Seymour, A Potted History
In January 1975, a group of young squatters, organised by the Camden Squatters’ Union, took possession of the long-disused residential parts of five late-19th century tenement blocks, known as Seymour Buildings. There was no power supply and the rooms were full of pigeon droppings. The following morning all but a handful decided anything was better than that. Those remaining advertised in Time Out for more squatters.
After a while, the contentious decision was taken to charge themselves £1 a week rent, in order to pay for the installation of electricity. When the electricity supply was first switched on it amounted to no more than one light bulb per room. Heating was still provided by open fires and washing facilities were communal.
Recent housing legislation had given the Housing Corporation powers to award development grants to housing associations, including co-operatives. In 1976, aided by Christian Action Housing Association, the squatters formally adopted the constitution of a fully mutual housing co-operative and became Seymour Housing Co-operative Ltd.1977 saw a “squatters’ amnesty” declared in London by the Greater London Council (GLC), and in 1978 the co-op was awarded a grant to buy the buildings and refurbish them. As part of the refurbishment,Solon Co-operative Housing Services architect, Kay Jordan, had thestaircases in three of the blocks turned through 90 degrees, making more efficient use of space. The central block had to be demolished due to fire regulations, creating the space that is now the co-op’s prize-winning garden.
In 1985, legislation was passed that would abolish the GLC, and with it the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA). Before that was accomplished, however, Seymour was able to buy from ILEA the freehold of eight houses in nearby Daventry Street, partly in order to add some larger flats to its stock, for the Co-op’s growing number of families. These houses had been squatted for 12 years or more, giving some residents the potential right to claim ownership, and this had proved a stumbling block to ILEA’s previous attempts to sell them.
Seymour offered to make the Daventry Street squatters co-op members in return for the waiving of their potential ownership claims and, with the help of another housing grant, the sale was completed just hours before ILEA’s demise. The Daventry Street houses were redeveloped in pairs, each pair sharing one staircase, which again generated more space. Phase one was completed in 1992, phase two in ’93.
Meanwhile, with the original, 35-year lease on Seymour Buildings due to expire in 2013, after several years of negotiation with the freeholder, Westminster City Council, a new 125-year lease was purchased in 1999, securing the long term future of the co-op as a whole. This time the co-op funded the purchase itself.
The following year, Seymour was approached by members of the former Adelina Housing Co-op in Whitechapel. Adelina’s management committee had transferred their co-op’s housing stock to a local housing association, Victoria Park Home Ownership (now Gateway), but some Adelina members, who were committed to co-operative principles, had won the right to transfer their flats to another fully mutual. Seymour was recommended, and in 2001 the co-op acquired long leases on 12 of these flats, and welcomed 12 new co-op members.