Quiet please, we hold squatting masterclasses in this library

Squatters have occupied a public library building and turned it into a base for radical political groups.

The activists moved into the Lambeth council-owned Library House in Camberwell in September and are using it to hold squatting masterclasses and organise anti-Israel protests.

The 19th century two-storey property in Knatchbull Road, which adjoins Minet Library, originally constituted the librarian's home and an archive for local government and genealogy records.

Lambeth council had most recently been using it to provide social housing but it had been vacated for renovations.

Yet construction work has not been able to get under way and the squatters have refused repeated pleas to leave during the last six months. The council now faces a legal battle to obtain a court eviction order.

The group of eight people, mostly French and Italian students, set up camp after they were evicted from a former café in nearby Warham Street. It took more than five months and repeated court summons to make them leave.

Billed as a centre for "radical social movements", the Library House building has become a meeting place for anti-capitalist groups.

The organisers of the Camp for Climate Action, who are planning to bring the Square Mile to a standstill during the G20 summit on 1 April, were due to have held a planning meeting there on Saturday.

One of the squatters, who gave his name as Simon, 30, from Rome, said: "When we arrived, it was in a real mess. We cleaned up the garden and fixed all the rooms. There were squatters here before us who sold drugs. We are not interested in any of that. We do live an alternative lifestyle, but all we want to do here is something for the community.

"People might be angry that we are living here for free, but we are not selfish. We are trying to do something special in this house and work with the local community to make the area better."

Minet Library and Library House were bequeathed to the public by William Minet in 1890 along with his personal collection, which formed the core of the Lambeth archives.

Services have been unaffected at the local lending library and its books and records are not under threat.

However the ancilliary building has now been made into a space where "people can come together to create, conspire, communicate and offer a collective challenge against capitalism", according to the squatters' website.

Three rooms holding more than 60 people are used to host "South London Squatters Network" meetings, which are open to "every squatter living south of the river" to "come along to support each other, to share skills and...find people to squat with."

A Lambeth council spokesman said: "We are currently going through the legal process to evict squatters at this property. Lambeth council takes a zero-tolerance approach to squatting.

"We owe it to the law-abiding tenants and residents of the borough to ensure that social housing is not abused by freeloading squatters, but goes to families in desperate need of a home."