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West End Extra - by JAMIE WELHAM
Published: 14 November 2008
 
The Mayfair house valued at £6million
The Mayfair house valued at £6million
No flagging: Self-styled anarchist collective
‘stays put’

THE anarchist flag is no longer flying from 18 Upper Grosvenor Street, but student squatters are still holed up inside.
Last month five intrepid explorers from the self-styled Da! Collective became neighbours to Russian oligarchs, Michelin-starred restaurants and hedge-fund managers, when they moved into the £6million Mayfair townhouse under the veil of darkness.
And almost six weeks after they scaled the building and climbed in through a first-floor window, they still haven’t received an eviction notice.
But there could be trouble for the collective of artists and students, with reports that the building’s owner, Deltaland Resources, is engaging City lawyers to turf them out.
The 30-plus rooms of the listed building were once frequented by colliery owner F Wooton Isaacson and Conservative MP, Sir Victor Warrender.
This week the windows were covered up and the black flag had mysteriously disappeared but two of the new tenants said all was going well as they brought in some shrubs for their comrades.
Most neighbours have been indifferent to goings on, but one said they were “bringing down the tone of the neighbourhood”.
The group watched the building for six months before they moved in on October 10.
Squatting is not a criminal offence under English law, but a civil matter. If the squatters clock up 12 years without an eviction notice, they become the legal owners.
Deltaland Resources was unavailable for comment.
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