Like many of the first squatters in Tolmers, I studied architecture at University College London. I first squatted in Euston Street in 1973, later moving to Hampstead Road and then North Gower Street. When I moved to Tolmers, I was in the final year of my degree. It was a turning point in my life. I was wanting to find an alternative way of living and engaging in community politics. I got involved in All London Squatters, which met at the Roebuck in Tottenham Court Road, and I was active in the Campaign Against the Criminal Trespass Law. I was involved in supporting the campaign against the winkling out of tenants by landlords in Islington, and was arrested at a picket of Prebble’s Estate Agent and charged with obstruction. David Watkinson, who subsequently defended the Tolmers Village squatters against eviction orders, was my barrister. After I gave evidence, the magistrate dismissed the charges against me, but the other three defendants didn’t get off. It was for me, as a middle class white woman, a lesson in class politics. 

I think squatting in Tolmers was special, because the squatters were very embedded in the local community, which was under threat from property speculation. We were friendly with shopkeepers and tenants. We found out about the empty flat that I moved into in Hampstead Road from two retired sisters, who lived in the flat above. I remember being a regular at the Lord Palmerston in Hampstead Road, often calling in at the end of an evening for a glass of port, always being sure to find people I knew there.

Whilst living in Tolmers, I became involved in Essex Road Women’s Centre and in 1976 moved to a squat in Islington with other women from the Centre and their children, and later came out as a lesbian. After being evicted a few times, we moved into licensed short-life property. (Local authorities had bought up street properties, but in the context of further cutbacks in public expenditure in the late 1970s were unable to fund their renovation. Rather than leave them empty they let them on short term licences). 

After leaving university I worked in a building cooperative. Later I trained and worked as a carpenter. With other women working or wanting to work in non-traditional jobs, I set up Women and Manual Trades. In the late 1970s and early 1980s I worked for Solon Cooperative Housing Services helping licensed short life housing groups with making their properties habitable. After a decade out of university I went back and finished off my education as an architect. I was then involved in setting up a feminist architectural practice, Matrix, and was active in the Feminist Architects’ Network. In the early 1990s in the context of cuts to local government funding, I was made redundant from my job as an architect at Islington Council. I then worked in urban regeneration and studied for a PhD comparing the changing relationship between the public and private sectors in development in London and Paris. I spent the last fifteen years of my working life teaching planning and regeneration. I then retired, but continued to do some research and teaching.

In 2013, I moved with my partner and daughter from London to Lewes in Sussex. I became active in Extinction Rebellion locally and was also involved in the Architects Climate Action Network.

Read more about the author Suzy Nelson