The February 2022 issue of the Unfinished Histories project included a great review of this website by director Susan Croft. It is reproduced below with the kind permission of the project.

‘Last week saw the launch of a wonderful new resource, documenting the squatting community of Tolmers Village, in and around Tolmers Square, Camden, NW1 from 1974-79 when whole swathes of buildings were saved from developers and occupied by young activists who also set up food co-ops, a community garden, play structures, legal clinics and annual carnivals….  Tolmers.net, a web resource created by Patrick Allen and Nick Wates, gives a vivid picture of the times, documenting local shops from the early Indian restaurants on Drummond Street, to corner shops, to the beginnings of Alara Wholefoods, alongside numerous snapshots of everyday life in the squats, from opening properties to interior decoration to eviction. The Stories and Where Are They Now sections give a powerful sense of how this early activism changed lives and inspired groups and individuals in further initiatives elsewhere.

‘In the research for Unfinished Histories exhibition and book Re-Staging Revolutions: Alternative Theatre in Lambeth and Camden it became clear how much the availability of cheap or free housing squats, licenced squats and housing co-ops created the conditions for the growth of the alternative theatre movement. Camden had many including this one and Prince of Wales Road and Inter-Action’s own licenced buildings in and around Wilkin St and, not coincidentally, around 50% of the companies listed in the 1974 Alternative Theatre Directory give addresses in the borough. Squatting changed the neighbourhoods including preserving numerous buildings, such as performance and art spaces like The Diorama in Peto Place or The Winchester in Swiss Cottage, and whole tracts of beautiful housing (though much of it now in privately owned and vastly expensive) and it changed lives.’