Family of squatters, Notting Hill

Squatters in a house in Notting Hill in April 1973. Squatting is when a person or persons who do not own a particular property, take up residence in it. Squatting in England is a criminal offence but people squat for a variety of reasons from families in financial difficulties to those doing so as a political act. During the 1970s large areas of London were demolished to make way for new social housing however the rebuilding was a slow process and there were many people who became frustrated that they and others had nowhere to live whilst whole streets of houses yet to be demolished, lay empty for years.