UK artist living in converted skip for a year in ‘statement’ over ‘crazy’ cost of living in London

A UK artist has decided to live inside a skip for a year in a “statement” over the “crazy” cost of living in London.

Harrison Marshall, 28, moved into a converted metal skip in Bermondsey, south-east London, in January and is aiming to make it his home for 12 months.

The standard eight-yard skip features an insulated timber frame and a barrel roof, and has access to a portaloo. Mr Marshall said he hopes to be connected to a power source which will allow him to use a heater and a cooker, and he will mostly shower at work or at the gym.

The 28-year-old, who is the co-founder of Caukin Studio, said the move is “not intended to be a solution to the rising cost of living”, but is instead intended to start conversations about cost of living problems in the capital.

He said: “I don’t expect other people to pursue this or replicate it. 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.”

The Skip House is part of Skip Gallery, a public art initiative intended to create space and opportunity for emerging artists, which Mr Marshall has worked with on several projects. The skip has been provided for a nominal rate of £50 a month, while the initial build-cost of the ‘property’ was £4,000.

Mr Marshall said whenever he worked on a SKIP Gallery project he wondered if it was possible to live in a skip – it was when he returned from a working trip abroad and started looking for a room in 2022 that the idea became more appealing.

He explained: “When I came back to London I started the hunt for a room, and, obviously, within that time frame, the prices had gone kind of crazy.

“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?”

Mr Marshall said he 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 into his new home at the start of 2023.

He said: “I’ve had friends come over already, everyone wants to come and see the new place. All the neighbours are incredibly friendly. If I’m outside for five minutes I’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.”

The artist has decorated his new home with friends’ artwork and gifts from his family and is adamant that the project, which required support from several 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.”