Walking the Boundaries

On April 15th, to mark the six month anniversary of the beginning of Occupy London, occupiers from Finsbury Square and the Nomadic Occupy camps reunited with those who camped for four long winter months in the shadow of St Paul’s. With chalk and tape, as dusk fell, occupiers marked the areas where the Tent City library, university, kitchen and other structures stood until the camp was evicted in late February.

A return to the churchyard and the walk around the boundaries of the now imaginary encampment was felt by many to be a poignant and emotional journey. So much passion and energy went into creating and maintaining the camp and much of that still lingers. The wide, open space rustles with ghosts like an old battlefield, a stone circle, a ruined castle. In minds and in hearts, the tents remain.

Tammy, who was displaced by the eviction of the St Paul’s camp, is now spending her days outside the cathedral again. She has reclaimed a patch of ground where the Information Tent of the camp used to be. With children in tow and home-baked cakes to share, she has begun connecting with the streams of tourists and city workers who pass by every day. Some say they have been missing the camp. Two shook Tammy’s hand, one hugged her and one said something rude. Grittily optimistic as ever, Tammy pointed out that “That’s a 75% approval rating. We’re more popular than the government!”

Who knows? Soon people might start preparing and sharing food on the pavement beside the cathedral, in the very spot where the kitchen tent stood. Perhaps workshops and lectures will run in the space formerly known as Tent City University and people will read books in the library, converse in huddles on the cobbles, make art and music in the colonnade, sweep the church steps and breathe life back into the sterile swathe of grey this area has become since the Occupy shanty town was shovelled into a bin lorry.

Almost anything could happen. As long as rights of way are not seriously impeded, the understanding of most of the ‘defendants unknown’ of Occupy the London Stock Exchange is that they’d be within their rights to begin living there again – just without what the judge described as ‘sleeping apparatus’.

“Roll on summer” said a man in an anonymous mask. He might have been grinning.

By Emma Fordham