This is the third London address popular with squatters in recent weeks.
Police also recently evicted 400 squatters from Marco Pierre White’s closed restaurant in Leicester Square, the Telegraph reported.
Built in 1937, the Twentieth Century House was vacated in 2019 after Disney purchased parent company 21st Century Fox. It avoided demolition in 2020 after an outcry from the British film and music community, according to The Guardian.
20th century house, London, in 1956. Mirrorpix/Getty Images
The Evening Standard reported that in recent months builders had dismantled the facilities but squatters had now moved in.
The squatters posted a legal notice on the imposing facade indicating that they cannot be legally evicted without a court decision, the media reported.
There is growing anger over the cost of living in the world’s major cities, and many are struggling to get by. Although the motivations of the latter group are unclear, empty, high-profile buildings provide an obvious target for those angry about rising rents and property prices.
The high cost of rent was a focal point for the group which recently occupied the site of Gordon Ramsay’s York & Albany restaurant in Camden – another borough where wealth inequality is extremely high.
Part of this group, calling themselves Camden Art Collective, briefly opened the venue to the public as a cafe, offering free food and art workshops in a move aimed at highlighting the huge wealth disparity of the region.
Gordon Ramsay’s York & Albany hotel and restaurant on April 15, 2024, as squatters occupy it. Grace Dean/Business Insider
On Wednesday, the collective released a statement saying it had left the building after receiving legal notice, but that it “wishes those who remain in the building the best of luck in their efforts”, suggesting that some squatters are remained inside.
Ramsay representatives did not respond to a request for comment, but appear to have been working quietly to evict the squatters.
In the UK, this is not an easy task, as legal experts explained to BI.
While squatting on a residential property became a criminal offense in 2012, doing the same thing in a commercial building is a civil matter, and landlords must engage in a complicated and often costly legal process to get them out.
Residents have mixed feelings about the squatters at Twentieth Century House, the Evening Standard reported.
A nearby officer said their presence was “a headache, a real worry”, and added that they had had problems with urination and drug use outside the building.
But others expressed support for anyone taking over an empty building in a city as expensive as London.
businessinsider
