dreamdancer 0 #1 March 15, 2009 good for them... QuoteIt is one of London's most exclusive addresses. Michelin-starred restaurants are just a block away, the US embassy is around the corner and Hyde Park is at the end of the road. To share the same postcode ought to cost millions. But the new residents of 18 Upper Grosvenor Street, a raggle-taggle of teenagers and artists called the Da! collective, haven't paid a penny for their £6.25m, six-storey townhouse in Mayfair. The 30-plus rooms of the grade II-listed residence are now scattered with sleeping bags, mattresses, rucksacks spilling over with clothes and endless half-finished art installations. One room is full of tree branches while another hosts a pink baby bath above which dangle test tubes filled with capers. They had been watching the building for "at least six months" before they decided to try moving in , said one squatter, Stephanie Smith, 21. "We had put tape on the keyhole and kept looking through the letter box to see if anyone had been there." Then, one October night, five of them decided to go in. Some wore high-visibility jackets to look like builders; Smith had a clipboard and fur coat. They propped their rented ladder up against the front of the building, and one man climbed on to the balcony. "I went across to the window and I couldn't believe it when it was unlocked," said the squatter, who declined to give his name. " It was a really exciting moment." Almost a month since the occupation began, no one from Deltaland Resources Ltd, which is registered in the British Virgin Islands, has been in touch. Meanwhile the locks have been changed. The Da! group has reconnected the utilities and says the bills will be paid. Smith insists they have done nothing wrong. "Squatting is not a criminal offence, it's a civil matter," she said. "If the owners want to kick us out they will have to apply for an eviction notice. If anything, we are improving the building by mending leaks and things like that." http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/nov/07/mayfair-property-art-squatstay away from moving propellers - they bite blue skies from thai sky adventures good solid response-provoking keyboarding Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
