Living Wage Crisis: London-based artist Harrison Marshall moves on vacation for a year

An artist who decided to live in a converted skip for a year has described the move as a “statement” in the face of the “insane” cost of living in London.

Garrison Marshall, artist and co-founder of Caukin Studio, has moved into his converted skip in the Bermondseyin south-east London, in January and plans to live there for a year.

The 28-year-old said the move was “not meant to solve the problem of the rising cost of living” but was instead meant to get people talking about the problems with the cost of living in London.

“I don’t expect other people to continue this or repeat this,” Mr Marshall told the PA news agency.

“It is very difficult to repeat. So really, it’s more of a statement and something that flippantly addresses or talks about an issue and highlights how crazy it is to live in central London.

“For me to live in this area, it was the only option for me, which is just crazy.”

Skip House is part of Skip Gallery, a community art initiative designed to create space and opportunities for young artists, with which Mr Marshall has worked on a number of projects.

Mr Marshall’s new home consists of a standard 8-yard skip with an insulated timber frame and a barrel roof – the artist also has access to a portal, while he mostly showers at work or in the gym.

The skip, meanwhile, was let at a nominal rate of £50 a month, while the original cost of building the ‘property’ was £4,000.

Mr Marshall said that whenever he was working on the SKIP gallery project, he wondered if it was possible to live in a skip – it was when he returned from a work trip abroad and began looking for premises in 2022 that the idea became more attractive.

“When I got back to London I started looking for a room and obviously the prices went crazy during that time,” he said.

“People were getting hundreds of messages about a single room… it was when you didn’t want to put down a deposit the same day you viewed it, you didn’t stand a chance.

“And that’s when I started to pick up the idea again of is it possible to live in a skip?”

He ended up couch surfing at the end of the year before being cleared to run home.

After about three weeks of construction in challenging cold weather, Mr Marshall moved in early 2023.

“Friends have already come to me, everyone wants to come and see the new place,” he said.

“All the neighbors are incredibly friendly. If I’m on the street for five minutes, at least one or two people from the area will come up to me and ask what I’m doing and how I’m doing.”

Mr Marshall has decorated his new home with artwork from friends and gifts from his family and soon hopes to hook it up to a power source that will enable him to use a heater and stove.

However, the artist firmly believes that a project that requires support from a number of different organizations to become viable should not be desirable.

“No one should live in a skip,” he said.

“This is definitely not the way I want this project to go. It’s more of a statement.”