“Law is but the declarative will of conquerors, how they will have their subjects to be ruled.”
Gerrard Winstanley, 1650
Shortly after midnight on Monday 14th March 2022 four anarchists entered the £50 million, 5 Belgrave Square, London SW1, mansion of Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, declared it “liberated” and available for occupation by refugees fleeing Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Despite Deripaska having been recently “sanctioned” by the Conservative Government and London’s Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan suggesting his property should house refugees, the British State sent nine vans full of riot police and a JCB cherry-picker to evict and arrest the anarchists who’d exposed the insincerity of the politicians’ promises. For decades politicians of both major parties welcomed oligarchs with open arms. Deripaska has owned the Belgravia building, once described as “the most expensive terraced house in the world”, since 2003 and just twenty-five miles south west of London he also owns “the Duchess of Windsor’s favourite abode”, a £20m country house he bought in 2001 – and every mansion tells a story…
Oleg the Oligarch
Deripaska, like thousands of fellow oligarchs, grew obscenely rich ripping apart the remnants of the USSR and feasting off its formerly socialised assets and in 2012 he admitted in court to paying protection money to maintain his share of the swag. After assessing his fortune, in 2008 Forbes calculated Deripaska was the richest man in Russia and ninth wealthiest in the world. The neighbourhood of his Belgravia mansion constitutes such a popular home for laundered Russian loot it’s known, locally, as “the oligarch’s quarter”. Belgrave Square was originally built in the 1820’s for the 2nd Earl of Grosvenor, with Deripaska’s number 5 the grand residence of Sir George Murray (1772-1846), “Secretary of State for War and the Colonies”. The building is listed at Grade 1, the highest official level of historic and architectural merit. From 1935 until 1958 it was the London home of notorious socialite and Tory MP “Chips” Channon” and subsequently became the HQ of the “The Institute of Directors”.
Asked by journalists how they’d entered Deripaska’s prestigious and supposedly secure Belgravia mansion the anarchist squatters cheekily suggested “the spirit of Nestor Mahkno” had let them in. Mahkno was a Ukrainian anarchist whose guerrilla army fought against both Austro-Hungarian and Bolshevik (not to mention Deniken’s White Russian) forces in an ultimately unsuccessful struggle (1918-21) to free their homeland from colonial rule. Systematically starved into submission by Stalin, Ukraine eventually gained its independence in 1991, with the break up of the Soviet Union. With the aid of oligarchs, both at home and abroad, Putin’s kleptocracy has since determined to reconstitute the old Russian Empire. Although anarchism’s influence is now much reduced, memories of Mahkno’s ideas and actions still inspire many in his homeland. When the Ukrainian band, “Dakha Brakha” held a concert followed by a Q&A in north Wales, just before the Covid lockdowns, they denounced
Putin and responded enthusiastically when I asked if they knew of Mahkno’s campaign, informing the audience they’d made a special pilgrimage to Nestor’s grave when performing in Paris.
“A Gentleman’s Refuge”
The history of “Hamstone House”, Deripaska’s country mansion, is deeply rooted in the long, ancient and cynical traditions of British class rule. It’s beautifully situated on St George’s Hill, now a luxurious enclosed estate near Weybridge, Surrey, where “Residents also enjoy manned security on the main entrance gates, as well as CCTV, vehicle recognition and card access to several of its other entrances”. Past residents of the 974 acre estate include the likes of Cliff Richard, John Lennon, Kate Winslet and Elton John but after Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2008 offered a “Golden Visa” to overseas millionaires the estate became an oligarch’s playground with more than a quarter of the properties now owned by wealthy Russians. Perhaps Deripaska should keep paying his protection money for despite the extensive security arrangements in November 2012 estate resident and “whistleblowing” 44 year-old Russian oligarch, Alexander Perepilichnyy was found dead “in suspicious circumstances” whilst apparently out jogging near his home.
St George’s Hill was laid out in its present form in 1912 by developer Walter George Tarrant. Tarrant created, “A gentleman’s refuge for captains of industry on London’s doorstep” and according to upmarket estate agents Churchods, “It is comforting to know the same vision still exists today.” Three centuries earlier, in the midst of the English Revolution, a radically different vision drew Gerrard Winstanley and a ragged band of “Diggers” to St George’s Hill…
Slaying the Dragon?
Despite the defeat of the monarchy, Winstanley’s Diggers had grown weary of Cromwell’s promises of “levelling up” society. Cutting off King Charles I’s head had provided republican generals and gentry with an opportunity to grab the rich spoils of Crown land but once victory was assured they had no wish to appease the poor. Landless Diggers, or True Levellers, as they called themselves took direct action and in April 1649 “liberated” St George’s Hill, planted crops and built shelters for themselves and their animals. Poor families were invited to join Winstanley’s squatters and around England other Digger communities emulated their example.
Unfortunately, in 1649 (as in 2022) the government promised “levelling up” but exacted swift retribution on activists who gave direct effect to such hollow promises. Troopers were sent to arrest the Diggers, tear down their homes, seize their animals and burn their crops. Cromwell’s sham “Commonwealth” demoralised his followers and royalty returned with little opposition. Crown lands were restored and in the eighteenth century, St George’s Hill housed the king’s son, the “Grand Old Duke of York” (1763-1827). St George’s Hill then passed to Lord Brackley (John Francis Granville Scrope Egerton -1872-1944) who, in 1910 sold the estate to W G Tarrant.
From Diggers to Oligarchs
Hamstone House is said by architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner to be, “The best country house on St George’s Hill”. Built in 1937 for Danish concrete contractor Herman “Peter” Tygesen Lind, the house incorporates polished elm planking from London’s old Waterloo Bridge which was then being replaced by Lind’s construction company. The stylish façade of the Grade II listed house incorporates art-deco design
aspects of the famed Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso wristwatch referencing the marriage of Lind’s daughter into that fashionable family.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill was a wartime visitor as in 1943 he planned the construction of the concrete Mulberry Harbours to be fabricated by Lind’s company. Following the 1981 death of Lind’s wife Alba, Hamstone House was sold to a Saudi Prince before being bought by Deripaska in 2001.
True Levellers
For centuries political leaders have deluded the lower orders with promises of levelling up but as this brief historical enquiry into Deripaska’s properties indicates, politicians’ allegiance to the world’s rich and powerful is ubiquitous and enduring. One carefully organised, well publicised direct-action is worth a million votes. The spirits of Gerrard Winstanley and Nestor Mahkno are alive and continue to inspire and open doors for the dispossessed. The 430 mansions on St George’s Hill might not be as secure as their pampered owners might think…
CD. March 2022
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