(My favourite part is where the policeman asks Howard Gipps if he has permission to film, Gipps says laconically, "No").
I lived for 5 months in 'Fatcher's Britain' so I consider myself an honorary punk. In 1990, I saw a punk girl with green hair begging at Piccadilly Circus tube station, sitting on the east side of the exit stairs near Lillywhite's. I was shocked at the time as I wasn't aware of a link between punk and poverty. I sometimes wonder how things worked out for her. Through the miracle of the internet, it's possible to read about what became of some of the punks in the comments to this video. I felt compelled to locate the squat house, and after some hours on Google Earth scouring near-identical house rows, found it at 4 Mitchison Rd, Islington.
Street View
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Going there
I visited the location on 5th October 2012. GPS track:View Punk log in a larger map
In the video, the area looks quite grim. According to a commenter, the terrace was old, and the next house along had collapsed. The site was partitioned off with corrugated sheets, adding to the grimness. There was some fear that punks' house, now at the end of the row, might similarly collapse.
I was surprised to find the area to be quite leafy, clean and comfortable by London standards. A lot of trees have grown up since 1985, softening the grittiness. It is well-served by public transport for the punks' work commute, and I think they did well to score a pad here. A health service has been built on the site of the collapsed house. I talked to a lady that was entering the punk house, and she remembered them, saying that they didn't bother anybody (she had previously lived across the road, and could have been the woman in the window in the video at 5:18... it might have been her sister). The punks have long left, the house has been refurbished, and there is now no sign of their former presence. The house has been divided into three flats.
Then & Now
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Me at the punk squat |
3D anaglyph -- use red/blue glasses |
