By March 1988, with over 120 flats squatted on the Stamford Hill Estate alone, the council brought in riot cops to attempt a mass eviction. After a three day stand off, with burning barricades, hundreds of masked squatters and local supporters, the estate was finally lost.
– From Hackney Anarchy Week’s “Hackney’s Anarchic 90s” text.
Squatters Set Fire To Cars To Block Eviction – Glasgow Herald, March 8th 1988
(this image courtesy of http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/stamfordhill/Interesting via Throbbings of Noontide)
(Counter Information text via Libcom. Counter Information was a free one-sheeter distributed widely across the UK from the mid 80s until 2003)
With thanks to History Is Made At Night for passing on three of the images above from Facebook.
The green poster above is currently on display at the Hackney Museum as part of their Hackney@50 – the People’s Choice exhibition: “50 objects, 50 stories, 50 years of Hackney.”
(Image nicked from twitter, with thanks and apologies to whoever the handsome man shown is).
See also Chris Dorley Brown – on Flickr (another burned out car image with some good comments below).
If you have any recollections of the evictions or of squatting in Stamford Hill, leave a comment below or get in touch.
I was there.