Upper Street in the Islington neighbourhood of London was one of the main landscapes in which punk occurred. Punks overtook this neighbourhood in the 1970's and occupied it as one of their centres of culture and living space up until the mid 1980's. Many of the buildings on upper street and in the surrounding neighbourhoods were in disrepair or abandoned in the 1970's. Punks began to occupy these buildings illegally as "squatters" as both a form of desperation due to the housing crisis or as a form of protest against the government due to its response to the lack of decent housing in London at the time. Squatting allowed punks to create a space of their own, even within a movement that was very mobile and dispersed throughout the city. Neighbourhoods in which punks squatted were often in disrepair and previously abandoned by their owners leaving ample space for punks to occupy. During their occupation many punks chose to live with few basic necessities of housing such as electricity, heating or a stove. At several of the squatting locations along Upper Street graffiti would be sprayed along the houses saying "we want homes"; declared as a direct message to the government of britain at the time on the unaffordability of housing within the city, especially for young people. Though punks no longer occupy the street remnants of their presence remain. Upper Street went through a large amount of gentrification in the late 1990's and 2000's, largely erasing the poor and decrepit state of the street from the 1970s. Today the Upper Street is full of shops and music venues such as the Hope and Anchor Pub, which was also one of the main music venues during the 1970's punk movement.

Squatting was done as a necessity for some and rebellion for many. Many of those who joined the punk subculture were kicked out of their parents houses or were part of a working class that was facing mass unemployment and thus could not pay rent. Many punks engaged in passive forms of civil unrest via loitering, forcing the public to see them as different from the rest of the landscape in order to draw attention to the reason for their rebellion. As heavily as punk relied on fashion it relied on being a nuisance to the average Londoner by occupying visible spaces in which they were not welcome. A direct resistance to the government's failing to fix the housing crisis and job market was created through squatting. Punks made a visible space for themselves to occupy and to bring attention to their anger by living in abandoned buildings that were in disrepair and graffiting them; often with phrases such as "We Want Homes". Many of these people had no where they could go, so when told to leave their squats they would respond that they could not. Punks engaged in a form of squatting that was organized; they squatted in buildings together and often within the same neighbourhoods such as Upper Street in Islington. In comparison many of squatters found buildings to occupy for single family dwellings or groups of friends desperate for housing, rarely done with intention or organization but were often engaged in campaigning for the right to proper affordable housing. Punks on the other hand did not often campaign, instead they expressed their solidarity with other squatters throughout London by the sharing of resources; their campaigning was viewed by the subculture as constant by simply living in areas as disruptions to the city. By squatting in these abandoned places punks raised complaints throughout the city about their presence, which forced the government to respond to their presence and to a degree acknowledge the problem of dangerous and unaffordable housing within the city. Many squatting punks chose to live without the bare necessities of daily life such as electricity and heating. As well, squatting allowed punk to create open spaces of experimentation in which they could live their lives wandering as they pleased and surrounding themselves with people that accepted them, their style, and their political views. Most punks were unemployed due to the lack of jobs in London at the time which left them with ample time to loiter, play music and drink. They could survive off of odd jobs and fed themselves through dumpster diving or cheap food at music venues. Squatting punks lived in what could be considered squalor, yet developed a community around such living, working together to get by, be noticed and "raise hell". Though squatting was not always done out of protest against the government, it was done out of a desire to be surrounded by like minded people and to participate in a cultural movement expressed through fashion, music and presence.

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