Occupy Finsbury Square in October 2011
I met a few of the Occupy people from Finsbury Square outside the Royal Courts of Justice yesterday afternoon while the court in closed session was considering if they had grounds to appeal against the eviction order. They seemed to be expecting the case to fail, and when I said to one of them that I hoped the case went the right way was a little surprised when he said it was time for the occupation to end, as it was now just a home for the homeless and vulnerable.
In November a lecture at the ‘Bank of Ideas’ just down the road
March 2012
Finsbury Square, occupied on 21 October had become the longest ‘Occupy’ camp anywhere in the world, and had for months organised a programme of events and actions that those concerned can be proud of – but like many organisations had outlived its purpose. Unlike some other city organisations at a similar stage in their life-cycles it had not amassed huge fortunes, and while they can and do sit back comfortably on their assets, OccupyLFS had more or less fallen to pieces and was becoming more and more of a dump. It was still providing a home for a number of people who had been failed by the system, some of whom will now be housed by Islington Council – and their temporary accomodation on site for some months will have saved the council at least some of £60,000 they claim the occupation has cost them.
There was still a fairly full programme in March
I made only a few visits to Finsbury Square during the occupation, though I met some of the residents at a number of protests elsewhere. Although the camps here and at St Paul’s have both gone, the issues raised by the movement here and world-wide remain.
The eviction was apparently a fairly quiet affair, taking place as I expected in the middle of the night, with bailiffs arriving around 1am this morning when I was snoring peacefully over 20 miles away. There were relatively few residents present, and the whole thing seems to have happened without any trouble.
Finsbury Square was a little out of my way, but I called in a few times when I was in the City for other things. Most times I took few if any pictures as often there seemed to be very little going on, and put nothing on My London Diary. The last time I was there was for the start of the march from there to support the protest against a large Olympic facility being erected without proper planning permission on Leyton Marsh.
Occupy Finsbury Square – Oct 2011
Bank of Ideas & Finsbury Square – Nov 2011
Leyton Marsh Olympic Protest – Mar 2012
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My London Diary : Buildings of London : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage
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