News Shorts and Other Busyness

Queen Hands Out Keys To A South London Squat

Squall 12, Spring 1996, pg. 15.

QUEENIE is not often honoured with a place in the packed pages of SQUALL. However, the picture above captures the moment when the British Monarch presented the high commissioner of South Africa with the keys to a south London squat!

The incident occurred last November when queenie visited Deptford, a well known hot bed of squat culture. As far as the assembled dignitaries were concerned, the presentation was to have involved the keys to a truck load of educational aid destined for South Africa. When the ceremonial climax approached, however, no-one could find the right keys. Instead, a quick thinking squatter, part of a Deptford event-organisation posse, fished out her front door keys and slapped them on the silver tray.

Never one to see a good bit of carpet go to waste, she then took the specially bought red carpet home to her squat after the event.

It’ll probably do for the staircase,” she told SQUALL. Oh, and she did get her keys back.