was a vibrant and cultral influence within its community. St.Agnes place over the years has been a home to families, a safe haven to the the occassional homeless and many passing travellers to form one of Britain's most distinctive communities that had established themselves as a positive part of the wider community. Also host to Europes only Rasta Fari head-quarters, St.Agnes Place and Kennington play area are now due to be demolished in a £16m deal with London Quadrant Housing who want to buy the land. Redevolpment plans are overshadowed by concerns of scandel involving councillor Keith Finchett, who after prevously branding the occupents of St.Agnes Place as "parasites" is now at the centre of a Council Housing fraud scandal, which has recently cost £2.8m of taxpayer’s money. Police fear this money may never be recovered and Fitchett may be forced to resign as a result.

WAKE FOR ST AGNES PLACE? I didnt see many people down at Brixton town hall today!

Who remembers the "Fight The Power" benefit gig for St.Agnes? Where are you all now?

Solidarity party @ Speakers Corner JAMM 261 Brixton Rd. This Thursday 1st Dec \ Spoken word \ Hip-Hop \ full live bands all night \ free entry all night \ all in the name of protest \

Photography from the St.Agnes Place eviction will be screened throughout the night on 3 large projectors at this event.


 http://stagnesplace.net/index.php br /> http://www.speakerscornerlive.com/

speakerscorner
mail e-mail: snuff@speakerscornerlive.com
- Homepage: http://www.speakerscornerlive.com


St Agnes - the morning after

30.11.2005 12:12

Pictures of St Agnes Place from the morning of 30 November can be found here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/londonreporter/sets/1479931/

london reporter


more info on squatting laws

02.12.2005 09:50

check out www.squatter.org.uk for more info on laws etc

squirrello


Comments

Hide the following 9 comments

NOT IN MY NAME

29.11.2005 23:26

I am outraged and appalled by news of this brutal eviction of what is a 30 year national institution.

I only heard about St.Agnes a few weeks ago. I do not live in Lambeth but I work there and I plan to move there.

This is a disgrace.

It is one part of a much bigger story.

That story is as important as the story of the enclosures of common land in the 16th century, which brought rural depopulation and was seen as the biggest problem of the age.

The enclosures of our times are marketed to us as 'development'. This style of top-down 'development', enforced by the truncheon, is simply a mechanism for making the rich richer and damning the poorer people in our land.

This is not the reason why I pay taxes to fund a police force. At a time when the Metropolitan Police has a lot of questions to answer to Lambeth residents regarding the horrific shooting of de Menezes, it is a deeply unimpressive use of OUR MONEY. We are not to be bullied by the police. We are shareholders in the police force, and we must make our voice heard when we disagree with their use of their force.

WE HAVE TO JOIN TOGETHER TO FIGHT EACH INCIDENCE OF THIS BULLYING BECAUSE IT IS HAPPENING TO LOCAL COMMUNITIES ALL ACROSS THE LAND.

NO SOCIAL CENTRE IS AN ISLAND. AND NO INCIDENCE OF SELFISH CORPORATE 'DEVELOPMENT' (i.e.ENCLOSURE) IS AN ISLAND.

Solidarity with everyone at St.Agnes!

Matthew Edwards
mail e-mail: matthewedwards999@yahoo.co.uk


St Agnes Place Eviction

30.11.2005 11:58

YET AGAIN, ANOTHER CLASSIC EXAMPLE OF THE CORPORATE WORLD TAKING PRECEDENCE OVER HUMAN LIFE AND NEEDS!!!

YET AGAIN, ABUSE OF POWERS BY THE POLICE WITH THEIR BRUTAL ACTIONS!!

YET AGAIN, ITS PAINFULLY OBVIOUS THAT THE POWERS THAT BE VIEW THEMSELVES AS SUPERIOR BEINGS, LEAVING THE GENERAL PUBLIC(whom pay's their wages and are the majority)WITH NO OPINION WHATSOEVER(unless via and in agreement with the dispicable Sun paper)!!

EACH AND EVERYONE OF US SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF OUR CORPOPRATE GOVERNMENT, AND THEIR ABUSE OF POSITION, WE VOTE THEM IN FOR OUR BENEFIT, THE PEOPLES BENEFIT AND YET AGAIN THEIR ARROGANCE OUT SHINES THEIR COMMITMENT TO THE PEOPLE OR THIS COUNTRY BUT MORE SO TO THEIR POCKETS AND POWER HUNGRY EGO'S!!!

LIFE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN MONEY!!!!

Sonia


Ownership?

30.11.2005 17:24

I thought it was the law that if a place had been squatted for more than 12 years it became the property of the squatter/s?

Me


masked cops everywhere in Europe now?

01.12.2005 14:47

So cops in masks seem to becoming ubiquitous across the European Union?

anti-KGB


Robin Hoody versus the Sheriff of Rottingham

01.12.2005 20:40

Following Me's comment, could we have a clear account of what the law on squatting is?

Not all of the laws in this country can favour the robbing of the poor to feed the rich, can they?


Robin Hoody


ASS say...

02.12.2005 08:24

I found this on the Acvisory Service for Squatters website.

 http://www.squatter.org.uk/

"Lambeth Council cite the lost rental income from properties on the
street over 30 years, which is a half-truth since Lambeth waved away
it's rights to rental income when they abandoned these properties
(infact, squatters over the years have neglected to get their shit
together and attain ownership of properties on the street under the
old 12-year rule)."

Me


Where are the human rights?

03.12.2005 14:50

It didn't hapen in a third world country, but in London: a city in the world's routes.
About 100 people including sicks, pregnants and children were forced to become homeless in wintertime with a bird flu threat.
well, nowadays we know about nineteenth century dictators by the media. But, do you know about what happend in the colonialist era? Let me tell you that the German dictator A. Hitler was inspired by the British colonialists to build his "reich". When the British colonized North America, a few centuries ago; rapes and genocides were commited by Anglo-Saxons in the local indian communities. They were defending their race superiority.
Today those feelings of cruelity still be found. A good exemple of it , is the st.Agnes place squatted street eviction. 2oo policeman (some of them having a cup of tea with a smile in the face) forced iligaly those residents to leave their homes. And a 30 years old community with solid roots was destroyed by the Lambeth council.
This is an obvious human rights agression and one more time we must be councious about it.
Just like when the actual US president George W. Bush attacked Irac with the excuse of a massive destruction weapons threat... well now we know that he did it for petrol. This same system, used for centuries by dictators was used now by the Lambeth council. They used the false excuse of criminality in the streets of st.Agnes place to go on with the operation and evict them agressively, using opression and violence; in a community where peace was predominant for years and years.
As we see money is a strong way of blindness and Lambeth council does it well.
Before this demolition order, it would have been relatively cheap to repair and support the community to develop its positive atributes. But that is the whole threat to a dictatorship. Is people being abble to stand on their own two feet, help themselves and keep their own culture alive?

Unfairblair


Where next for this campaign?

05.12.2005 22:34

...

Matthew Edwards
mail e-mail: matthewedwards999@yahoo.co.uk


Struggle for St Agnes is still Continuing

13.12.2005 17:25

I've just heard the battle for St Agnes is still continuing and one end house is still occuppied and support is needed down there.

M


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech