The Oubliette art house. Photograph: Camilla Canocchi

 

In the last year, several stories have appeared in the news about artists’ collectives establishing creative spaces in expensive abandoned buildings.

First it was ‘The Temporary School of Thought,’ occupying a £25 million house in Mayfair.

Then, in the last month, a collective called ‘Oubliette’ created an art house in a £5 million building in Waterloo.

As the number of empty properties in London increases, the view among the squatter community is that these kinds of initiatives will spread.

“It’s a real struggle living as an artist, especially when you are forced not to live as an artist because you have to partake in menial work to cover rent and basic subsistence costs,” says Dan Simon, one of the ‘Oubliette’ squatters.

There are more than 82,000 empty homes in London according to the Empty Homes Agency (EHA), a charity which works to highlight the waste of empty spaces and helps to return them to use.

EHA say that the total is probably higher since the latest statistics are from April 2008 and, according to Henry Oliver of EHA, “the main decline in the housing market has happened since then.”

“Squatting is an inevitable consequence of a failing housing system; when the system doesn’t deliver, I don’t blame people for trying to short-circuit it,” says David Ireland, chief executive of EHA.

Alan Sharpington, Co-artistic director of Donkey Works, a theatre production company that is staging a play at the Oubliette art house, says that before now the cheapest place where he could put on a performance cost £130 per week.

“It’s such a competitive market. We have tried to get private sponsorship but nobody is interested at all.

The Arts Council offered help, but wants to see the play before giving you the funds,” explains Sharpington.

Simon believes that the recent downturn in the economy, combined with the series of economic and political scandals, have made the public more understanding of squatting.

“The neighbours are generally supportive,” says Simon as he shows a set of sofas that were given to him by the local pub.

Following a recent story in the Evening Standard about Oubliette, comments left by the readers where generally positive about the initiative.

Only a handful of people argued that they should be thrown out or that what they are doing is vandalism.

One such commenter that went by the name of Fanfan La Tulipe complained: “These people have just helped themselves to somebody's property! Where do we draw the line or is it all becoming a free for all?”

Simon argues that squatters actually perform a social function: “We function as a 100 per cent effective 24/7 security service, we keep the building in good repair and stop the devaluation of house prices…If you live on a street where there is a rotting building you are obviously affected by that.”

But the owners of the property, Dover House Property Investments

Limited, disagree and are taking the collective to court  to have them evicted.

However, Simon remains optimistic about the future of Oubliette: “it may not be in this property, it may not be in the next property, but this ambition will be realized.”