In the story of the building - and the lives that brought its tenants together - is the story of thousands of marginal people who live in similar illegal encampments all over New York.

Swindon is suffering a plague of illegal encampments, although some gypsies are more considerate than others.

And today the Government announced tough new powers to deal with the illegal encampments.

The 1968 Caravan Sites Act will be reviewed with the aim of reducing the nuisance of illegal encampments.

He has told Mr Michael Howard that those living in rural areas must be protected by the full weight of the law from the menace of illegal encampment.

Some native fishermen refused to obtain licenses or obey fish and game restrictions on certain fisheries, eventually setting up illegal encampments along the shore.

Until October 2011, it was an illegal encampment of Travellers which had been established without planning permission from Basildon District Council.

But it took police just a few hours to crush their resistance, invading the illegal encampment in an overwhelming show of force at dawn.

The Israeli Army dismantled two uninhabited settlement outposts in the West Bank today in what defense officials said was the start of a campaign to take down more than 20 illegal encampments.

If you are a designated area you have virtually instant powers of moving illegal encampments on.