On Monday 5th February at 7:30pm, veteran housing activist Nick Wates will be giving a talk at Leila’s Cafe introduced by Will Palin and hosted by the EAST END PRESERVATION SOCIETY, about his seminal experiences in Camden in the seventies, occupying Tolmers Sq after the council attempted to evict local residents and sell the land off to property developers. Nick will reflect upon the lessons of Tolmers Sq and their relevance for campaigns today.
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“The Tolmers Sq campaign dominated my life for six years. I was obsessed by it, I lived and breathed it. I spent hours in smoke-filled meetings. I paced the streets and talked to people. I wrote thousands of words and did frequent all-nighters preparing artwork for printers. Then I repeated the process in Limehouse before escaping Inner London to bring up my two children on the South Coast and experiment with community planning.
Yet neighbourhoods all over the country are still facing the destructive power of property speculators and mismanagement by local and central government. The housing crisis is worse than it was then. And community activists are still burning themselves out trying to make the world a better place and create sustainable urban neighbourhoods.
I am looking forward to sharing my memories of our campaign to save Tolmers Sq and revealing some of the tools of our trade as activists at the time, as evidence that it was not all merely a dream.” – Nick Wates
Tolmers Square campaign timeline
1957
Tolmers Sq Tenant Association (TSTA) formed.
1959
Developers submit planning application for a twenty-two-storey office tower on the south side of Tolmers Sq and TSTA launch anti-office campaign.
1960
London County Council (LCC) rejects planning application for office development and starts preparing plans for a comprehensive housing development.
1962
Stock Conversion, a property company headed by Joe Levy, starts buying land in the Tolmers area. TSTA campaign for tenants displaced by the nearby Euston Centre development.
1963
LCC starts trying to demolish ‘unfit’ houses in the area.
1965
Reorganisation of London government. LCC replaced by the Greater London Council (GLC), and the Borough of St Pancras amalgamated into Camden. Central Government refuses to give Camden permission to buy land or to build offices.
1966
Camden Council starts negotiations with Stock Conversion to purchase land in the area and provide support for office development.
1967
Camden Council continues to demolish ‘unfit’ housing.
1968
Camden Council submits Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) for a small area of housing.
1970
Central Government rejects CPO. Camden Council starts negotiations with Stock Conversion for the whole Tolmers area.
1971
The beginning of opposition from some Labour councillors to a deal involving office development.
1973
The issue starts receiving considerable publicity. Squatters start moving into empty property. Camden Council approves the ‘Levy Deal’. Students from University College London survey the area. Claudius Offer (masterminded by Christopher Booker & Bennie Gray) presented to Camden Council. It still involves building offices but the profits would go to the Council. Tolmers Village Association (TVA) formed. Stop the Levy Deal campaign launched.
Camden Council reject the Levy Deal. House collapses in Hampstead Rd.
1974
General Election. TVA holds exhibition to involve local people in the area’s future. Camden makes CPO on a few buildings. TVA publishes Tolmers Destroyed pamphlet, occupies derelict land and holds first summer carnival. Stock Conversion discloses new plans to develop without the Council. Camden submit a CPO for all of Stock Conversion’s property. General Election.
1975
Squatters summonsed by Stock Conversion. Squatters’ anti-eviction campaign. Locally made film Tolmers: Beginning or end? shown on BBC2. Camden Council buys all of Stock Conversion’s property in the area. Camden Council applies for an Office Development Permit for 300,000 square feet.
1976
Camden Council approves new scheme, a mix of rehabilitation and new build, housing and offices. Publication of The Battle for Tolmers Square by Routledge.
1977
Temporary landscaping of Tolmers Sq
1978
Last Tolmers carnival
1979
Squatters evicted by Camden.
1982
Camden organise ceremony to mark the ‘completion’ of the Tolmers Sq development.
2010
Tolmers photos and posters included in the Goodbye London exhibition in Berlin.
2011
Tolmers in Colour published.
2018
Plans for HS2 show Euston Station expanding into the Tolmers area.
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Photographs copyright © Nick Wates
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