These pieces cover the colonisation of empty buildings and spaces by artists during the late 1970s, especially in London, and the many practical issues and legal problems involved and arising. We begin to see the so-called 'gentrification' of the London Docklands and its commercial development in the1980s, and the pressures to quit placed upon the artists living and working there. By 1984 the Wapping Bluespiece marks the effective end of this era, and explores the way artists had effectively saved the Docklands from dereliction - and arson - overmany years when public and private financiers were not at all interested in that area of London.

The latest piece deals with the unique success of the ACME artists'studio/housing organisation, and the way it dealt with thepost-Thatcher economic period. ACME moved away from the occupation ofshort-life run-down buildings, towards the purchasing of freehold orlonger term leases - yet is still able to offer work/live spaces to artists at remarkably low rents.

UK property legislation has been much reformed since the earlypieces were written, and statutory references are now out of date.