Salvation of St Paul’s
Protest camp that lasted 137 days is cleared in 137 minutes
THE tweets and text messages started to fly a few minutes after midnight. One said the Day of Reckoning was upon them; another pleaded: ‘Send reinforcements!’
But by the time most protesters had woken up to the fact that police and bailiffs were massing in their hundreds, it was too late.
The encampment that has blighted, isolated and divided St Paul’s for the past 137 days was cleared in just 137 minutes.
In dramatic scenes during the early hours of yesterday, every tent, anti- capitalist demonstrator and scrap of rubbish was removed from the cathedral steps and square, leaving only scars of the protest.
An anarchy symbol had been scratched into one of the great oak doors, which had been compelled to close for the first time since the Second World War. Stonemasons and labourers repaired flagstones and cobbles dislodged by thousands of feet and too many tent pegs to count.
Nearby, council workmen hosed down the last, urine-stained pavements and worked
‘We’re going to come back stronger’
to return some dignity to a building that has stood on this spot for over four centuries.
Long before the Great Paul bell sounded lunch hour across the City, the landmark was getting back to something resembling normality. No one needed to ask for whom the bell tolled.
The ‘Occupy London’ protest that started in October had fizzled out and dispersed. In the Square Mile, nothing had changed. The news that greeted demonstrators as they walked or were dragged away made it clear that at least one bank was still cooking the books at taxpayers’ expense.
Bosses were still taking bonuses counted in millions; the Stock Exchange had not been brought to its knees. The tents, barricades and placards which defined the movement were piled up and carted off in trucks.
Unexpectedly the operation to clear the site was carried out with relative calm. Much of the tent village population packed up peacefully and left before the clashes started. A court order five days earlier gave the go-ahead for the eviction. Most knew their time was up. Occupy London spokesman George Barda insisted the court ruling was unjust, but conceded: ‘It was a question of packing up as much of my stuff as I could and being ready for them arriving.’ He said there had been reports at about 11.20pm that police were assembling close by. Then they moved in, he said, ‘pretty much as the clock struck 12’.
What followed was like a scene from a medieval battle, albeit with little bloodshed. The police wore full body armour, and bailiffs sported brightly coloured jackets as they breached the barricades and marched into the camp. A police cordon stopped supporters from getting into the area.
The incoming forces simply heaved tents out of the area and dismantled stalls and other hindrances, occasionally with more enthusiasm than might have been necessary against certain protesters, some of whom were in their 50s and 60s and presenting no threat. The stench of more than four months of human occupation filled the night air. One tent was unoccupied but, the bailiffs discovered, was stuffed with food waste and other stinking detritus.
A small island of resistance formed in the centre of the camp, with one protester climbing a tree to make a final stand. Gradually, a view obscured since the first day of the occupation emerged across to Paternoster Square and beyond. Meanwhile Occupy London organisers were already pledging to carry on camping, with many heading straight to one of the group’s other sites in Finsbury Square, a mile away.
A spokesman insisted this was ‘only the beginning’ and that ‘plans were already afoot of some ambi- tion’ after the removal. ‘All will be revealed in time – May is one of our favourite months,’ a note said on its website.
One demonstrator, Kai Wargalla, 27, a student from Germany, said: ‘It’s sad but we can be proud of what we’ve achieved. Our community is being attacked but we’re going to come back stronger.’
Twenty-three arrests were made but the eviction was described as ‘largely peaceful’. This wasn’t Dale Farm, after all – despite the involvement of anarchist groups, Class War protesters and many of the usual suspects – the camp has attracted wide support. It also put the Church of England into a bit of a moral tizzy about the rights and wrongs of the protest.
Giles Fraser – who resigned as canon chancellor shortly before the cathedral’s dean, the Rt Rev Graeme Knowles – spoke of his dismay yesterday after seeing the camp cleared. ‘Riot police clearing the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral was a terrible sight,’ he said. ‘This is a sad day for the Church.’
St Paul’s was open yesterday and ‘accessible to everyone’ for prayer and reflection. That included a group of Italian tourists, being marshalled by a tour guide with a brightly coloured umbrella. This might have been the first day such a party has ventured this far so openly since October 15. You didn’t have to speak Italian to understand. He pointed to where the tents had been, and held his nose. Additional reporting: John Stevens and Mario Ledwith