The History of Squatting - From Frestonia to Belgravia

From Frestonia to Belgravia – the History of Squatting (Radio 4), presented by Robert Elms, was a fascinating account of squatting since the mid-1940s. It also contained a minor detail of pop history. Elms squatted in Tottenham in the 1980s with his then girlfriend, the singer Sade. "The bath was in the kitchen," Elms recalled. "The toilet was out on the balcony." The toilet would freeze over in cold weather, as Sade realised on the day of her first appearance on Top of the Pops. While a limousine waited outside, Elms explained, "She had to go to the toilet in a bucket". The programme was full of absorbing material from each decade. In the austerity of postwar Britain, as people adjusted to the loss of so many houses, former military buildings were used as emergency squats. Elms spoke to one woman who moved into a former PoW camp in Bristol, hanging up net curtains to stake her claim on it. "We took it in turns, the ladies, to keep the ablutions clean," she told him. Later squats included Frestonia, the independent state established by squatters in Notting Hill ("we asked the UN to send forces to keep the GLC out"), and a current eco-squat near Heathrow, where they live in an old greenhouse under bubble wrap and play a piano given by a well-wisher.