Elephant and Hippo and squatting and Olive Morris

A year or so ago, I noticed that 1 Bowling Green Street (Elephant and Hippo pub) was mentioned in various legal news articles re. the question of regaining possession of the property. I didn't mention it at the time, and the case really only came to any attention because it involved a point of law (whether /any/ court could grant a stay of execution re. gaining possession of a property). The eventual ruling was that any court may indeed grant a stay of execution, but I'm afraid I have failed to figure out who exactly has possession at the moment. I presume that eventually the claimant (Admiral Taverns (Cygnet) Ltd) did win the possession back, (irrespective of how the case went re. the point of law), but I suppose that the question of possession might have had to wait for the Appeal court ruling, and if that's the case, the defendant still has possession.

The pub has theoretically been boarded up for the last year or so. I only noticed because the fabulous elephant and hippo 3D model seemed to disappear from the front. But even before that, it looked rather quiet deserted. In any case, I have heard on the grapevine that the pub is currently squatted. Can anybody advise whether there are plans to turn it into one of those squats that offers community services, in the same vein as The Library House in Camberwell? It seems the Library House have a day in court tomorrow (Jan 18th) and their blog indicates they have asked for supporters to attend an 8am breakfast, if anybody feels like going along... Anyhow, I have often wondered whether the other old pub (the pink one) (formerly The Cricketers) on one side of the Oval is squatted too as have seen movements that might indicate so. If there's lots of squats in SE11, it's all good news, as [notice the badly designed plug], Olive Morris would have agreed.

Who was Olive Morris I hear you asking? (Some people try to answer that question here). She was an amazing, right on lady from Lambeth! She was a campaigner who was well ahead of her time, promoting groups for black women in Lambeth (Brixton specifically) and at the forefront of the Black Panthers and black rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Central to her life at one period was the squat at 121 Railton Road she started occupying in 1972 (and which was occupied by squatters until 1999)! If you want to find out more, why not pop into the Gasworks art exhibition named, "Do you remember Olive Morris?" or check out the Remembering Olive Collective blog, from which I've drawn the above information. The Gas Works gallery is open from Wednesday - Sunday. I went today, and it's great to see that this very important woman is not being forgotten, but it made me wonder how many other brave women from this Borough are waiting to be rediscovered. I know that Olive Morris has a whole administrative building to her name, but I wonder whether she has a blue plaque anywhere...

A useful website for those looking for houses in SE11 - [Part 1 of house hunting in SE11]

This is Part 1 of an ongoing series for people interested in buying, renting, obtaining local authority / housing association property, squatting or crashing on somebody's floor in the SE11 area. I'll also see if I can talk a little about obtaining parking, permits and car clubs in Lambeth as well.

FindaProperty.com is an excellent resource whether you are looking for a property to buy or rent in SE11. The site features an SE11 area information page where you can find such information as council tax rates, school performance ratings, crime statistics and some 'word on the street' submitted by SE11 residents.
You can search lists of houses in SE11, flats in SE11 and view selling prices of any house in your street in the last eight years. If you're feeling particularly nosey, you can see how much your neighbours bought their house for! (Or indeed, in this climate, how much money your neighbours lost when they sold their house!!)

[And in case you wondered, FindAProperty have agreed to link to me from their website. However, in the interests of keeping things fair, I've decided to launch a general guide to searching for property in the SE11 area, as it's something I've considerable experience of! I must also add that, out of all the property portals, Findaproperty is one of my personal favourites, but I'll talk in furthur detail about some other portals later in the series.]