Camden Town Squat by Ellen Beier – SEE SAW Comics, Webcomics from the Sequential Artists Workshop

Camden Town Squat by Ellen Beier

â€œ1970s London, late one night at a block of flatsâ€¦ CAMDEN TOWN SQUAT by Ellen Beier / â€œâ€˜We were called every name in the book, but it was that era.â€™* *Quotes from â€˜My Life as a London Squatter and the Windsor Free Festival blog.â€ Three silhouettes stand outside of a house at night; someone stands in the window.

â€œSquatting was a big issue in the Peasantsâ€™ Revolt of 1381. Here, we werenâ€™t peasants,â€¦just artists, musicians, wanderers. Many London houses were empty and designated â€˜condemnedâ€™ by the council. Common lore said that heat and light had to be available to an empty council house claimed as a squat.â€ A person scales the wall of a house at night; someone crawls through a window. A hand pulls the pull switch of a light bulb, turning it on. Three silhouettes walk through a doorway. â€œâ€™Like most young people we were discovering by trial and error who we were.â€™â€

â€œHouses built in the 19th century were no longer up to codeâ€”there was inadequate plumbing and many lacked appliances such as refrigerators. We kept food cold on the windowsill. There was a heating unit we fed with 5-penny pieces over a sink in the kitchen, and a cold-water sink in the stairwell. Most fireplaces had a gas heater installed, also fed with coins.â€ A heating unit. A sink. A fireplace. â€œThere was an outhouse out backâ€”not awfulâ€”except in heavy rain.â€ A woman runs through a doorway headed for an outhouse in heavy rain. â€œâ€˜If you were not establishment then you were trots or a marx or a man or something or otherâ€¦labels!â€™â€

â€œMy room was on the 3rd floor in the back, overlooking the outhouse, a stone wall, and the park behind. In the room next to mine, the band that I lived with practicedâ€”a gaggle of Scottish boys, musicians down from the north like the Beatles. Iâ€™d draw while they played music.â€ A woman sketches stars in her bed. A band of 3 men, Gunn Lilly, play music, singing, â€œI donâ€™t own the clothes Iâ€™m wearing and the road goes on foreverâ€¦â€ â€œâ€˜On the news today was a report that working class kids are no better off than they were in the 50s, in terms of their prospects for social mobility.â€™â€

â€œHendrix, Doors, Allman Brosâ€¦the music we listened to in the evenings. There was hashish, LSD.â€ Four young people sit playing music (a harmonica, two guitars, bongo drums) together. Stars and moon decorate the background. â€œBy days we workedâ€”me a part-time draftsperson and cook, one musician a welder, others in construction.â€ Three silhouettes wait at a bus stop next to a corrugated wall covered with graffiti that reads â€œSpread Anarchyâ€ crossed out, followed by â€œDonâ€™t tell me what to do!!â€ A window is covered with graffiti of a star and the text â€œPower to the peopleâ€ â€œAfter a couple of years, we were told the block was coming down and we were evicted. Some band members joined the Hare Krishna temple; the rest of us moved to a regular townhouse. â€˜Most people come here because theyâ€™ve got nowhere else to go. They canâ€™t fit into whatever societyâ€™s got to offer.â€™â€

â€œFourteen years later I returned to the streetâ€”the remodel had just begun! Workers let me go inside and look aroundâ€”flats were renovated from the inside, given kitchens and bathrooms and sunrooms. New windows, electricity, plumbing.â€ A townhome under construction. A singing bird next to a nest full of eggs. Birds in flight above the apartment/townhome building. Someone stands in a balcony, looking down. â€œA few years later the street was bustling with signs of life, families, children playing. Today Camden flats are prized real estateâ€”sought after, posh evenâ€”youâ€™d be lucky to get one even on a waiting list!â€ A bird stands on a for sale sign in front of the flats. A little girl rides a tricycle. â€œâ€˜Is it a fundamental right that humans should have shelter?â€™â€

Published On: August 14, 2024

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One thought on “Camden Town Squat by Ellen Beier”

Jason Gael
08/10/2025, 4:06 pm
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ElIen this fantastic and hits very close to “home” with me, I never sew before today, I had no idea!

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