London in the Swinging Sixties

Hippies, Squatters, Hells Angels and the like...

London 1968 or 1969 - I can't remember for sure. The blackboard asks the public to donate food, blankets, anything to the squatters at 144 Piccadilly, a town mansion just a short walk from Buckingham Palace.

I left Hong Kong and went to London and tried to get work in Fleet Street. But I was so raw I did not even know what a resume was back then. I didn't understand that I was expected to apply first by letter. And although I'd been working as a junior reporter in Hong Kong and could write simple news stories, I didn't even know how to write a letter of application for a job.

Of course, none of the busy Fleet Street news editors would even see me without an appointment.

I had a few temporary "fill-in" jobs, like a waiter in Lyons Corner House, a restaurant complex between Piccadilly and Leicester Square, in London's West End.

Then everybody else I knew dropped what they were doing and travelled to the Isle of Wight for the famous Isle of Wight pop concert. I could have gone and watched Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, the Mamas and the Papas and just about everybody else who was big on the music scene back then. But I made the decision to stay at my job.

Then a few weeks later, someone I trusted stole most of my belongings so I quit my job and went looking for the guy. I never did get my stolen stuff back. 

For a while I fell in with this bunch of hippies and a few Hells Angels (Windsor Chapter) who hung out at a theatre complex called The Arts Lab, in Drury Lane. (This was an arts project funded by The Beatles themselves.)

I shot heaps of photos and smoked dope when it was offered. The buzz for me was the excitement of doing something that was prohibited. I'm glad to say I grew out of it without much trauma.

The hippies and hangers-on moved in to a large empty house right behind Bow Street Police Station, next to Covent Garden. There were also young foreign backpackers, who were glad to find rent-free accommodation... Dutch, Germans, French and even some from the USA. 

Later they found and occupied a grand mansion at 144 Piccadilly, a location just across the road from Green Park. At the other side of Green Park lay The Mall and Buckingham Palace, so it was some of the most expensive real estate in London.

The owner actually offered to let the group occupy the basement and use it as a community center. But the leaders felt they had a trump hand and held out for more. That was their undoing.

I was there when the Metropolitan Police forced their way up a drawbridge into the mansion and arrested all the squatters. I got held briefly and questioned, but my Hong Kong government press credentials (a GIS Press Card) got me released immediately.

I sold these photos to the Daily Sketch newspaper. But I never landed a job in Fleet Street.