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Grosvenor Road Squat (1972-76)
Twickenham, Middlesex, England


NEW GROSVENOR ROAD SITE  +  FORUM
Grosvenor Road Squat @ Facebook  --  old Grosvenor Road Message Board

galleries   -  
Carol (1)  |  Carol (2)  |  Clare  |  Joelle (1)  |  Joelle (2)  |  Joelle (3)
Joelle (Flickr)  |  John K  |  Martin & Inger  |  Scratch  |  Tony G  |  various
(some galleries still under construction)

reunion photos (22nd September 2007)   -   Chris SS's gallery   |   gallery at Flickr.com



[ click on (most of) the pics to open the full size image in a new window ]


Dominic's drawing of No 7
drawing of back of No 7 by Dominic
       
Warehouse painting by Scratch
Scratch's painting - top floor of the Warehouse

[ these two pics were scanned in from very faded photocopies - anyone got the originals? ]





Carol's postcard (1974)
Carol's postcard


"Cats Like Plain Crisps"
graffiti (Richmond, 1973)

CLPC graffiti


Ben, Barny, Karen,
Tim, Viveka, Tina (1976)

children by a caravan in the Wasteland area of Grosvenor Road
        
treehouse

Chris's treehouse (1976)

treehouse





Within a few weeks of being squatted, Number 7 was boarded up by workmen who refused to identify themselves. However after some rather terse negotiating they agreed to leave the back door unblocked, to the relief of those still inside.

Local councillor Ken Elmes, offering help and support, hurriedly arranged for the press to come round. The resulting photograph of him, claw-hammer in hand, in the act of removing one of the boards led to a series of wild allegations by cut-and-paste pulp pop writer George Tremlett, the publicity seeking Tory Housing Chairman. He appeared to be quite deliberately attempting to mislead the council, the press, and the public with a series of inaccurate statements claiming that "the first squatters [were] let in by Cllr. K. Elmes [who] helped the squatters break down doors and windows to get into buildings and was photographed doing so" and that he "broke down the door of an empty house in Grosvenor Road with an axe".

Transcriptions of some of George Tremlett's rantings can be found in the James Saunders play "Squat". Ken's own account of the incident appears in his recently published autobiography "If I only had time" (Ecomex Press, 1998)


No 7 boarded up
7 Grosvenor Rd boarded up by workmen, October 1972
Chris, Joelle and Ken Elmes
Ken Elmes with claw hammer





[ if u have pics to contribute please email weed@wussu.com ]



Cats Like Plain Crisps (the band)  |  Cats Like Plain Crisps (the origin... close enough anyway)

Cats Like Plain Crisps - Twickenham 2006
"Look what appeared last weekend where
the shoe shop used to be in St Margarets"
(July 2006)



galleries   -  
Carol (1)  |  Carol (2)  |  Clare  |  Joelle (1)  |  Joelle (2)  |  Joelle (3)
Joelle (Flickr)  |  John K  |  Martin & Inger  |  Scratch  |  Tony G  |  various

message board  |  "Squat"  |  Ken Elmes  |  archive  |  treehouses  |  weed's home page

thanks to Joelle for inspiration and scans
thanks to Ken Elmes for newspaper cuttings on No 7
thanks to Karen for the photo of the children by the caravan
thanks to John the Song for the 2006 CLPC pic
boarded up No 7 pics from the Twickenham Herald (Oct 19, 1972)
postcard photo by Carol Gardner
black & white tree house photo from the Surrey Comet
"Cats Like Plain Crisps" photo by Roger Perry (from "The Writing on the Wall")
background from Over The Rainbow
comments & contributions to weed@wussu.com
revised 31 March 2009
URL http://www.wussu.com/squatting/grosroad.htm