Squatting in London has a rich and diverse history. Today, squatters live a marginalised, stigmatised and criminalised existence, yet they persist. Behind the glittering façade of shiny new buildings, London is a network of vacant offices, boarded-up shops and dilapidated pubs that host some of the city’s poorest and most determined citizens, exiled and increasingly pushed to the margins.We are very excited to welcome Samuel Burgum to Housmans to talk about his vital new book about a facinating, and much neglected, part of our urban history. Squatting London: The Politics of Property is an account of the real lives of the city’s squatters: their ambitions and struggles. Squatting is a challenge to the logic of property which underpins the city. By finding refuge, staying put, creating spaces and participating in counter-cultures, squats are political acts. They sit in direct opposition to the speculation, gentrification and regeneration that controls London today.From wasted office blocks transformed into a life-saving homeless shelter, to temporary art exhibitions and raves; from an empty doctor’s surgery, to a library closed by cuts; from mutual aid networks set up during the pandemic, to restaurants, shops, offices and pubs – Squatting London is an alternative, underground and rebellious ethnographic account of a city you thought you already knew.Samuel Burgum is an urban sociologist, currently conducting a Leverhulme-sponsored ethnographic project on squatting in the context of the UK’s housing crisis. He is the author of Occupying London: Post-Crash Resistance and the Limits of Possibility. He has written for various journals, including Antipode, The Sociological Review and Journal for Cultural Research.
