London property prices have become so ridiculous that one man has built his own house in a skip as a protest. Harrison Marshall, 28, has converted a skip in South East London into a home which he moved into in January, and where he intends to live for the next year.
The artist, who co-founded Caukin Studio, claims the move is a "statement" to highlight the "crazy" cost of living in London. Harrison said his skip home in Bermondsey is "not intended to be a solution to the rising cost of living" but he hopes it will get people talking about cost of living problems in London.
"I don't expect other people to pursue this or replicate it," Harrison told the PA news agency. "It's very hard to replicate. So, really, it's more of a statement and something which tackles or talks about the issue in a light-hearted way and highlights just how crazy it is to live in Central London. For me to live in this area, this was the only option for me to do that, which is just mad."
Harrison's new home is comprised of a standard eight-yard skip with an insulated timber frame and a barrel roof. He has permission to keep the skip on a small piece of land near to other homes. The artist also has access to a portable toilet, while he will mostly shower at work or the gym. The skip has been provided for a nominal rate of £50 a month, while the initial build-cost of the 'property' was £4,000.
The Skip House is part of SKIP Gallery, a public art initiative intended to create space and opportunity for emerging artists, which Harrison has worked with on a number of projects. Harrison said whenever he worked on a SKIP Gallery project he wondered if it was possible to live in a skip - in 2022, after returning from a working trip abroad, he decided to give it a go.
"When I came back to London I started the hunt for a room, and, obviously, within that timeframe, the prices had gone kind of crazy," he said. "People were getting hundreds of messages for a single room… it was at the point where if you weren't willing to put your deposit down the same day as viewing it, you didn't really stand a chance.
"And so that's when I started picking up the idea again, about is it actually possible to live in a skip?" Harrison ended up sofa-surfing towards the end of the year, before getting confirmation that the skip home could go ahead. After around three weeks of construction in challenging cold weather, he moved in at the start of 2023.
"I've had friends come over already, everyone wants to come and see the new place," he said. "All the neighbours are incredibly friendly. If I'm outside for five minutes '’ll have at least one or two people from the area come up to me and ask what I'm doing and how I am."
Harrison has decorated his new home with friends' artwork and gifts from his family, and soon hopes to be connected to a power source which will enable him to use a heater and a cooker. However, the artist is adamant that the project, which required support from a number of different organisations to become workable, is not meant to be aspirational.
"No-one should have to live in a skip," he said. "That's definitely not the way that I want this project to go. It's more of a statement."
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