I’ve been thinking about writing this post for a long time and finally, the time feels right!
I think there’s a complementary post to write to this – something along the lines of Cyborg’s story so far, which begins with 59 Rivoli in Paris in 1999 and continues through 2009 with DA ! and then on into another realm of activism altogether: radical education, before coming back to Cyborg’s squatting this time around. Although that’s at least another post or two, I’m gonna start by quickly skimming over it quickly now…
So yeah, my squat adventures all started a long time ago. I’d moved to Paris in 1999 and was walking down the equivalent of Oxford Street when I passed a very curious-looking doorway. I stopped, looked inside for a bit, and someone welcomed me in. I can’t remember who but it was probably one of the KGB. Anyway, there were 6 floors of artists’ studios, open to the public during opening hours.
I hung around Chez Robert a lot and encountered some of the most significant life-changing opportunities I’ve ever had there. I’ve visited regularly ever since, but have yet to go back since the pandemic. After Paris I moved back to London after a short stop in Japan where – thanks to 59 Rivoli – I’d landed a job teaching hairdressing in a beauty college in Nagoya.
Inspired by the highly creative and organised squat scene in Paris, I wanted to create something like it back in London, and so began DA ! at 43 Kensington High St in about 2004. I’ve been thinking about how much I’d like to do some retrospectives, not only on DA !, but more widely too on the recent squatting scene in London over the past couple of decades or so.
This post really starts in about 2020 with the proto Space Pirates adventures of the Nomadic Funk Temple & Voodoo Squid crews. These were two crews I co-founded with some ex-XR friends when I returned to squatting after becoming homeless during the pandemic in early 2020. Potentially both of these fungible crews (it was never clear to me who was in which) eventually opened a building that, as far as I know, has been passed on through several different crews and is still squatted to this day!
We were almost exclusively composed of people who were new to squatting, and within 24 hours we were threatened by the usual somebody claiming to be a relative of the owner. Despite the fact we had (still have?) their threats of violence on camera, we retreated back to the Animal Rebellion house where we were fast becoming default squatters by overstaying our free-sub-tenancy-sofa-surfing-welcome.
The next place we squatted was a bank on Bruce Grove, we stayed there for a good few weeks, we called it The Time Bank. Accessibility was a bit of an issue. We used to squeeze ourselves and our bikes through the hole where the cash machine once was. We took cash to leave this place and the next, which was the Michelin Garage in Camden. Us Squids did a lot of close emotional connecting with each other there in our Temples. We generally started the day with meditation, exercise or both followed by a 9am daily meeting. We hosted jams on the weekends and invited our new friends from the different squat crews we were getting to know.
After the first few buildings we squatted, the core of the crew took a break together and went North to see the sea for a bit. Then we all came back to London for a bit longer, semi-squatted an office which came to an end in mid-winter and so we opened another bank, on Hoe St.
This one had an even nicer safe and toilets! After that, we moved into a community centre in Leyton and from spring 2021 we bounced back and forth between there and a couple of new places in Camden until the summer came.
This was about the end of the road for the Nomadic Funk Temple and Voodoo Squid crews. Space Pirates are now the custodians of a delightful archive of those times. It’s on the Space Pirates Open Collective page for about £1.5k which is a guess at how much money is left in the coffers from those adventures I don’t think any of us actually know what’s left over…
From then on, I went to stay with the Canning Town crew, who were well into their 2nd or 3rd year by that point, I hopped between there and the pub in Cambridge until the end of that summer. By September 2021 Space Pirates felt ready for a test squat, to see how things would go during a one-off weekend. So we did a trial run of Squatfest, the first purposeful Space Pirate event, I made this tinyzine to accompany it.
It was a retrospective of about a dozen squatted social centres and about half a dozen sessions on the Pirate’s Code and Cypher. As there was still no contact by the end of Monday evening, we decided to stay there and it naturally developed into a hostel where new squat crews and individuals found help opening places for themselves.
High court bailiffs turned up one morning and after one last pit stop in Canning Town, I moved into RAT’s ballet school on the Monday following a full-on weekender of events and activities they had put on. After a month or so there St Peter from the church evicted us for Christmas.
Numbers at the ballet had ballooned by this point and when push came to shove, we squeezed into a tiny shop around the corner on Southampton Row. About 20 of us didn’t last long there and so a nearby University building soon took on the rest of the Ballet exodus.
This left the shop empty which presented an opportunity Space Pirates couldn’t resist and so began the Christmas Freeshop on Southampton Row. This also was arguably the first Space Pirates location. Although it wasn’t a deliberate choice, the location was perfect for a freeshop and it was Christmas! So we went for it and we had a great time there! For me the main event was the coat rail where the wealthy of Holborn would drop off last winter’s coats which the local homeless would be delighted with. And then there was Amazon’s Black Friday Red Carpet event.. Oh again, there’s so much more detail to post on all of those adventures.
For most of Spring 2022 I took it easy. I did a lot of drawing and painting, some writing, a little thinking, and a healthy dabble of Space Pirates tappy tapppy. But mostly drawing. Then by late Summer 2022, it was clearly time for the first full-on deliberate Space Pirates location: Area 51!
It’s hard to believe that was only a few months ago! We had so much fun! We got to have a couple of amazing parties there and met a lot more people! We even came to an agreement with the landlord in the end! After a couple of months there, we moved into Clerkenwell Fire Station and left Area 51 on our agreed date, that felt good, and we had already moved into the Fire Station!
Wow the Fire station was its own whole trip too! After this, we took some hibernation time and overwintered in the Flowerpot…
…so here we are now…
As comfy, cosy, and successful as the Flowerpot has been, Space Pirates squats aren’t primarily residential places, they are social centres. And so fresh out of hibernation and a little bleary-eyed we’re setting up a new base here in West London!
From this new base, we’re going to begin getting things back on track and planning larger-scale squats for 2023. We’ll also be reflecting on where we’ve all been together so far. Perhaps we’ll have a summer break later in the year, but from now on, it’s organising time again!
There are a few things on the cards right now, along with plenty more to come – that’s where the Pirate’s Code is going to come in!
- Liverpool didn’t happen last Christmas but it is still very much on for this year …
- We’ve also been on a few very exciting scouting expeditions around central London since the new year. They need following up on..
- And sooner or later there’ll be a lot more people looking for shelter of some sort or other, so whether you’re interested in staying overnight casually, or living with us permanently we’re exploring a range of much more residential options, including cooperative ownership.
And of course there are plenty of other projects we could get going too, like a good ol’ boogie-woogie,
Exactly what all those other things are, will be very much up to all of us. This is because Space Pirates aren’t about any one “thing”. We’re not about this or that. We’re about a way of doing things, rather than any particular things themselves. This is quite a hard concept to get across, and yet as if by magic it feels like it’s slowly starting to be understood and put into practice, which is wonderful!
That’s not to say we don’t protest about housing for nurses, or the destruction of heritage, for example. Rather it’s that we organize in a certain way, ie consentably and accountably using the Pirate’s Code.
So in that way, you could say there is something that Space Pirates are about: The Pirate’s Code, a diagram of consent and accountability. And that is what this base is dedicated to. Spreading a deeper understanding of and engagement with the Pirates Code!
To get the ball rolling I’m going to share what the Pirate’s Code is, how it’s being used, or both every day with individuals or groups here in person in the Sett. If you’d like to join via video chat, that can be arranged. If you have a strong understanding of the code and would like to help me with this, please signup for your website login details, and use the Pirate’s code offers form on the skills exchange.