The £6million squatters: Artist gang flies the black flag of anarchy over Mayfair mansion



In its day it must have ranked among the most elegant residences in London.

Hyde Park is just down the road and some of the most expensive houses in the land can be seen from its upper windows.



Previous occupants have included industrialists, politicians and titled gentry.





Squatters: (left to right) Girl known only as Bob, Tom Crouse-Smith and Stephanie Smith at 18 Upper Grosvenor Street, Mayfair



But yesterday this £6.25million Mayfair mansion – owned by the billionaire Duke of Westminster – was revealed as the latest address to be invaded to a group of squatters calling themselves the Da! Collective.

They got in after posing as builders in high visibility jackets.



Then they changed the locks and flew a Union Flag dyed anarchist black from its flagpole.

Just after noon yesterday a 21-yea-rold woman in a mask and a raggedy mini-skirt stood on a balcony overlooking puzzled passers-by, and read aloud a statement about liberty and legality.

Then she disappeared behind the French doors to return to the fading splendour of what she and her companions proudly declared to be the finest and most grandiose addition to a property portfolio which, if they actually owned it, could be worth up to £100million.

Making themselves at home: The group have changed the locks and reconnected the electricity, insisting that they will be paying the bills

Rights: Under the laws squatters can claim ownership of a property if the original owner has not tried to claim it back for 12 years

Inside, sleeping bags and stained mattresses have been spread out on bare floorboards.



Logs and branches decorate one room and their half-finished artworks, including a Trojan Horse-style head crafted in newspaper, are scattered around the 30 or so rooms in the six-storey house.

Quite how the scruffy band of artists, teenagers, students and activists managed to occupy the house so easily is doubly puzzling.

First, because they appear not to have come to general public attention until a Time Out magazine article trumpeted their success this week as ‘the coolest mansion in Mayfair’.

Second, because they got in not just without anyone important challenging them, but under the noses of armed police.

The group has been living in the property for the last month since clambering in through an open window on the first floor

Three of a kind: The squatters call themselves the Da! collective

Number 18 Upper Grosvenor Street is less than 50 paces from the U.S. Embassy in Grosvenor Square, supposedly one of the most heavily guarded buildings in the capital.

The house is leased by British Virgin Island-registered Deltaland Resources from the Duke of Westminster’s Grosvenor Estate.

Stephanie Smith, who gave the balcony speech and describes herself as an artist, insists the house was being ‘left to rot’.

Certainly the Grade II listed 1730s mansion has seen better days. Some furniture and decor remains, but bare wires hang from some walls and floorboards have been ripped up in places.

Its centuries-old elegance has surely never borne witness to the lifestyle preferred by its current inhabitants – who number around a dozen at any one time.



One – who said he was a gap year student – wheeled a bicycle out through the imposing front door and said he was setting off to scavenge food from supermarket waste.

Last night the group planned to illuminate the outside walls and windows with a light show, and to allow like-minded visitors to view the art.

Panelling in one room has been scrawled on to form an exhibit and an oak door has been festooned with coloured plastic bags.

The house is one of several large central London properties the group has occupied.

Neighbour: TV chef Richard Corrigan's new restaurant is just down the road



The squatters maintain they have done nothing illegal and declared: ‘Squatting is not a criminal offence. If the owners want to kick us out they’ll have to apply for an eviction notice.’



Da! has a website on which it pictures properties the collective has turned into squats.

The mastermind behind the group is Simon McAndrew, an architecture student who lives in a West London apartment on full housing benefits of nearly £17,000 a year, plus unemployment and child benefits. His wife Bogna, 28, said the couple are expecting a second child.

McAndrew, 29, has attracted a following of well-educated middle class squatters. His wealthy mother Aban, 54, told how she finds her ‘free spirited’ son’s lifestyle ‘difficult to reconcile’.

Stephanie Smith, wearing an elaborate face mask, reads a statement from Da! Collective alongside a black anarchist flag



Members of the group don't appear to be typical squatters, one appears to be wearing designer glasses and another has expensive-looking headphones

