Squatting to riches...

From UK Daily Mail

Tramp given £2m Hampstead Heath plot after squatting on land for 20 years

Last updated at 08:55am on 24th May 2007

Home for Harry Hallowes is a rickety shack surrounded by junk.

Yet the 70-year-old Irish tramp is the unlikeliest of property millionaires.

He has become the proud owner of a prime plot of land on the edge of Hampstead Heath in North London - by claiming squatter's rights.

Because he has lived there longer than the 12 years required by law, he has been declared the legal owner by the Land Registry.

Happy tramp: Harry Hallowes

The plot near Highgate, which consists of a 90ft-square woodland area around the 12ft x 8ft shack, has been Mr Hallowes's home since 1986.

If it were sold with permission for housing, estate agents say it would fetch more than £2million. But Mr Hallowes says he has no intention of cashing in. Yesterday, after a visit to the shops with his plastic bag hanging from an umbrella slung across his shoulder, he asked: "Do I look like the type that would sell up and go jetting all over the world?

"I'm not into package holidays and all that other modern stuff where they bundle everyone up like a package and send them all over the place. It all sounds quite nauseating. I'm quite happy here with all my friends and all the nature.

"I'm pretty lazy if I'm honest. I do a bit of weightlifting and I chop wood for the fire. I don't much care what happens to the land after I'm gone as long as they keep the wildlife - I'm all for wildlife.

"If I write a will I will leave the land to the Royal Family. They are the last bastion of refinement and sophistication so they'd know what to do with it.

"But there are a lot of greedy people behind the scenes who would love to get their hands on this."

The squat: Where the tramp has lived for 20 years

His grey hair stained yellow by smoke from his open fire, Mr Hallowes said the only changes he wanted to make were to have running water and electricity installed in his shack. "Water is a problem because I have to use my friends' taps in Highgate."

Over the years he has become a well-known figure in the community, surviving on food handouts and doing odd jobs, and his friends in the area include Monty Python star and film director Terry Gilliam.

Mr Hallowes now has the deeds to this plot

A spokesman for Gilliam said: "We are delighted by this. Harry is an amazing man, very intelligent, and Terry and his wife have done a lot to help him out over the years."

By a bizarre twist, it was an attempt to evict Mr Hallowes which led to him owning the land.

The squat is in the grounds of Athlone House nursing home which was sold to the property developers Dwyer International by Kensington and Chelsea Hospital NHS Trust.

The view: This is what Harry Hallowes sees from his shack

To gain planning permission for a block of 22 flats, worth £1million each, Dwyer agreed to donate a strip of woodland - which includes the tramp's half-acre - to the Corporation of London, which manages the adjoining heath.

Dwyer began proceedings to evict Mr Hallowes in March 2005 but dropped the case after his solicitors presented evidence that he had lived there for more than 12 years and could therefore not be removed.

Mr Hallowes is free to sell the land, but without planning permission to build housing it is unlikely that it would attract much attention. The Corporation of London said that the land had covenants attached preventing it from being developed.

Tramp: Harry Hallowes has finally been handed the deeds to the plot after 20 years

A spokesman said the woodland, which is not open to the public, acts as a "buffer" between the heath and the development and that Mr Hallowes had always been welcome to stay there for the rest of his life.

But she added: "We are looking at the legal consequences of this. We hope that the land would pass over to us when Mr Hallowes is no longer there."

Mr Hallowes's case comes two years after George 'Rainbow' Weiss claimed squatters' rights on a flat in Hampstead which he later sold for £710,000.

Mr Weiss said: "I think it's quite magical that Harry has got his land, but I hope he uses it wiser than I did. I've squandered all my money."

Sometimes the concept of 'wealth' is a state of mind.

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Thank goodness it's Friday. This weekend is another busy one. I will be in Brisbane tomorrow, staying for one night. Yep, another football game! Woohoo!