Can someone from this squat/witnesses to the eviction get in touch with us asap?
07591415860/ evictionresistance@squat.net

Cheers,
Talia

The residents (squatters) are back in this morning.
How much do illegal police operations like this cost?
For what?
Do they think bullying these young people and breaking the law is going to serve any useful purpose?
Looks to me like fascists within Avon & Somerset police will have approved and run this operation.
Linked to the super rich property developers for whom Bristol squatters have a simple message.

Use it or Lose it.

At the time of writing there's no-one in either part of the buildings.

There are a couple of contractors working on securing one of the doors to the older part facing onto Queens Square.

It is unclear what happened to the people who may have been left after the police action last night, or generally what happened.

Last night the police used a hydraulic ram to force their way through the door into the new part of the building. They completely ignored the Section 6 - saying it didn't exist - and not giving any reason for entering. The police got everyone out except two people on the roof. No-one was arrested.

The police left, leaving the two people on the roof.

How - or if at all - the new part of the building was then secured is unclear. The two people on the roof appear to have come down and left at some point before midday today.

It is also being said the squatters left a door open and possibly the building empty but it's not clear if this is true or if so which building the door was too.

The squatters possessions apparently remain in the building and there's no court order to prevent a re-squat.

If anyone wants to pop down it's a lovely sunny day and there's a group of supporters watching for any developments.

By midday today (Tuesday) the last of the squatters has been forced out.

Make no mistake, this was a Criminal Offence eviction.
Collusion between Avon & Somerset Police and Titan Investors with a little help from Northcliffe paper The Post and it's dehumanising of squatters.
And 15 young people have to find another roof over their heads tonight.
 http://www.66queensquare.com/images.html

But when a few specks of dirt gets in the way of making a few more bailed out bob, and your savings are safely out of the country, legally mind, in Guernsey or the Cayman Islands...
Hey, out of sight out of mind.
Maybe one of these Titan Investors directors can spare one of their empty second homes?
It's somebody else's problem, only trouble is there is no-one else William.


William Buckingham-Burr
Will began his career at Grosvenor where he worked in the commercial development team. He worked on a number of major central London office projects together with the retail-led Liverpool One regeneration project. Following his time at Grosvenor, Will went on to become the fund manager of the Letterstone Emerging Europe Fund; a €40m Guernsey listed vehicle that focused on development projects across central Europe. Will is a graduate of the Universities of Exeter (BA Hons) and Reading (MSc).

Sean MacKenzie
Sean was formerly Developments Manager at Robin Ellis Design & Construction, a multi-disciplinary company specialising in prime mixed-use projects in central London. He trained in a range of construction and investment management roles, before taking responsibility for the management of the company’s investment and development portfolio across prime central London. Sean is a graduate of the University of Oxford (BA Hons).

Non executive directors are appointed solely to asset-level special purpose vehicles that are managed by Titan Investors Limited.

Patrick Holmes
Patrick is the former head of law firm Macfarlanes LLP’s non-contentious construction practice and advised on procurement strategies, development agreements, building contracts, professional appointments and the construction aspects of real estate investment and development transactions. Patrick's clients over the years have included a diverse range of developers, end users, funders and investors in property development projects. He is now the principal of an independent consultancy specialising in property development and urban regeneration.

Richard Pardoe
Richard was formerly Head of Property at Scottish Life Assurance Company and subsequently at Royal London Mutual Insurance Society where he was responsible for funds under management totalling circa £2.5 billion. Since leaving Royal London in 2002, Richard has advised a variety of clients ranging from major UK financial institutions to several smaller development companies including Turnstone Estates, Buccleuch Property and Native Land.

Andrew Verschoyle
Andy is the managing partner of Kingly Partners, a central London property investment agency. Andy provides professional investment and development advice to institutional, private and property company clients. Andy previously worked at Weatheralls, Savills and EA Shaw before setting up Kingly Partners which has become one of the leading investment agencies specialising in Soho, Covent Garden and Southwark.

I am an Anthropology student studying squatting in Bristol for my dissertation and have spent the last 2 months conversing with and at times, living with, this group of young people and their friends.

In this time I have witnessed their eviction from 5 different squats, all of which were commercial properties in disrepair that had been left empty for months and in at least one case, several years. Why should they not be used to house young people who have nowhere else to go?! Without going in to detail about their personal lives, I am in no doubt that for these young people, the squatting community in Bristol has provided support and refuge beyond which they have ever experienced. Each time they have been evicted the squatting community has come to their aid, helping with resistance and if possible, finding them bedding and shelter.

Sometimes, as with this eviction late at night, most of them have had no option but to sleep on the street. What has astounded me throughout the time I have spent with them is their resilience, unwavering positivity and above all, their sense of responsibility to each other and other homeless people they have helped. They lose most of the few possessions they have when evicted but unlike most of society today, they do not place a high value on things and personal ownership. They have little but always share what they have. A far cry from the impression most people have of this group based on newspaper reports, they are good, morally minded people who practice what they preach.

It has angered me to see how they have been targeted and taken advantage of by the authorities. As I have become increasingly aware, the police can do what they like. This time, the squatters were given ten minutes to leave or told they would all be arrested for burglary. Burglary is an offense that, if it had taken place at all, should only warrant individual arrests and has nothing to do with squatting law.

How can young people be expected to have any faith in a "justice" system that flouts its own laws; how can they be expected to have any faith in a Government that cares more about business corporations and money than the safety and happiness of its people?

I like this bunch too and went along yesterday to see if I could help 'em out at all.

There are two reasons they keep getting evicted:

1) They don't secure their buildings and keep people on site

2) They stripped anything valuable from the buildings and sell them for scrap

This has happened at every single building they've taken.

While they keep doing this they will keep getting the attention of the police and be unable to hold their buildings. If they stop tatting their buildings and pay more attention to securing them they'll have a much better chance.

Yes this is true. My previous comment paints too rosy a picture but it isn't all of them that do the scrapping etc.

In fact the splits between this group since the mansion have been caused because of friction over some of them scrapping the buildings or generally making a mess and giving them all a bad name. I'm not certain about whether scrapping has taken place in this squat but I am sure that many of those who were staying there are against it (as are pretty much all of the rest of the squatting community) and have tried to stop others in the group doing it. Also, I have witnessed much of the damage to their squats being done by friends they allow in who are basically there for a party and can go home.

I haven't seen much effort made to really transform the squats in to homes, as I know some individuals would like to. Time spent doing this might deter them from destroying the buildings. Although this apparent lack of effort frustrated me at first, I have come to realize that it is at least in part due the fact that they know, as they are known to and targeted by the authorities, they will be evicted from squats quickly so they feel their efforts would be wasted as no squat is long-term for them, at the moment at least.

It is important as supporters that we don't generalize too much about this group as the police and the papers have done.