They may have been moved on from Oxford Circus, Parliament Square and Waterloo Bridge but they haven’t finished yet!
I was around town on my bicycle with my camera on Tuesday and decided to find out first hand what the Extinction Rebellion campaigners were upto. My first stop was Waterloo Bridge and in contrast to my previous visit, on Thursday, the bridge was open to traffic and the campaigners had left.
There was a higher than normal police presence with six or eight policemen patrolling the bridge. All of the plants and “trees” had been removed but the graffiti was still present.
The only reminder was a single bamboo plant with a couple of banners next to it.
My next stop was Parliament Square. I had heard that Extinction Rebellion wanted to speak to the MPs about climate change. When I arrived the atmosphere was very different, almost confrontational. There was a huge police presence with vans parked on Whitehall and two sides of the square and a large number of police in high visibility clothing on foot.
A lot of campaigners were sitting on the ground talking, some still with banners.
The roads surrounding Parliament Square were closed to traffic
which some people took advantage of!
For others it had been a long day or few days, this man found an opportunity to catch forty winks.
Not all activity was at ground level, there were a couple of campaigners in the trees along with a couple of banners.
Police Do Not Cross tape was in use along Bridge St preventing people from crossing the road, making the pavement busier than usual.
Initially the square was completely closed to traffic but as I left, close to 1700 traffic was being allowed through the square and onto St Margaret St. Campaigners, tourists and commuters all mingled freely with some tourists looking on bemused at the campaigners.
For this campaigner there were still plans to be made or people to meet
With Parliament Square being free of traffic it had to go somewhere…
Extinction Rebellion, they’re still here…