Oval Mansions

After being occupied by 100 squatters from 1983 until 2000 (notable residents including Ian Dury, Gillian Wearing, Michael Barrymore, Matthew Corbett and Ben Myers), the buildings were sold off by Lambeth Council in the early 2000s.

[2][3] The blocks were closed in 1979 by order of the new owner, Lambeth Council, since they were becoming unsafe; they had wooden stairs and no fire escapes.

[2][1] Notable residents included the singer Ian Dury, artists Gillian Wearing and Fiona Banner, writer Ben Myers and musicians Pan Sonic.

[6] Between 1988 and 1998, squatters set up and ran the City Racing art gallery in a former betting shop on the ground floor.

The squatters were offered social housing elsewhere, which some took, but others contested the eviction process, arguing that they were entitled to adverse possession since they had lived there as a community for over twelve years.

One of the Oval Mansions blocks under renovation in 2005, next to gasholder and cricket ground
A four storey cream-coloured block of the complex is pictured in 2005 to the left of the photograph, above the cricket ground