Published: February 17, 2012
by ANDREW JOHNSON

SQUATTERS from the Occupy London movement who have taken over a disused school say they expect to be there for at least a month.

They are appealing against a possession order served on Tuesday for the former Moorfields Primary School in Clerkenwell which has been empty for three years since its merger with Prior Western.

Despite a hard-fought campaign by residents, the site was sold to housing association Southern Housing Group in 2009 for about £8.35million by the Liberal Democrats who then ran the Town Hall.

Original plans to build homes on the site were rejected because there was not enough affordable housing in the proposal. The association has, however, won permission to demolish the building and has submitted new plans to build a mixture of ­private and affordable homes.

About 18 squatters are now living in the building, after entering last week. They occupied the school after being evicted from the UBS building in nearby Sun Street, which they had turned into a “Bank of Ideas” which staged talks by university lecturers and visits by Thom Yorke of Radiohead and members of Bristol group Massive Attack.

Pete Phoenix, one of the squatters, said they now wanted to turn Moorfields, in Featherstone Street, into a “school of ideas”.

About 150 people, including local residents, had attended workshops over the weekend, he added.

The new Occupy site is just a few hundred yards from Finsbury Square, which is still occupied by protesters who originally gathered at St Paul’s Cathedral before Christmas.

Mr Phoenix added that the group was hoping they could negotiate with Southern Housing to stay in the building until it was ready for demolition.

“This is a community resource that could have been used for the last three years,” he said. “There is a playground that children could have been using and a basketball court that’s become overgrown. We’ve cleared that now and tidied up.

“We’ve got university professors who want to give lectures. At the Bank of Ideas we had the Green Party’s Jenny Jones and Mark Thomas talking. For three years there could have been youth clubs here, kids could have been playing on the slide, old people’s groups, all run by volunteers. This is David Cameron’s Big Society but instead they just keep evicting us.”

Southern Housing’s original plan for a seven-story building and 121 homes was thrown out in March last year because it would have overshadowed the adjacent grade I-listed Bunhill Fields Cemetery, where the poet William Blake is buried. There were not enough affordable homes in the scheme, which was opposed by more than 200 residents.

Now, the association has plans for a five-storey building with 65 homes.

A spokeswoman for Southern Housing said the existing building was not safe for squatters as demolition had begun. The Tribune could see no signs of demolition on Wednesday.

The statement added: “The site was occupied by Mulalley [a construction company] in order to undertake demolition works. The work underway at the time included invasive asbestos surveys prior to removal.” 

Squatters had been told the site was unsafe. “There are serious safety risks to any occupation of the site buildings,” the statement added. “It is additionally concerning that the public have been invited into the site by the occupants. They are holding up the redevelopment of the site, which will include much-needed affordable housing.”

The occupiers deny the building is unsafe and stress that, although the public cannot visit, guests can.

• The Town Hall has begun a consultation over the future of Moreland School, in King Square estate, Finsbury. The council is rebuilding the school, but says extra space will be made available.

Council planners want to use the space for affordable housing. Residents can comment until March 16.