‘Love Activists’ succeed in offering Christmas lunch to London homeless
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Version 0 of 1. A group of squatters, known as the “Love Activists”, have provided an uncooked Christmas lunch to homeless Londoners on the pavement outside the former bank they had been occupying, after they were evicted from the premises on Christmas Eve morning. They have vowed to continue their protests. The group of 20 activists occupied the imposing grade ll listed building on the corner of Charing Cross Road and the Strand that previously housed an RBS bank, in the early hours of Saturday morning, saying they found an open fire escape door. All say they are homeless and occupied the building to raise awareness about the epidemic of homelessness in London especially amongst young people. There were 6,437 people sleeping rough in London last year, an increase of 8% on the figure two years previously. Many of those, like the Love Activist team, are young people. As soon as they had occupied the building the activists announced that they would cook a festive lunch for homeless people on Christmas Day. The five-storey building is extremely spacious and has plenty of cooking facilities as well as a penthouse suite with aerial views of London, and a basement housing the former bank vaults. The prime site building is owned by Greencap Ltd, a company registered in Jersey and which, according to the accounts it filed earlier this year, is valued at just £9. Until June 2013 it was leased to RBS. Greencap had obtained an emergency, no-notice injunction to remove them from the premises. The activists were expecting to go to court at the beginning of next week to contest a possession order but were woken up early on Christmas Eve after bailiffs forced their way in and evicted all but two of the protesters who were sleeping there. Danny Freeman, 22 and his girlfriend, known as Mouse, 21, clambered onto a 10-metre high balcony above the entrance to the building. They remained there in freezing temperatures for 10 hours and only agreed to leave their spot after news was relayed to them from protestors on the ground that a variation to the injunction had been granted by an out-of-hours high court judge allowing them to return to the building. However, police refused to allow them back into the building – although Scotland Yard declined to comment about the reason for this. Just after midnight a police officer read out a new court order to the assembled protestors which overturned the one allowing them to temporarily return to the building. The order said that to re-enter the building would constitute contempt of court. As soon as Freeman and Mouse left the balcony they were arrested, held in police cells for six hours and then released without charge. All their belongings remain in the former bank and they said they were forced to sleep on the streets on Wednesday evening without any blankets. They said they are determined to continue their protests and are appealing to anyone who has a vacant building with cooking facilities to let them know so that they can provide meals to homeless people. “We have had so many donations of both food and money,” said Freeman. “We hoped to cook all the food for Christmas lunch and buy more food with the donations but without cooking facilities we were only able to serve sandwiches in the street. If anyone would like us to return their donations please let us know and we will do so.” Both Freeman and Mouse said that their time on the balcony had been very positive. Some onlookers dubbed the couple who kissed and cuddled on the balcony from time to time “Romeo and Juliet”, an epithet they both accepted. “I was scared of falling for the first half hour,” said Mouse. “But after that everything was fine.” “It was a beautiful day,” said Freeman, “It couldn’t have been easier with Mouse by my side.” |