Ive always been really interested in communal living.. but ive spent time in rural communities and although its very idyllic, its not for me at this time of my life.. what excites me alot more is the prospect of communal living in the city! So i live in a squatted Victorian lace factory in quite a run down city suburb. We have no electricity, or hot water, but we've fitted a wood burner to get us through winter! The building has had quite a turnover of residents in the six months we've been in the building, but there are now about 10 of us (some come and go), and its pretty much perfect... most of our food is skipped, and cooked on camping stoves, all the furniture is off the streets, we gather wood from around the city.. we recycle as much rubbish as we possibly can.. its a lovely place any other urban squatters?!
I don't think urban squatting is the same as communal living, since it goes against one of the core principles of communal life........... security. Going by your philosophy a crack house would be a great commune =]. But seriously tho, I'm all up for urban communal living. It could possibly revolutionize the way we deal with neighbors if we find a good system.
Not nescessarily.. our building is as safe as any home, in fact its safer, its built like a fortress! nobody can enter without the permission of whoever is in the building at the time, and new residents have to be accepted and trusted by the group. just because its a squat, doesnt make it a free-for-all.
No, I'm not saying its an FFA. But there's little security in illegality. And what if someone tells on you? I mean I don't know exactly how its set up, or what you guys do. Maybe you should elaborate. I'm actually insanely curious.
Squatting is legal in the uk. Its unlawful, but its not a criminal offence... in order for the owner to get us out, he needs to take us to court for a civil hearing, then get a possession order.. the whole process of eviction usually takes a few weeks (though ive known squats to go on for months of years even after being taken to court). The owner of our building has known about us for 6 months and done nothing. The police have known about us for just as long, and they cant do anything.. obviously we may have to move sometime in the future, we've been lucky to have this place so long, but moving wont be too much of a problem (there are lots of empty buildings around.. maybe we'd get somewhere with electricity next time!!) but we dont know when its going to be.. so we might aswell carry on as its our home! We have pretty good relations with our neighbours.. we're surrounded by student flats, they park their cars outside our building. Twice we have prevented car break-ins, we can see everything that happens on the road (its a back street in one of the roughest areas of the city), once the students realised we're not dangerous, they consider the road safer with us there. We overheard the builders, who look after the student flats and are supposed to be 'looking after' our building too... saying that they havent had any complaints about us, the odd phonecall asking what we're doing, but no trouble... the police have occasionally stopped people waiting outside of the building, but we explain that its squatted and that the police know about it, and they go away! so yeah.. i guess the temporary nature of a squat is the only thing that makes it insecure, but thats not a problem if you dont mind moving house! We will stay as long as we can though, its basic, but beautiful
I"m moving to the UK!!! I'm here in the U.S., and they crack down HARD on squatters. That's where the misunderstanding came from. I had to google the word "skipping", your lingo bedazzles me. We call it "dumpster diving". That is a beautiful thing you got goin on. I would totally be up for something like that if it was allowed in the U.S. You guys work? What you guys do to kill time? Tell me more about your urban dreamland. I'm absolutely fascinated by the prospects of free housing.
I didnt know they were so harsh in the US. That sucks.. We have a law here (known as a section 6) which protects anybody who is living in a building, as long as they have exclusive access, there is always somebody inside the building, and no criminal offences are taking place... if someone (including a cop) tries to force entry to a building which they know is occupied (even by squatters) they are committing an offence, chargeable to £5000 or 6 months inprisonment! We have basic print-outs of this law stuck up in windows so anyone outside can read it... One of the guys does care work, a guy whos about to move in is a trainee body piercer, one is a student..the rest of us are on unemployment benefits 'looking for work'... so we get £50/week to live off. i spend most of my time doing voluntary catering work for a local community cafe, a vegan catering group, and our local radical social centre... some of the guys spend alot of time in the building mending the roof and building more rooms, and more wood burners. There are constant house-jobs that need doing, like getting food and wood.... but because we only have about 6 hours of daylight now, alot of our time is spent around the burner.. chilling, smoking, drinking too much.. Its improved massively in the past few months.. there used to be 6 of us, living on the 2nd floor (which has some 'rooms' that were built for a movie set years ago) but a group of guys moved in recently, and took over the 4th floor.. building rooms inside rooms out of crates and tarps, turning it into a shanty town.. i need to get some photos sometime! The building is used by alot of our freinds too.. the 3rd floor is an open space which has been used as art space, banner making, the making of a 25ft rifle for an anti-arms demo, we've hosted movie nights and small parties, we have a free shop, large amounts of sofas and matresses which we give out if people need them.. we used to run a bar (which fell apart cause some ppl would drink it ALL) and we've cooked large meals for our friends pretty regularly.. its a very cool place! Im currently spending a week dog-sitting in my friends lorry(house) in a different city, and i miss it!
