Frestonia

About

Frestonia was the name adopted for a couple of months by the squatters of Freston Road, London, when they attempted to stop a threatened eviction via secession from the United Kingdom. In 1974, two streets of tumbledown terraced Victorian cottages – Freston Road and Bramley Road – in the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, were broken into by squatters who rigged up electricity, water and makeshift roofs. They playfully formed the Free and Independent Republic of Frestonia and declared independence on 31 October 1977.

The residents were squatters, some of whom eventually set up a housing co-op in negotiation with Notting Hill Housing Trust after that landlord bought the street. Residents included artists, musicians, writers, actors and radical feminist activists.