The London Street Commune
was set up in September 1969 in 144 Piccadilly, an old hotel round
the corner from Buck House. It was an attempted to create new
housing opportunities beyond the confines of the nuclear family. On
the eve of the autumnbal Equinox, 21st September, it was evicted by
police under the pretext of a drugs raid. the police successfully
stormed an improvised drawbridge., leading the Daily Mirror
to describe it as the "Fall of the Hippy Castle". Immediately after the
Equinox, 23rd September, the police moved in on a second squat
whence the LSC had retreated. Amongst those arrested, some were
charged with "forcibly detaining" the premises and after a trial at
Lewes, a bastion of Freemasonry and reaction, two were jailed for
nine months.
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London Street Commune