Anne stands outside bricked-up squats on Cedars Rd. Photo: Vanessa Jones

News Shorts and Other Busyness

University Evicts Long-Term Community

Squall 12, Spring 1996, pg. 13.

The University Of East London recently evicted a community of squatters after a saga described by the Empty Homes Agency as: “a tangled tale of official bungling.”

A squat community had existed on Cedars Road for 25 years until the bailiffs arrived for the last time in January this year. Cedars Road was home to up to 60 squatters and had evolved into a co-operative including a cafe and communal gardens. As one visitor commented: “you’d make a cup of tea in one house and end up drinking it three houses down the street.”

The “tangled tale” highlighted by the EHA centred on a series of deals between the University and Newham Borough Council in which the Cedars Road houses were traded back and forth in an absurd game of virtual Monopoly.

The University claimed ownership of the even numbered properties only to lose them through a legal loophole. Then a dispute over their rates bill ended in the Council handing over the odd numbered houses as compensation. The tale took another twist when the University tried to evict a toilet in a bid to make the houses uninhabitable.

The EHA criticised both the University and Newham Council for being unable to work together on Cedars Road - a direct contrast with the collective action and co-operation shown by the community they were so keen to evict.