Some films from British Pathe for your enjoyment.
1946 HOME FRONT SQUATTERS video newsreel – Squaddies squat Bloomsbury hotel Link
“Home Front Squatters”. Scenes from the Ivanhoe hotel, Bloomsbury, London, recently seized by squatters. Those squatting in the hotel are protesting about housing shortages in Britain. M/S of the Ivanhoe Hotel, Bloomsbury, crowds surround it. C/U of London Police move crowds along as they stand outside the hotel.
For more information on the history of squatting in England ( including the Diggers, through 1946 squatters, to the 1980s and GLC vandalism ) check out Squatting: The Real Story- available if you have a look around this website. Also worth reading is the,sadly, late Colin Ward’s Cotters and Squatters ( available from Freedom Books or the office.
(CAMDEN COUNCIL VANDALISM) video newsreel film
Nothing changes when it comes to petty beauracratic meaness. Remember the GLC hippocrites… Ever wonder about housing shortages,
council corruption and property development. Camden ( Like Lambeth etc. )
smash up buildings to prevent homeless people having somehwhere to
live.
PICCADILLY SQUATTERS video newsreel film
Piccadilly Squatters. London. SV 144 Piccadilly. Menacing hippy squatters in 1969. Very funny.
Squatting Army Barracks in 1946
Squatters take over the barracks in Chalfont St Giles
1946 Pathe’ opionion poll propaganda. The welcome for heroes as long as they keep out of the way, apparently.
Thanks to British Pathe for the pictures and video. British Pathe.Com Higher res versions available there.