When I step out of my door, I instantly see people that care about my wellbeing. When you live in, say, Elephant and Castle like I used to, you step out of your house and you\u2019re in a neurologically stressful environment<\/a>. But here, I see people I know and understand. It\u2019s a really special and unique thing.<\/p>\n Around 30 people live here in Rockaway Park, and the majority pay \u00a385 a week. People pay rent to Mark, an ex-punk singer and car broker who set the place up 10 years ago.<\/p>\n New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n The money goes back into maintaining and slowly developing the five-acre site: a cluster of self-built structures, mostly made from recycled and reclaimed materials. There are open fields, and a permaculture garden with vegetable patches<\/a>, and communal spaces including a small library, a chapel, a caf\u00e9, and a venue used for talks and performances. On event days there\u2019s also a mental-health check-in space. Around 15 households live here, a mix of cabins and small dwellings, and the rent contributes to upkeep, new builds, and shared infrastructure rather than profit.<\/p>\n This site started off fairly ad hoc, without formal permission. But under English law, if a use continues for 10 years without complaint it becomes lawful, so the site is now fully legal.<\/p>\n There\u2019s an openness to think of non-financial ways of paying rent<\/a>, too. If there\u2019s some way that you can contribute to the community then you can do an exchange. There\u2019s a chef who runs the vegan caf\u00e9 five or six days a week. There\u2019s a person who works as the videographer for Massive Attack, so he\u2019s been doing reels for the socials. There\u2019s flexibility and individual arrangements.<\/p>\n The community is a real mix of ages. People range from their mid-to-late 20s up into their 60s. There are four children living on site full-time, and another five who come and go regularly. This creates a very grounded and intergenerational feel.<\/p>\n There tends to be creative people here. There\u2019s actors, creative directors, framers, carpenters \u2013 I\u2019m a graphic designer. Lots of them work on festivals and events. We have the creative director of Glastonbury\u2019s Shangri-La<\/a> here, and my next door neighbour is Bertie, who made the Arcadia spider. Down the road, we have Luke, who makes huge, really incredible large-scale inflatable artworks. They tour the world appearing in cities and at festivals.<\/p>\n There are various installations and structures here that originally came from Glastonbury Festival<\/a>, some are used year-round here and others will be reused at Glastonbury and other festivals.<\/p>\n Rockaway is open to the public \u2013 there are talks, music events, fundraising evenings, roasts, and markets, which help support the site financially. But primarily, it\u2019s somewhere you can come without having to spend money<\/a>, which feels increasingly rare. People are free to visit and spend time here.<\/p>\n I live in a beautiful flat. It\u2019s inside a huge converted storage barn, now studio spaces and flats. In London, I shared a typical artist flat with four people and paid \u00a3600 a month, so now I\u2019m saving \u00a3260 each month. People pay around \u00a31200 for a one bedroom flat in London now. I loved the diverse communities of London, but nothing compares with being around the forests, and in tune with the seasons here. I tend to function better in environments that aren\u2019t overly stimulating, where I can choose my level of engagement.<\/p>\n Other people live in converted shipping containers, trailers, cabins, and all sorts of alternative housing. When I first moved to Rockaway, eight years ago, I moved into an antique showman\u2019s trailer. The people who used to live in it took great pride in their homesteads. It was an aluminium trailer, which was very beautiful and ornate inside, but it was a pretty hardcore shift. I was splitting all of the firewood to heat the place. You really felt the seasons there. It\u2019s quite a beautiful thing, though, because when your environment calls for you to arrange your life in that way, you have no choice but to be present. But it was like a part-time job just to keep the house warm<\/a>.<\/p>\n Moving here hasn\u2019t affected my graphic design career much. I\u2019ve only had a handful of in-person meetings this year, and I just get the train from Bristol for them. Most people in my field are set up to work remotely. It\u2019s just second nature, and I think it can be more productive<\/a>. One of the best differences to my life in London is here I\u2019ve got a studio space that\u2019s seconds away from where I live. You have to be very privileged to be able to do that in London \u2013 or be holding down one or two jobs to pay for both a house and a studio.<\/p>\n I still love visiting London. I have many friends there, and I really enjoy spending time in galleries and museums. But I don\u2019t miss things like Deliveroo or the constant convenience. I like making use of what I have now \u2013 cooking from scratch, being more intentional. That feels nourishing rather than limiting. Here I do one weekly supermarket shop \u2013 it\u2019s about a 10-minute drive away. I must save so much money by not popping into shops on my way to places.<\/p>\n One of my favourite things about Rockaway Park is that because it\u2019s such a unique place, interesting people are passing through all the time \u2013 people that work in similar fields to me. The sort of people that are inspired by this kind of place and have made the trip are likely to be my people. So it\u2019s like a concentrated community in a really isolated place.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a real family feel; we have two single mothers who have babies here, and there are a few kids who live here with their families. It\u2019s really sweet, actually, because it\u2019s similar to my upbringing. I was born into a new age travelling community and I lived on a site when I was a baby. The shared labour of the parents is a really magical thing. One single mum living here told me the community and support is the difference between just surviving on the breadline and actually being able to live.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SEI_278174668.jpg\")
Rockaway Park is a five-acre site of self-built structures, mostly made from recycled and reclaimed materials. There are open fields, vegetable patches, a small library, chapel, and caf\u00e9<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SEI_278174664.jpg\")
Rosie pays \u00a3340 per month to live in a beautiful converted barn, just minutes from her work studio<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SEI_278174671.jpg\")
The art gallery at Rockaway Park is open to the public<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SEI_278174670.jpg\")
Rockaway Park has been operating for 10 years, which makes it a legal establishment<\/p>\n