In mid-2021, I invited Ian Townson, an ex-squatter of Railton Road fame, to do a talk at Chelsea College of Arts’ Street Corner Reading Rooms. During his presentation he mentioned that he was working on writing a book/website to document the history of his squatting community.

When I first began researching this history I could only find a few sparse pieces of information online and, due to the pandemic, was not able to access any physical archives.

Without knowing what I was getting us into I told Ian that I and Colin Lievens, my best friend, would happily lend a hand on the website building part of things.

From there we met up in a cafe in Camberwell for brunch and chat about this idea of a website. I had a bagel and tea, Colin had a classic pint of apple juice, and Ian had a beer. Meeting him felt like meeting a celebrity that no one else seemed to recognise. This man in a baseball hat across from me, who shouted “crash!” every time a police car drove past, held the answers to so many of my questions about this history.

In the year or so since then, we’ve exchanged 100s of emails, WeTransfers, many J2Os, greasy lunches from Greggs, and debate over formatting minutia. While the website is still far from done (I’m sure Ian secretly has plans for many more chapters), we have a website. This is such an important part of queer history and it’s an honour to help persevere it and make it accessible for anyone to find.