London Baker Street Cornwall Terrace squat (1975)
Cornwall Terrace overlooking Regents Park.
I'm not sure when Cornwall Terrace
was first squatted, or by whom. When I found it in the summer of 1975 it was
already squatted by a group of the Divine Light Mission who were quite well
organised with rooms dedicated for meditation and communual activities. They
even had their own health food shop where anyone could buy musli at a very
reasonable
rate.
Although the Divine Light Mission took much of the space available,
the buildings were so large that there were many rooms colonised by
other
groups, and empty rooms and free to use.
For one summer the Cornwall Terrace squat housed homeless people from around
London and the UK. There were also visitors from ather parts of the world,
some of whom had come
to join the Divine Light Mission, but many others were just travelling through
and needed a place to stay for a while.
'Our' room was one of two large rooms on the ground floor the walls of which
were soon decorated with a large painting that stretched around the room.
I don't know when the squat came to an end ----??? Katherine was there
- see below
If you have more information
on the Cornwall Terrace Squat near Baker Street London in 1975 that could
go on
this page please email me.
Links http://www.prem-rawat-talk.org/forum/posts/13649.html
At
the beginning of 1975, Cornwall Terrace, a historic Nash building overlooking
London's Regents Park left empty by the Crown Commissioners, was opened up
and rapidly filled by over 300 people. http://www.steveplatt.net/squatting/realstory2.htm
squat n :
Famous 1970s London squats include Cornwall Terrace,
Regent’s Park (since it was owned by the Queen)
Katherine's memories
Before I moved in I walked house to house looking for a room, I remember the Eastern meditation house I beleive number 3. I looked around to me then it was really wierd, anyway I secured a massive room in number 10. I remember Derek (the Irish guy) was doing a lot of home brewing in the basement kitchens. I made friends with 'the boys' upstairs from me and a highlight of my stay was a massive 3 day/night party we put on. (There was lots of drugs there too) I painted a big mural in the 'ballroom''. I remember taking trips and sneaking over to the park (REGENT PARK) at night, pinching a boat and rowing in the lake. Getting chased out by the park police. There were a lot of people wandering in and out STONED all the time but no hard stuff (heroin) at our house anyway. It was a glorious summer, the place was magnificent. My first boyfriend CLIVE lived there we lasted a year (wonder what happened to him????)
We got notice of the EVICTION and our house plus some others (ie TED the bum who collected mattresses) moved around the corner to two abandoned hotels in Baker street. I saw the end from regents park. TV crews and reporters everywhere. Police cut off surrounding streets and 9 or 10 coaches of police turned up for the BIG eviction day, but less than 40 people remained. I think it was OCTOBER time of year.
I did habour some resentment, as all my housemates pretty much had options for housing were as I was genuinely homeless and really Cornwall terrace was a glamourous break from the dingy squats I was used to and what came after......at the time I had a part time job and was going to school!
Tarlach's memories
My name is Tarlach.
I was squatting in Cornwall Terrace during that year.
I came to London to 'get Knowledge' from the Divine Light Mission.
I went to the Palace of Peace and was told it might take a while for me to
be considered ready.
I needed some where to live so I was told about Cornwall Terrace.
I got a room in number 3. I was sharing with another Irish guy (I am Irish
also) called Tommy.
There was a woman with red hair also sleeping in the room.
We where only there on our second night when we decided to cook on a small
gas camping cylinder.
You know the small blue ones. The squat was very new then. Only a few weeks
old.
There was a meeting going on in the next room, some of the original squatters.
They where getting organised. The dam cylinder blew up and the wall, which
was partition wall made of
a wooden frame and plaster, board blew out and into the room where the meeting
was being held. The wall just fell into the room intact. Lucky for the people
in the room there was a support pole, which the wall leaned against, preventing
it from falling on them. They looked so shocked.
Meanwhile the gas was on fire in our room. I opened the window and shoved the
woman with red hair onto the balcony and helped Tommy put out the fire. What
an entrance.
Then I got my own room, in number 5, I think. On the first floor.
Became friends with a guy called Greg, with whom I did a lot of LSD.
We had a tripping room, no shoes, incense, nice materials hanging and lots of
comfort with mattresses covered with nice materials. Lots of people came to the
room to trip out and ask advice on tripping.
We used to go into Regents Park at dawn and pick the daffodils. Huge bunches.
We took them back and used to leave small bunches outside each door, in the long
corridors that connected the buildings on the inside.
The corridors where great, you could go from building to building almost the
length of the street without going outside. I think some people never went outside
for months on end.
The people I remember are Greg, whom I have mentioned and Irish Tommy.
A beautiful black woman called Catherina, she had a son and had been traveling
in India.
Danny, with mad looking red henna hair. He was a hair dresser living in the
Divine Light house.
His girl friend was Moroccan, or from someplace like that. She had fallen asleep
on the bar of an electric fire and marked her face badly. On some sleeping pills.
A big German guy who used to give massages, mostly to the women.
Cleansing a room which a guy had used to perform a black mass. Up-side-down cross
painted on the wall, along with strange magic spells and symbols. We chanted
and painted the walls white.
I met a woman called Andi there and we moved to Wales a short while before the
terrace was closed down.
We stayed together and had a daughter.
The beginning, the first two months where idealistic. Negotiations with the council
to put in plumbing, bathrooms and kitchens. They began the work, installing copper
tanks and plumbing. They got as far as number 3 when one night some junkies ripped
off the copper and sold it. That was the end of the council doing anything for
the street. The demise was related to drugs. At first it was a gentle hippy vibe,
hash and acid.
Then slowly the junkies began to exert their negative influence. Rooms robbed.
This infulence slowly took over the street. Cumulating in some bank robbers hiding
out in number 1 with guns.
I had many acid trips there. I was taking 'Operation Julie' blue slate acid
at the time.
Lovely stuff, which I was getting from Wales. Good old Buzz and Smiles. : )
I remember sat sang in the ballroom.
The free food kitchen in number 19. Chanting in the kitchen.
The corridors. Being on the roof. The great summer weather.
The access to the park at night.
The huge windows and lovely wooden floors.
I would love to hear from people who where there.
I wonder what happened to the people I remember.
That's it.
Tarlach.
If you have a memory please email me