Squatting in Britain 1945-1955

Britain in 1946 witnessed extraordinary episodes of direct action. Tens of thousands of families walked into empty army camps and took them over as places to live. A nationwide ‘squatters’ movement’ was born. It was an extensive popular movement, the first challenge to the 1945 Labour government to come from ‘below’.

How should Labour’s record be assessed? The Attlee governments recorded some significant achievements in post-war social reconstruction: nationalisation of key industries, comprehensive national insurance, full employment and a National Health Service. But did Labour miss its opportunity to reconfigure British society in a more progressive direction, when there was a public appetite for change?

This is a book about agency. It demonstrates how those most affected by inadequate housing conditions and shortages responded; how by their actions they have helped shape policies and events. It examines and records something summed up in the recollection of one of the organisers of the London ‘luxury squats’ of 1946:

“…The thing I’ll never forget is that if I’d ever had doubts about the problems of working people taking on and managing their own affairs, I lost them forever during this squatting thing. Because without any hassle, fuss, argument, they found what they could do, and collectively decided that it should be done, and then went off and did it.”

Contents: Introduction; Housing for the Working Class: Politics and Resources; War, Peace and Requisitioning: Housing and Politics 1939-1945; ‘Refugees from overcrowding’: The Squatting Movement Begins; ‘We were solid as a brick wall’: Responses and Organisation; The ‘Luxury Squatters’: Occupying Empty Mansions; ‘Such Desperate Need for Accommodation’: Conditions and Priorities; Squatters and Waiting Lists: The Politics of Allocation; Conclusion; Bibliography, Index.