I’m looking at today’s West and there’s a story on people calling themselves ‘political squatters” who are moving into vacant properties and using them to offer a place to stay, to meet, meals and library. I’ve read it three times and I can’t put my finger on why I find it completely charming. (It probably looks even better considering it’s run next to a story proclaiming the times are taking a toll on airlines and on the existence of the Nyoongar Patrol in Northbridge. One of those stories is five years old and the other is mindnumbingly boring. Someone got sent to Kuala Lumpur to write this?)
So, these “political squatters”, have been given permission to stay until the building is demolished. They say they offer a community drop in centre that doesn’t feel like an institution. They maintain they uphold a strict code of conduct, antisocial behaviour is not tolerated. How that works out in practice is anyone’s guess. I kind of like the idea. Those ramshackle old places always put a little thrill down my spine. Surely, someone living there – squatter or no, would at least keep the look of total dereliction from creeping in? At least a human presence would keep the more offensive vandalism away? And there is a lot to be said for offering disused spaces to people who can use them, despite there being no profit in it. It seems to be a win-win situation. Although it would be pretty weird to drop by the house in a few months, after the bulldozers have moved in, looking for a place to stay and finding it gone.
I had a friend who stayed with her ex in a house slated to be demolished in Peppermint Grove. It was right next to St Hilda’s on Bay View Terrace. It had a dizzying effect, right next to the manicured lawns and the ivy covered school building was this fantastic 60s mansion slowly sliding down the hill. The parts of the garden not suited to a Perth climate were dead, the parts that were were were going wild and slowly covering the house. My friend said she and her housemate were taking bets as to how long it would take a particular creeper to enter the front windows. She showed me her built in wardrobe that covered an entire wall floor to ceiling. She could see the yachts on the river from her bedroom window. It was a fantastic thing, a once sumptuous house, being taken over rent free by people who didn’t mind that the kitchen tap wouldn’t turn off, and that the back room had water coming in. She said, yeah, it’s a little annoying that I have to climb through the window to get onto the balcony, but when am I ever going to have a river view again? Take that millionaires. It’s sad that it was demolished, really. It would have been a great spot for a photoshoot.
5 Comments
June 9 at 2:10 pm
I’m depressed a little at this, and a tad nostalgic. We like to tear down old buildings here, and destroy anything beautiful. A few years ago, when the Super Bowl came to Detroit, they had people go into this old hotel and clean the windows, where, over the years, hundreds of beautiful pieces of art and graffiti had accumulated. Personally, I felt it was more indicative of the art and culture present than just blank windows.
Yeah.
June 9 at 2:28 pm
I agree. In my neighbourhood the council is quite particular about maintaining the older houses in certain areas. They’re such cute cottages and those areas are a real delight to walk through. Then you’ll walk past a newer area with blank grey concrete houses that all look the same because the same builder did the housing estate, or whatever. I reckon that just displays a lack of imagination. But having said that, older houses cost a fortune to renovate and not every has the time or money.
June 9 at 6:13 pm
there are a bunch of blogs i read which talk about abandoned houses and entire neighbourhoods left to the destruction of man and nature. it’s terrifying how quickly derilection sets in.
i look at those houses with such longing.
i have no house of my own. i’m a single mum and renting makes me feel terrified. i don’t know why that is? i feel dislocated and unsafe.
June 10 at 1:52 am
I have a house, but it is near to falling down around my ears (exaggeration for it needs a makeover), you hit the nail on the head snc – money… maybe the dereliction has set in to me rather than the house – wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been called a derelict
June 10 at 11:35 am
Do you think the old houses inspire a sense of permanence Projectivist? That they’ll keep on keeping on, no matter how incomplete their structure is? I’m sorry renting makes you feel unsafe, that is the worst feeling.
Steve, as long as you’re happy with it I’m sure it doesn’t matter. That was what struck me about the house in Peppi Grove, it’s a multi-million dollar suburb, but my friends were happy just to have a roof over their heads – and the weeds upheaving the hills hoist at the back was just part of the charm.