Maggie’s Hugs & Fortnum & Mason: On Friday 19 August 2011 I stopped briefly on the Queen’s Walk outside City Hall on the south bank of the Thames close to Tower Bridge to photograph the ‘Hug London‘ event by cancer charity Maggie’s, before going on to a protest outside Westminster Magistrates Court where protesters arrested during a peaceful protest in luxury food shop Fortnum & Mason were facing charges of aggravated trespass.
Maggie’s Charity Hugs London
City Hall
Maggie’s Centres offer support for anyone affected by cancer and to their family and friends from the time of diagnosis, during and after treatment, to recurrence, end of life or in bereavement.
The cancer care charity was set up by Maggie Jencks after the recurrence of her breast cancer in 1993 and opened the first Maggie’s Centre in Edinburgh shortly after her death in 1995.
There are now in 2026 around 30 centres across the UK and four international centres – considerably more than in 2011. The main fundraising events for the charity are various challenges and the largest of these in 2011 was a London Night Hike, a a 10 or 20 mile adventure held in partnership with Open House London, with hikers getting to visit inside a number of iconic buildings on the route for food and entertainment.
Unfortunately registration for the Night Hike had opened on the day when London’s 2011 riots were taking place and this had led to a great drop in registration – although London would almost certainly be peaceful when the actual event was to take place in September.
Volunteers had come to London to try to get more people to take part , walking around London offering Londoners free hugs and handing out invitations to sign up for the Night Hike.
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Westminster Magistrates Court, 70 Horseferry Road
UK Uncut were one of a number of groups taking action during the massive TUC ‘March For The Alternative‘ on Saturday 26th March 2011. They came to Oxford Street to hold peaceful protests at tax dodging shops and banks around Oxford St and to party at Oxford Circus.
I had photographed some of their protests earlier in the day but went home to change clothes before they got to Fortnum and Mason, having been hit by a paintball from a black bloc protester, possibly aimed at police. Otherwise I would probably have probably have been with them when the went into the luxury shop and might well have been arrested despite having a Press Card.
Fortnum and Mason was occupied because it is ‘a symbol of wealth and greed‘ and made use of a tax avoidance scheme to save £10 million a year. During the protest police praised the protesters for their cooperation with the police in not attempting to leave the premises.
Chief inspector Claire Clark, the senior officer present can be seen and heard on video promising them that they would be free to leave, but apparently she already knew that they would be arrested as they left.
Police held the protesters in the store as there were battles taking place between the black block and police in the area around and the police were unable to control the situation – and there would probably have been unable to make mass arrests. Police also needed time to had made arrangements for a large number of arrests. So officers – in best police tradition – lied to the protesters.
All 145 UK Uncut protesters were arrested as they left the store and charged with the serious offence of aggravated trespass with intent to intimidate. They were then taken to various police stations and held for many hours. Some were turned out in the early hours of the morning only partly dressed, in flimsy white part transparent suits over their underclothes, often many miles from their homes
Eventually charges against most were dropped, but 30 were brought to court, divided alphabetically into three groups, A, B and C. All ten in trial A were found guilty but given a conditional discharge and told to pay £1,000 each towards costs, with the judge telling them “History often vindicates those involved in such acts.” Those in Trial B were initially found guilty but five of the nine were acquitted on appeal. All in Trial C were acquitted.
I still find it hard to believe that the CPS decided it was in the public interests to bring these prosecutions having seen the videos and heard much of the evidence. There was little damage in the shop, although some people trapped in there for two and a half hours by the police may have sampled a little food. The main loss to the shop was caused by police as the protesters would have left peacefully after a few minutes of occupation had the police allowed them to do so – and there would have been little loss of business.
Clearly these arrests and trials were politically motivated. It was a peaceful protest and it was the police who closed the shop, not the protesters.
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