I just spent the last 2 hours reading about your crazy UK laws and what it allows, thats amazing. In the U.S. if you do that you'll get jailed real quick. You should take pictures tho, that'd be lovely.
thats neat. Its nice the landlord doesnt care, same with the police. I would love some pics. I would think it gets cold there.
It gets very cold, its the same temperature inside as it is outside.. but wewear lots of layers and huddle round the fire! I wish I had some more up to date pictures, its changed alot since these were taken (about 4 months ago). The whole of the second, and most of the fourth floor are carpeted now and we have alot more furniture.. This is the second floor where some of us live.. behind the wall there are some bedrooms which we've each done up. me cooking some food... the ping-pong table the third floor, open space..
spiral staircases.. the top floor.. the roof has been falling in for about 15 years, we're doing our best to stop the leaks.. the view from the balcony..
That ceiling is a mess. That's quite a beautiful place, i was wondering how you could put a wood oven in there. I would completely deck that place out. Quite nice for free.
The wood burners are metal cylinders, placed on concrete slabs and breezeblocks, with chimneys going out the windows
Well i am currently in an Urban commune but we are not a squat. We own a few houses in the Dc area and have our own thing going. We also have our friendly commune friends up in Philly. So there are urban communes out there that are not squats
I am a baby boomer, and I can remember living with hippies for about six to eight months. I was looking at your pictures and it reminded me of those days. I was 15 and had just ran away from my foster mother, who had whipped me a great deal. I must admit I really enjoyed living with those hippie's, During the day I would work in the garden or I helped in the kitchen. This was back in 1967 (the summer of love), this was during the time when we did not have the technology that we take for granted today. The hippies lived very simple, bean bags for chairs, very old furniture that came from the goodwill and mats on the floor for beds, they would use railroad cable holders for end tables and a desk, Their walls were decorated with peace sign's, picture's of people such as angela davis, huey newton of the black panthers and scene's of nature such as forest woodland, mountain scene's just to name a few things. We lived about four blocks from a university, and some evenings we would go to the student center to listen to student speakers blasting away about the war and bad politics, or we would sit on the floor and sing folks songs. I can remember some evenings we would get the guitar and go out onto the front of the house and sing folk songs or just listen to the children of the neighborhood, or listen to the sounds of nature, a few of the hippies would smoke a joint and I always got a contact high. I really miss those days of my past, back then we were encourage to be our selves. The term was, " do your own thing. " In the last twenty-nine year's young people seem to conform to what everyone else is doing. I have a word of advice to you young people: If you want to be a hippie you need to be yourself. Respect the land, yourself and other's, look into spirtuality, get out of self, Because it is a journey of discovery. Last, I want you to find your own thing, what I mean by that is: that you are looking back at another generations time. Make your own time, if need to borrow something's from past generation's do so as long as you change it to fit your needs. Do not try to live our past, because everything is different. It no longer exist for one thing, for another in this day and age people have become very dangerous, weary and lacking in trust in their fellow man. Hippies were a minoriy in america back then. Do your research about the 1960's, I think you will be totally surprised. We did not have the kind of imformation that you have today at such a young age. We remained naieve children into are late teens, and for some even into our twenties. We were the last generation to have meals cooked from scratch, to not eat fast food everyday, which was a new concept in those days. We ate at the dinner talble with cloth napkins in a napkin ring, linen table cloth on the table. We did not watch alot of television because we spent a great deal of time out doors. To give you a picture of what i am saying, watch the movie: Peggy Sue got married. This movie wiil give you a small sample of what life was like back in those days. Go to your library and look up the sixties. I am so glad I was born in the earily fifties, those were slower, very gentle. compassionate times. For me it was more like a norman rockwell picture.
Can you tell me something more about these DC/Philly communes, and are they open for new residents? I'm kind of looking for a place to stay, and contribute to. I would work a job. EDIT: Actually, never mind. I'm just going live on the road as I'm doing Love.
We've had a lot of luck with urban communes. Our group has a pretty simple approach for urban communes. Find a bad neighborhood, but one that is going up (getting better), not getting worse. The place will be cheap, and your neighbors won't hassle you. Buy a run down place - a 'fixer-upper' and fix it yourself. When there is a big hole in the kitchen floor, its easy to get everyone to agree on what the priority is, and to work together. own, don't rent. With a big group, the amount you'd pay for rent will be more than what you need for a mortgage. Create a corporation to own the building. everyone has equal power - concensus decisions make friends with your neighbors, the police, the building inspectors (they can be so helpful - tell you exactly what to do) We've been doing this for 40 years, the building I'm sitting in was scheduled to be demolished in 1968 and we bought it for almost nothing.
