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