STAND STRONG OCCUPY ON

Rectangular wooden sign painted in black and white. The text ‘STAND STRONG’ appears in large stencilled capitals across the top, with ‘OCCUPY ON’ in smaller stencilled letters below. To the left is a stencilled image of an upraised fist. The lettering shows uneven edges consistent with spray-applied stencil work.

This sign once hung in a tree on Ludgate Hill, looking towards St Paul’s Cathedral. It was taken down by cherry picker during the eviction of the Occupy London camp in February 2012.

Occupy London began on 15 October 2011, when thousands marched to occupy the London Stock Exchange. When police blocked access to Paternoster Square, protesters gathered on the steps of St Paul’s instead and set up a camp that lasted for five months. The camp formed part of a wider global movement shaped by the Arab Spring, Spain’s Indignados protests and Occupy Wall Street. Protesters in London raised concerns about economic inequality, financial-sector power, political representation and the pressures of post-crisis life, using the camp as a public space for discussion and direct democracy.