Bonnington Square is a

square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90-degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length adj ...

Vauxhall Vauxhall ( ) is a district in South West London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. Vauxhall was part of Surrey until 1889 when the County of London was created. Named after a medieval manor, "Fox Hall", it became well known for ...

, south

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, which was built in the 1870s. It became famous in the 1980s when all the houses in it, vacant and awaiting demolition, were

squatted Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

History

Bonnington Square was constructed in the 1870s in order to house railway workers. By the late 1970s, Bonnington Square was compulsorily purchased by the

Greater London Council The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council (LCC) which had covered a much smaller area. The GLC was dissolved in 198 ...

(GLC) for the

Inner London Education Authority The Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) was an ad hoc local education authority for the City of London and the 12 Inner London boroughs from 1965 until its abolition in 1990. The authority was reconstituted as a directly elected body corpor ...

(ILEA), which intended to demolish it in order to build a new school. A Turkish shopkeeper in one of the buildings managed to prevent the demolition through legal means during the period in which all the houses' occupants were departing, and shortly afterward squatters began moving into the vacated buildings.

Squatted

In the 1980s, the square was almost completely occupied. The

squatter Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

s established a volunteer-run vegetarian cafė, a community garden on part of the square that had been bombed during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, a bar, a nightclub and a wholefoods shop. The squatters subsequently formed a

housing cooperative A housing cooperative, or housing co-op, is a legal entity, usually a cooperative or a corporation, which owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings; it is one type of housing tenure. Housing cooperatives are a distinc ...

and successfully negotiated with ILEA for the right to lease the buildings. The café and garden continue into the present. In November 2021 the café was forcibly closed by Bonnington Centre community association’s (BCCA) management committee.

Recent events

The residents of the square undertook a project in 1990 to change the garden into a "Pleasure Garden" (named in homage to the nearby

Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens Vauxhall Gardens is a public park in Kennington in the London Borough of Lambeth, England, on the south bank of the River Thames. Originally known as New Spring Gardens, it is believed to have opened before the Restoration of 1660, being m ...

), and in the process formed the Bonnington Square Garden Association. In 1998, the housing cooperative was permitted by the

London Borough of Lambeth Lambeth () is a London boroughs, London borough in South London, England, which forms part of Inner London. Its name was recorded in 1062 as ''Lambehitha'' ("landing place for lambs") and in 1255 as ''Lambeth''. The geographical centre of London ...

to purchase the buildings. In June 2018, two performances of ''

Twelfth Night ''Twelfth Night'', or ''What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Vio ...

'' by Flute Theatre were held in the gardens in a production directed by actress

Kelly Hunter Kelly Hunter (born 21 July 1963) is a British film, television, radio, stage and musical actress, a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. She is a Laurence Olivier Award nominee and Radio Academy Award and TMA A ...

.Production of ''Twelfth Night''
on the Flute Theatre website

References

External links

Bonnington Square Garden Association

Bonnington Centre
community resource
The Bonnington Cafė

"Bonnington Square" on Vimeo
a 20-minute documentary about the history of the square's squatting
Sustainable squatting in Bonnington Square
a 10-minute documentary on the squats by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' {{SquatE&W Squares in the London Borough of Lambeth Legalized squats Squats in the United Kingdom 1870s establishments in the United Kingdom

History

Squatted

Recent events

See also

References

External links