Middle picture shows police officers on Hampstead Heath close to the ‘Occupy’ camp which was moved on. Pictured below are officers speaking to three pensioners who decided to ‘Occupy’ a bench

Published: 14 June, 2012
by PAVAN AMARA

DEMONSTRATORS among the Occupy London protesters who famously camped outside St Paul’s Cathedral for 137 days switched the protest to Hampstead Heath yesterday (Wednesday) as they set up a campsite near the Vale of Health.

They were full of bold words about how they would not leave until the City of London relinquished control of the Heath, accusing the management body of commercialising one of London’s oldest and most loved open spaces.

But with public opinion failing to swing behind the protesters, as it had to some extent when they defiantly camped out near London’s business district, they had a sudden change of heart.

Before nightfall they had packed up and gone, and a protest that had mixed determined demands with light-hearted moments was over.

On social media sites, the sharpest critics had derided them for mistaking “camping” with “campaigning”, as others mocked the occupation as simply a big picnic. While jokes were shared on Twitter and Facebook, the small group of protesters shared their own life stories of hardship.

When the tents had been pitched in the early hours of Wednesday, the mood had been defiant.

Fifteen had hoped to kickstart a new large-scale protest, sending out a clarion call for others to join them.

As the day wore on, the Occupy cavalry did not come over the Heath’s hills.

One organiser, sitting among the six large tents and a table of food, had said the protest was to block “corporate tentacles clawing their way into our public spaces, the rent increases which make it impossible to live, and because the top one per cent don’t know what it’s like to be poor”.

The group said they would not leave the Heath until it was controlled by a group called the “Friends of Hampstead Heath” and the residents of the area.

Their camping equipment, tents and food were moved into a spot close to the Vale of Health overnight.

Tammy Samede, 33, who was present at the  St Paul’s Occupy camp throughout its duration,  said the protesters had been forced into occupying the Heath.

“I am homeless,” said the mother-of-four from Crawley.

"Because of that my children have been taken from me, I have no money, nowhere to sleep, hardly any belongings, so I have nothing to lose.

“It angers me that you have people in the Square Mile paid huge amounts to deal in arms, to have them starting wars in other countries from that square mile which even the Queen cannot enter without permission, and now their tentacles are clawing into our communities.

“They own this park, not the people. It all disgusts me and should sicken any normal-thinking human being. So why aren’t we doing anything about it? The solution is simple – resist.”

Ms Samede added: “We’re sick of people saying that this protest is all posh middle-class kids.

"None of us are, and there’s not a posh syllable in me.”

All of the protesters were originally from the St Paul’s Occupy camp which was evicted in February, and all but three of the Heath’s new occupants claimed to be homeless.

Demonstrator Tim Sullivan, 46, said: “I don’t care about getting arrested, actually I want my day in court, because I want to speak and I want to be heard.

"Close to this part of Hampstead Heath there is a cruising ground, and they never get arrested.

"So it’s OK to have sex in public, but not to want shelter when money problems push you on to the streets?

"That’s because the Occupy movement is a threat to the big corporations, but a cruising ground isn’t.”

At 11am on Wednesday morning, police officers informed the group they would have to leave the site by 1pm in the afternoon. By this time lawyer John Cooper QC had been in touch with the group to offer advice and representation to them for free.

Then at 1pm, a group of six police officers from Hampstead Constabulary circled the tents with a representa­tive from City of London Corporation.

By 4pm, a crowd of 20 police officers and Heath Constabulary officers arrived on the scene, and three representatives from the City of London Corporation joined them to inform protesters that if they did not pack up by 5pm their tents and belongings would be removed “and left on the roadside”.

Kaye Johnston, 43, said: “This is a new wing of Occupy.

"It’s the ‘nomadic branch’, we are homeless nomads and we are very much part of Occupy, just they all have homes to go to and we do not.”

Prior to this occupation the group had spent several months at Ironside Park in Tower Hamlets, before being served with eviction papers there.

The group claim that in east London they removed drug syringes from the bushes, encouraged prostitutes to seek help, and got drug dealers to move away from the park.

Akira Smith, who was part of the police liaison team and the church liaison team at St Paul’s, said: “Some people in this city are terrified the Olympics will push the rents through the roof, and while it’s all OK for the 1 per cent around Hampstead, it’s not for so many of us.

"What we really could have done with was some support from the rich people who live round here, and some celebrity endorsements would have been very helpful.”

Ms Samede said: “They go by in their posh little accents and say, ‘Oh we love Occupy, you go, you do this, we’ll support you’, and we love it.

"It’s great to know we have support.

"One of the reasons we chose Hampstead Heath was because we knew it was surrounded by very liberal families who have been left-wing through and through for decades and we were banking on their help.”

The light-hearted moment of the day came at about 2pm when three elderly ladies named Beatrice, Hilde, and Ethel, all in their 70s, and who all live in the Vale of Health, claimed to “occupy the bench” after police were found sitting on their favourite seats. Hilde Buchanan, 73, said: “In the same fashion as the protest, we are going to occupy this bench from the police.”

But by 5pm, with the threat of arrests looming, the camp decided to retreat.

Protesters headed towards Finsbury Square in Islington, where attempts by bailiffs to evict a separate camp took place overnight.

Ms Samede said: “This is far from over. Camden Council aren’t going to house us anytime soon, have you seen their waiting list? It’s onwards and upwards for us. We’re not stopping.

"Watch this space, the borough of Camden will see plenty more from us.”

A spokesman for City of London said: “This was a breach of Byelaw 8.

"There was some talk of section 14 [which was used to evict St Paul’s protesters] in the office, but this is majoring on Byelaw 8.

"Removing these people was not about protesters, none of this is about protesters, it’s about tents not being allowed on the Heath.

"Ten-thousand people can come and protest on the Heath if they want to, but don’t start camping on it because the equipment for that is not legally allowed on Hampstead Heath.”