Life as an artist organising groups without a salary
was not very practical in economic terms. My income was minimal. There came a
point when I realised that I needed to get my housing situation together.
During the Eighties I had been living in a run-down short-life house that was
part of the St Agnes Place Housing Co-op, basically a famous street of squatted
houses. I had been idealistic in expecting to either make my fortune in some
way or at the least to have the luck to be re-housed by the Housing Association
that managed our property and continually promised some kind of redevelopment.[1]
When the opportunity to join a local Self-Build
group came up I jumped at the chance to provide a decent home for myself. This
was the Sharsted Street Self-Build Co-op, my ninth cultural collective.[2]
Ten local families were given
the chance to build ten houses on a shared ownership basis. The labour you
put into construction was accounted as part of your final share of the house.
Twenty hours were required each weekend for two and a half years - if a member
fell behind they were fined. Although this was only ten families the group
was like a cultural cross section of Londoners - Italian, African, Caribbean,
Irish, Polish and English people were part of the group.
[3]
Footnote:
[1] Squatting: the real story (Bay Leaf Books London 1980)
pp 82-85. The January 1977 resistance to the council demolition of St Agnes
Place was a turning point for the London squatting movement. I moved in around
1981.
2 Oddly, I heard of this
through Maria Pacan a member of Bigos. An unlikely cross fertilisation between collectives.
3 My account of the self-build
co-op was published as an article, 'Sharsted Street Self-Build Housing Co-op' (Variant Issue 2 1997). A video was
shown as part of an installation at the Info Centre, London Feb 4-14 1999. See
review in Art Monthly 224, March 1999, p35-37
[1] Squatting: the real story (Bay Leaf Books London 1980)
pp 82-85. The January 1977 resistance to the council demolition of St Agnes
Place was a turning point for the London squatting movement. I moved in around
1981.
[2] Oddly, I heard of this
through Maria Pacan a member of Bigos. An unlikely cross fertilisation between collectives.
[3] My account of the self-build
co-op was published as an article, 'Sharsted Street Self-Build Housing Co-op' (Variant Issue 2 1997). A video was
shown as part of an installation at the Info Centre, London Feb 4-14 1999. See
review in Art Monthly 224, March 1999, p35-37