Oval Mansions
{{short description|Housing blocks in Kennington, London}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2023}}
{{Coord|51.4849|-0.1153|type:landmark_region:GB|display=title}}
File:Gasholders_at_the_Oval.JPG
Oval Mansions are eight separate blocks of tenement housing in Kennington, south London. The blocks stand between the Oval cricket ground and the Oval Gasholders. After being occupied by 100 squatters from 1983 until 2000 (notable residents including Ian Dury, Gillian Wearing, Michael Barrymore, Matthew Corbett and Ben Myers), the buildings were sold off by Lambeth Council in the early 2000s.
Construction
The eight blocks of the Oval Mansions were built as tenement housing in the 1890s. The original inhabitants were nurses and employees at the nearby gasworks.{{cite news |last1=Rowe |first1=Mark |title=For the oldest squatters in town, eviction is just not cricket |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/for-the-oldest-squatters-in-town-eviction-is-just-not-cricket-1173558.html |access-date=11 June 2020 |work=The Independent |date=23 August 1998 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820001143/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/for-the-oldest-squatters-in-town-eviction-is-just-not-cricket-1173558.html |archive-date=20 August 2017 |url-status=live }} Some of four-storey blocks overlook the Oval cricket ground, and it is possible to watch cricket from the roof.{{cite book |last1=Hibbert |first1=Christopher |last2=Keay |first2=John |last3=Keay |first3=Julia |last4=Weinreb |first4=Ben |title=The London Encyclopaedia |date=2008 |publisher=Pan Macmillan |location=London |isbn=9781405049252 |page=448 |edition=3rd [rev.] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wN_H-__MBpYC |access-date=11 June 2020}}{{cite news |last1=Sport |first1=Telegraph |title=Welcome to the best seat at The Oval - and it's not even inside the stadium |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2017/07/26/welcome-best-seat-oval-not-even-inside-stadium/ |access-date=11 June 2020 |work=The Telegraph |date=26 July 2017 |location=London |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170907211616/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2017/07/26/welcome-best-seat-oval-not-even-inside-stadium/ |archive-date=7 September 2017 |url-status=live }}
The blocks were closed in 1979 by order of the new owner, Lambeth Council, since they were becoming unsafe; they had wooden stairs and no fire escapes. The council had bought the mainly uninhabited site from the Greater London Council.
Squatted
Most of the empty buildings were squatted from January 1983 onwards.{{cite book |last1=Lowndes |first1=Sarah |title=The DIY movement in art, music and publishing : subjugated knowledges |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=9781315732664 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fi8FDAAAQBAJ |access-date=11 June 2020}} Blocks 1, 3 and 4 were occupied in 1983, blocks 2 and 7 in 1984 and blocks 6 and 8 in 1985.{{cite court |litigants= Lambeth vs Bigden & Ors |vol= |reporter= |opinion= |pinpoint= |court= England and Wales Court of Appeal |date= 1 December 2000 |url=https://www.casemine.com/judgement/uk/5a8ff8cc60d03e7f57ecd93f |access-date= 11 June 2020}} The council having forgotten about them, the squatters renovated and repaired the apartments, living there in a community of approximately 100 people. Notable residents included the singer Ian Dury, artists Gillian Wearing and Fiona Banner, writer Ben Myers and musicians Pan Sonic.{{cite news |last1=Myers |first1=Ben |title=Criminalising squatters will hurt British pop music |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2012/sep/03/criminalising-squatters-hurts-british-music |access-date=11 June 2020 |work=The Guardian |date=3 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170731104142/https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2012/sep/03/criminalising-squatters-hurts-british-music |archive-date=31 July 2017 |url-status=live }}
Between 1988 and 1998, squatters set up and ran the City Racing art gallery in a former betting shop on the ground floor.{{cite news |last1=Lack |first1=Jessica |title=Artist of the week 15: Paul Noble |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/nov/12/paul-noble-art |access-date=11 June 2020 |work=The Guardian |date=12 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200407232133/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/nov/12/paul-noble-art |archive-date=7 April 2020 |url-status=live }}{{cite news |title=Push the Envelope – Sustaining arts communities on the left bank |url=https://beaconsfield.ltd.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/PtEdownload.final2_.pdf |access-date=11 June 2020 |work=Lambeth Riverside Festival 2006 |date=19 July 2006}} The gallery exhibited the work of Young British Artists such as Sarah Lucas and Gillian Wearing, selling three Lucas artworks to Charles Saatchi. The community also ran a film club and tended shared gardens.{{cite news |title=Squatted Mansions |url=https://squallmagazine.com/f/d03-06-squatted-mansions.html |access-date=11 June 2020 |work=Squall Magazine |date=March 2000 |language=en}}
Eviction
By the late 1990s, Lambeth Council had realised the increasing monetary value of the apartments and issued eviction proceedings in 1997. The squatters were offered social housing elsewhere, which some took, but others contested the eviction process, arguing that they were entitled to adverse possession since they had lived there as a community for over twelve years. Thirty-two squatters made their case in court, and six apartments successfully gained ownership. Judge Cooke decided that another 53 squats had not proven their case, with one extra still in dispute. The squatters took their case to the Court of Appeal, claiming that they had acquired title by virtue of joint possession. The appeal was rejected in December 2000.{{cite journal |last1=Pawlowski |first1=Mark |last2=Brown |first2=James |title=Adverse Possession and the Transmissibility of Possessory Rights – The Dark Side of Land Registration? |journal=Conveyancer and Property Lawyer |date=2017 |volume=2 |pages=116–131 |url=https://publications.aston.ac.uk/id/eprint/30175/1/Adverse_possession_and_the_transmisibility_of_possessory_rights.pdf |access-date=11 June 2020 |issn=0010-8200}}
By 2003, Lambeth Council had sold the majority of the Oval Mansions for {{GBP|5.1|long=no}}{{nbsp}}million.{{cite news |title=Council evicts 'veteran' squatter |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/745458.stm |access-date=11 June 2020 |work=BBC News |date=11 May 2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060325084151/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/745458.stm |archive-date=25 March 2006 |url-status=live }} As of 2015, a penthouse apartment could be rented for {{GBP|500|long=no}} per week and in 2017, a two-bed apartment sold for {{GBP|730,000|long=no}}.
See also
- Bonnington Square, another famous squat in Lambeth
- Frestonia, a squat in the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
- Wrigley Rooftops, a sports venue vantage point in Chicago
References
{{reflist}}
{{Squatting in England and Wales}}
{{The Oval}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Squats in the United Kingdom
Category:1890s establishments in the United Kingdom
Category:Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Lambeth