Content deleted Content added
m sp |
Kjell Knudde (talk | contribs) Added more categories. |
||
| (9 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
Line 4:
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2018}}
{{coord|51|30|37.49|N|0|13|2.33|W|type:landmark_region:GB|display=title}}
[[Image:Peoples Hall Frestonia.JPG|thumb|300px|right|The People's Hall, Freston Road. Looming over the small street, this is the only significant building from the Frestonian squatting period still standing on Freston Road itself, and was home to a bunch of French punks. Eventually when they moved on, the location was popular with creative outsiders drawn to the community. The building hosted the recording of much of [[The Clash]]'s album ''[[Combat Rock]]'']]
'''Frestonia''' was the name adopted for a couple of months by the squatters of Freston Road, London, when they attempted to stop a threatened eviction via
The residents were squatters, some of whom eventually set up a [[housing co-op]] in negotiation with [[Notting Hill Housing Trust]] after that landlord bought the street. Residents included artists, musicians, writers, actors and radical feminist activists.
Actor [[David Rappaport]] was the [[Foreign Minister]], while playwright [[Heathcote Williams]] who occasionally visited a friend in the street, served as Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
==Location==
Line 69 ⟶ 73:
When the state celebrated its fifth anniversary in 1982, the population numbered 97 people occupying 23 houses. The same year, [[The Clash]] recorded their album ''[[Combat Rock]]'' in Ear Studios (also known as The People's Hall) in Frestonia. The Clash and [[Motörhead]] practised in the rehearsal studios there. [[Killing Joke]] and [[Girlschool]] also practised there.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.timeout.com/london/music/features/329.html|title=Frestonia declares its independence: It happened here|website=Time Out London|access-date=15 August 2018 |archive-date= 26 September 2007| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926215843/https://www.timeout.com/london/music/features/329.html}}</ref>
One third of the little tumbledown Victorian houses were squatted by young women from around the globe. Many gradually developed a shared feminist consciousness and began setting up creches, food co-ops and helping in the growing networks of women's refuges and legal advice agencies. The street became a hub for a while, for local anarcho feminist meetings and activism. One woman, Hilary, was the cook on the first Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior. Another, Lizzie, lived at Greenham Peace Camp, Marisa consolidated her career as an artist and Diane hers as a successful jazz musician. Everything seemed possible and everything was questioned. <ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/republic-of-frestonia-tony-sleep-rd of 032|title=The Notting Hill Squatters Who Declared Independence from the UK|date=28 October 2014|website=Vice.com|access-date=15 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160804224247/http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/republic-of-frestonia-tony-sleep-032|archive-date=4 August 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>
==Decline and fall==
Following international press coverage, the residents formed the Bramleys Housing Co-operative Ltd, which negotiated with [[Notting Hill Housing Trust]] for continued residence and acceptable redevelopment of the site. Some Frestonians were unhappy with the consequent loss of independence and moved away. According to Tony Sleep, a resident photographer<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/4w7pxq/republic-of-frestonia-tony-sleep-032|title=The Notting Hill Squatters Who Declared Independence from the UK|date=28 October 2014|website=Vice.com|access-date=15 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180816025758/https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/4w7pxq/republic-of-frestonia-tony-sleep-032|archive-date=16 August 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> whose online photo-journal<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tonysleep.com/frestonia|title=Welcome to Frestonia. Comprehensive history and archive of photographs from Frestonia, by Tony Sleep, a resident photographer|website=Tonysleep.com|access-date=15 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180816125755/http://www.tonysleep.com/frestonia/|archive-date=16 August 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> documents the history of the area, those leaving were often replaced by people with drinking and drug problems. The remaining Frestonians proved incapable of maintaining the ideals of the Frestonian "nation", which consequently went into decline. In its place, a more conventional local community developed, without any claims to secession from the UK.
==
As of 2016, Bramleys Housing Co-operative manages the properties owned and built on the Frestonia site by Notting Hill Housing Trust,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nottinghillhousing.org.uk/|title=Notting Hill Genesis|website=Notting Hill Genesis|access-date=15 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160805020546/http://www.nottinghillhousing.org.uk/|archive-date=5 August 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> and its members live as a close-knit community. Some are children or grandchildren of the original Frestonians, although there has also been a significant influx of new residents.
A large new office development, also named Frestonia, was built on the adjacent site at the junction of Bramley Road and St Anns Road, and is occupied by the headquarters of [[Cath Kidston Limited|Cath Kidston]]. In 2001, a second large office development also named Frestonia by its developers was erected at 125/135 Freston Road.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.frestonia.co.uk|title=Frestonia.com|website=Frestonia.co.uk|access-date=15 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071008212859/http://www.frestonia.co.uk/|archive-date=8 October 2007|url-status=live}}</ref>
Major developments occurred in
==Cultural reactions==
Line 117 ⟶ 125:
[[Category:Micronations in England]]
[[Category:Squats in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Counterculture of the 1970s]]
| |||