Freston Road is a street with quite a history.
In 1969 the Westway was opened. One of its effects was to cut one of the longest streets in the area - Latimer Road - in two.
The southern half was renamed Freston Road and the houses had been largely emptied and readied for demolition. In the early 1970s, most of the residents of Freston Road were squatters. When the Greater London Council planned to redevelop the area, the 120 residents first all adopted the same surname of Bramley with the aim that the council would then have to re-house them collectively.
The Council threatened formal eviction, so at a public meeting attended by 200 people, resident Nick Albery - inspired by both the Ealing comedy film
Passport to Pimlico and a previous visit to Freetown Christiania in Copenhagen - suggested that they declare the street independent of the rest of the UK. A referendum returned 94% of residents in favour of the plan, and 73% in favour of joining the European Economic Community. Independence was declared on 31 October 1977. Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Geoffrey Howe wrote expressing his support, saying "As one who had childhood enthusiasm for (the novel) The Napoleon of Notting Hill, I can hardly fail to be moved by your aspirations".
In a legal dispute regarding the unauthorised performance of his play
The Immortalist, Heathcote Williams won a ruling from the UK courts that Frestonia was for this purpose not part of the UK. Williams served as Ambassador to Great Britain and actor David Rappaport was the Foreign Minister.
Frestonia consisted of a 1.8 acres triangle of land (including communal gardens) formed by Freston Road, Bramley Road and Shalfleet Drive. The state adopted the Latin motto
Nos Sumus Una Familia - We are All One Family - and applied to join the United Nations, at the same time warning that peacekeeping troops might be needed to keep the GLC at bay.
Frestonia had its own newspaper ’The Tribal Messenger’ and an art gallery called ’The Car Breaker Gallery’ from which came the performance art of ’Mutoid Waste Company’, visual artist Julie Umerle, comic book artist Brett Ewins and graphic novelist Brendan McCarthy. Professional lighting for the gallery was donated by Sandy Nairne, later to be Director of the National Portrait Gallery.
There was also a ’National Theatre’ at Frestonia which performed
The Immortalist. The Frestonian National Film Institute was also formed; its first screening being - appropriately -
Passport to Pimlico and a film of The Sex Pistols. There were Frestonian postage stamps (honoured by the General Post Office), as well as plans to introduce a currency.
Following international press coverage, the residents formed the Bramleys Housing Co-operative Ltd, which negotiated with Notting Hill Housing Trust for continued residence and acceptable redevelopment of the site. Some Frestonians were unhappy with the consequent loss of independence, and moved away.
According to Tony Sleep, a brief Frestonian onlooker whose online photo-journal documents his idea of the history of the area, those leaving were often replaced by people with drinking and drug problems. The ideals of the Frestonian "nation" consequently went into decline. In its place, a more conventional local community reinstated the usual hierarchies.
To the current day, Bramleys Housing Co-operative manages the properties owned and built on the Frestonia site by Notting Hill Housing Trust, and its members continue to live as a close-knit community. Some are children or grandchildren of the original Frestonians, although there has also been a significant influx of new residents.
A large new office development, also named Frestonia, now occupies the adjacent site at the junction of Bramley Road and St Anns Road. A second large office development also named Frestonia by its developers was erected at 125/135 Freston Road in 2001.
Freston Road is a street with quite a history.
