Yes I'd hear the news about Karl from Jimmy Fraser the avant-gardener (another BS kiwi) at the recent Bonnington Square Festival (it's still going and still reassuringly anarchic around the edges ). Also Annie Anxiety lived for quite a few years in Vauxhall Grove, as did Tim Wraight the NZ sculptor, Chumbawamba were occasional visitors, Jake Arnott, the novelist was at no 81, and the giant hand above the entrance to the garden was from the set of Ken Russell's Tommy ... the danger being that there were loads of other squatters/ people who did all sorts of other amazing things who didn't necessarily become 'successful'. This is a photo of my friend Graham Harwood who was a fine art student at Camberwell and who's work is in the Tate and the Pompidou Centre and won the Berlin Transmediale Award ( he's flying a kite off the London rooftops).

There were quite a few bands that passed through or had contacts with Bonnington Square. I lived next door to no 68, where there was a whole bunch of New Zealanders, some of whom were in The Band of Holy Joy, some with connections to industrial metallists SPK2 ( see attached ... the urban legend is that their chain saw / angle grinding antics once set light to the stage ), The Jesus and Mary Chain, Test Department and The Thompson Twins. My neighbour Karl also told me that William Burroughs once came round for a visit and also that most of the house turned up to be extras on Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket : I have never had any reason to disbelieve him ! And there was a load of other people busy singing, writing, playing music, putting on festivals, making films, gardening, cooking, designing living spaces and so on (several of whom have gone on to be really successful ..... not that that is actually the main criteria). The real point is, that beyond just being a place to live, the squatting scene was also a valuable place for creative and social experimentation.

Most recent Bonnington dining experience (well, a couple of years back now) featured an unpeeled potato wrapped in filo.

ah yes, the pomme en croute …. delicious

Yes I remember Pauline and as it happens I'm probably going to be filming at the Heygate estate on Monday (for a film about the urban sketching movement). I don't know if anyone remembers the squatted nightclub at no 37 Bonnington Square, where they sawed away a lot of the first floor to create a mezzanine effect? A pretty amazing venue, especially with a flat roof overlooking the London skyline at the top. And that doctrinaire thing is exactly what I meant ... weird, though I guess it was all part of an experimentation with different ideas and ways of living. My mother is a kiwi so I'm pretty familiar with the 'colonial box' thing ... she's 84 and she still gets it !

Russell, I just noticed you wrote that you lived at 70 Bonnington Square .... guess what, I was your neighbour at no 69 Bonnington Square ! I was there from about 1982 to 1987, before heading off to NZ, where I ended up in a commune about 25 km south of Motueka for a couple of years. Small world .....

Nice to see the Bonnington Square film generating a bit of discussion on the other side of the world ! l lived there for five years back in the early eighties and had always wanted to make a film about it but had never quite figured out how to do it. In the end I pretty much made it out of 600 scanned still images and stitched them all together into some kind of narrative. But it was interesting as well because a bit of me really hated the depressing grimness of London at that time (including the political correctness of the Square), though I don't really show that in the film and instead chose to dwell on all the positives ( community / experimenting with social ideas / taking ownership of derelict spaces / urban gardening / setting up cafes etc) because I think they are still pretty inspirational, and were certainly way ahead of their time. Anyway I could go on for ages ..... and by the way, Bristol is a much better option than London these days ( not necessarily for squatting but just for lifestyle / affordability / culture / environment and so on).