Police oversee a 'silent protest' outside the Bank of England
It started as a day of peaceful demonstration, with police and protesters chatting amiably among the sea of colourful tents blockading a busy central London road.
Many campaigners, who were aiming to raise the profile of climate change, planned to stay the night.
But around midnight the police turfed the “climate campers” out of Bishopsgate and sent them packing.
According to one protester, police cordons advanced from Bishopsgate forcing around a hundred campers to retreat around a mile up towards Old Street Underground Station.
“We brought traffic to a halt at the junction, but finally the weight of the police and traffic broke us up,” she says.
“It’s a sad thing that none of the bystanders came to join us – after all, we were protesting in the hope of combating problems that will ultimately affect all of us.”
This morning there seemed to be little left of the camp save for a few lonely shreds of bunting and graffiti slogans – written, of course, in chalk.
“The people reclaimed these streets,” read one. Another voiced a view of many trapped for hours behind police cordons: “Open a sandwich shop – I’m hungry!”
The second day of G20 protests were also a lot more low key, but there were still a few hundred people who seemed to be holding a silent protest outside the Bank of England when I passed at around 2pm.
Following yesterday’s activity the police were taking no chances, almost outnumbering the protesters and keeping a close eye on security in the area.
Earlier today police had raided two squats where violent protesters are believed to have been staying.
Meanwhile a police van kept a watchful vigil outside the Royal Bank of Scotland, whose windows were boarded up following yesterday’s attack. The bank itself was closed, but everywhere else seemed to be doing business as usual.
Around 3pm police again cordoned off the area around the Bank of England and closed Moorgate Underground Station.
A policeman told me there was “something going on” and they weren’t letting anyone through.
But as I was on the other side of the barricade today, the closest I saw to any kind of rioting was a crowd of police being jeered at by a bunch of spotty teenagers.
You can see my initial report from the G20 protests here and a slideshow of images here.
