PRESTIGIOUS offices on Pall Mall in the heart of London have been taken over by squatters.

The Grade-II listed building, which is 200 yards from Trafalgar Square has around fifty people living there, describing themselves as “five star squatters”

The London offices at 123 Pall Mall, built late in the 19th century, were most recently home to the Institute of Directors (IoD) and were officially opened as their HQ by the then Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2001.

The Institute of Directors vacated the six-storey offices late in 2014 and they have been empty since then. A “To Let” sign in the window has been amended to say, “To Let them know we rule.”

Another sign in the window of the building says, “Autonomous nation of anarchist libertarians @ IOD.”

A spokesman for the IoD was quoted as saying: “We vacated this building six months ago, but there’s a chance there are some old Hayek or Adam Smith books left behind. Who knows, perhaps they’ll learn something.”

Related: In 2011, Offices.org.uk visited the Bank of Ideas created by squatters.