The fencing around Chiltern House on the Aylesbury Estate, which was occupied after the March for Homes on 31/01/15 (Photo: Hannah Awcock).
Recently, housing has become one of the most contentious issues in London. The city is growing faster than its housing stock, which is putting real pressure on Londoners. Many, particularly those with low incomes, are struggling with high prices, soaring rents and a chronic shortage of council housing. A numbers of campaign groups, such as FocusE15 and Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth, have started to combat the problem by raising awareness, protesting and intervening in evictions.The recent March for Homes is just one of the examples of the actions taking place. This focus is reflected in London’s protest stickers, and housing is one of the most common specific issues that stickers refer to. Most of the following pictures come from the area around the Aylesbury estate, an section of which was occupied after the March for Homes in protest of the estate gradually being sold off by Southwark Council for private redevelopment.
This sticker refers directly to the occupation at Aylesbury, and was photographed on 13/04/15 at Elephant and Castle (Photo: Hannah Awcock).
Many of London’s poorest inhabitants are being pushed out by rising prices and redevelopments, leading to accusations of social cleansing (Photo: Hannah Awcock, Aylesbury Estate, 02/04/15).
Many homes are bought by investors, kept empty and then sold off for profit a year or two later once the price has risen (Photo: Hannah Awcock, Elephant and Castle, 08/03/15).
This sticker was produced by Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth, along with several others featured in this post (Photo: Hannah Awcock, Flint Street, SE1, 05/05/15).
Over the past few months, it has come to light that some property developers build separate entrances for the social housing in their developments. This sticker is calling for an end to these ‘poor doors’ (Photo: Hannah Awcock, Elephant and Castle, 03/03/15).
Some of the detail on this sticker is hard to make out because of the weathering, but I think it is calling for the Bedroom Tax to be replaced with a 50% Mansion Tax (Photo: Hannah Awcock, Cable Street, 25/02/15).
This sticker was obviously made by the same people as the previous one, but it is slightly different. Also, ‘Vote for Class War’ has been changed to ‘Fight for Class War’ (Photo: Hannah Awcock, Borough High Street, 18/02/15).
This design was produced by Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth. The picture was taken in East Street, which has recently got attention because of resistance to raids by the UK Border Agency (Photo: Hannah Awcock, East Street, Southwark, 04/06/15).
This design was also produced by HASL, and also refers to social cleansing (Photo: Hannah Awcock, East Street, 04/06/15).
University Teacher in Human Geography at the University of Edinburgh. Interested in the cultural, historical, and political geographies of resistance.
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7 thoughts on “London’s Protest Stickers: Housing”