Eel Pie Island Commune
In 1969, the Eel Pie Island Hotel was occupied by a small group of local anarchists including illustrator Clifford Harper. By 1970 it had become the UK's largest hippie commune.
In 1971, the Eel Pie Island Hotel burned down in a mysterious fire. The centre of the island was devastated by fire in 1996, and a year later, the footbridge was damaged by a utilities contractor. A new footbridge opened in August 1998.
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Famous quotes containing the words pie, island and/or commune:
“No man’s pie is freed
From his ambitious finger.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“I should like to have seen a gallery of coronation beauties, at Westminster Abbey, confronted for a moment by this band of Island girls; their stiffness, formality, and affectation contrasted with the artless vivacity and unconcealed natural graces of these savage maidens. It would be the Venus de’ Medici placed beside a milliner’s doll.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Softly now the light of day
Fades upon my sight away;
Free from care, from labor free,
Lord, I would commune with Thee.”
—George Washington Doane (1799–1859)