‘They can’t demolish it with me inside’: Woman living in shack refuses to move despite council threats to take it down

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

A woman living in a shack she built in the middle of the pavement has vowed to stay there despite a council’s threat to demolish it.

Anne-Marie Cover has been living in the structure that she constructed around a tree on a street in Brixton since early August.

Lambeth council has branded the makeshift home an “obstruction” and is due to remove it today.

But Ms Cover has said she has no intention to leave and says the council will have to disassemble the home from around her if it wants her to budge.

Speaking at the property yesterday morning, a defiant Ms Cover said: “I’m staying inside my home. They can’t demolish it with me inside. I’m not homeless. I’ve got a home that I built here.”

Ahead of the scheduled removal date, a friend of Ms Cover has created a survey asking locals whether they think Lambeth council should remove the shack and whether they think it should put her in a hostel for a night.

The paper poll is available outside Ms Cover’s home on Railton Road for residents to leave their views on.

Ms Cover claims her makeshift house is popular with locals and says it has become a meeting point for the Brixton community.

She said: “People love it. People speak to me about various things. I never thought it would be a community hotspot.

“They are always coming here. Yesterday evening a woman was taking her mum out of hospital to give her final care and she came to see me and she started telling me about her mother’s favourite songs. People have found solace here.”

Ms Cover built the structure, which is made out of wooden pallets, Astroturf, strips of vinyl flooring and plywood, among other materials, over a number of days last month after having to leave her former home in Clapham.

More recently, Ms Cover has placed a bench outside the shack for locals to sit on and constructed an improved front door formed of two garden gates on top of each other.

One local drawing enthusiast was inspired to sketch the house and gave a copy of the illustration to Ms Cover as a gift.

Lambeth council was contacted for comment on the planned removal of Ms Cover’s home but had failed to respond at the time of publication.

Pictured top: Anne-Marie Cover outside the self-built shack on Railton Road, Brixton (Picture: Robert Firth)