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A comment on A homeless man built a life underground Hampstead Heath. Parent comment

Re:A homeless man built a life underground Hampstead Heath by mattlondon on Saturday November 18, 2023 @04:54AM (#38317527)
Because a) he "stole" the land he used (land is really expensive in the UK and especially London) to build the shelter, and b) if the shelters were built officially there are of course rules to follow that I guarantee you this guy did not follow - e.g. fire safety. If the government built shelters out of some off cuts of wood and tarpaulin and then loads of homeless people burnt to death one day in them, who do you think will get the blame?
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Re:A homeless man built a life underground Hampstead Heath by Paul-Craft on Saturday November 18, 2023 @05:40AM (#38317898)
That land was already "stolen" from his ancestors hundreds of years ago.
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Re:A homeless man built a life underground Hampstead Heath by Paul-Craft on Saturday November 18, 2023 @05:54AM (#38317988)
That land was already "stolen" from his ancestors hundreds of years ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primitive_accumulation_of_capi...

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Re:A homeless man built a life underground Hampstead Heath by Lio on Saturday November 18, 2023 @06:43AM (#38318385)
Bollocks it was! Hampstead Heath was in private ownership from before 986, before the Doomsday Book even. Then it was purchased for public use in 1870 odd.

The name Van Allen implies Dutch ancestry and, according to the article, he has a Yorkshire accent, so it sounds very implausible that a public park in London was "stolen" from his ancestors.

He has no more right to deprive other people of the use of this land, by building a private residence, than anybody else.

The solution to homelessness in London is through government building public housing to replace all housing stock they sold into private ownership not from individuals nabbing their own bit of a public park.

We could back that up with better provision of the mental health services that have been de-funded over time.

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Re:A homeless man built a life underground Hampstead Heath by Paul-Craft on Saturday November 18, 2023 @06:46AM (#38318406)
Who cares about 986? And what of his maternal ancestors? Do people not migrate from London to Yorkshire?
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Re:A homeless man built a life underground Hampstead Heath by Lio on Saturday November 18, 2023 @07:01AM (#38318525)
I'll tell you what mate, if you can point to evidence of the specific ancestor of his that was disposed from Hampstead Heath and when that happened I'll concede the point.

Otherwise this just looks like an individual trying to take something from public ownership into private ownership on the sly. Like a land owner trying to fence off a public footpath.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A homeless man built a life underground Hampstead Heath by Paul-Craft on Saturday November 18, 2023 @07:06AM (#38318581)
Sorry, but a last name and an accent isn't enough to shift any burden of proof, mate. My last name is English, but my ancestors have lived in the US for 400 years.
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Re:A homeless man built a life underground Hampstead Heath by m-i-l on Saturday November 18, 2023 @07:23AM (#38318738)
Hampstead Heath is actually one of the rare examples of the public successfully fighting private developers to keep land in public ownership[0], culminating in the 1871 Hampstead Heath Act which ensured the land was "always kept uninclosed and unbuilt on"[1].

[0] https://www.heathandhampstead.org.uk/home/origins/

[1] https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/Vict/34-35/77/enacted

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