A former Brighton coffee shop has been taken over by squatters.
Taylor Street Baristas closed in November after its owners decided to concentrate on their branches in London.
Just over a week ago, squatters broke in and took it over, and since then windows have been broken and the interior of the shop smashed up.
One passer by, Carly Wilson, who saw trouble kicking off outside the squat on Wednesday, said: “There was a bunch of nutters kicking the door in and the place looked all smashed up. The place is screwed, windows smashed, loads of randoms in there.”
A spokesman for Stiles Harold Williams, which is marketing the leasehold, on offer for £19,500 a year, said: “We are awaiting the court date to have them removed.”
A police spokeswoman said: “We were called to a report of a fight in Queens Road, Brighton, at 1.30am on Wednesday (13 April) outside the closed down Taylor Baristas shop.
“We attended but all was in order.”
Brighton has been giving squatters a bad name in the last year. Use to be about brownfield sufficient and happy not heroin and violence…
I live next street to that place, it was taken over by these nutters for a while, I would say more then two weeks for sure but now the entrance has a new iron door which look like very secure…
I am the owner of this café and the whole experience with squatters has been one of the most frustrating experiences inagineable.
The law defends their right to break in, as long as they are only trespassing without intent to do a serious crime. They can then destroy the property and not be prosecuted because it is not possible to prove who did it.
So far this cost me £9000 and that is without the £4000 cleaning quote, continued rent/rates payments and opportunity cost of not being able to sell the lease.
Both the police and the council have used their interpretations of the law as an excuse not to protect this property. So a tax and rate paying business is being subjugated to criminal damage and sizeable expenses, instead of the 2 bodies paid to protect law abiding citezens and businesses taking responsibility for this stain on Brighton ‘s reputation.