A peaceful protest against gentrification in Brixton, London, has ended in violence. The local town hall was stormed by protesters, the window of an estate agents was smashed, and CS spray gas was used to disperse protesters who had gathered at a Brixton police station.
More than 1,000 people had taken part in the Reclaim Brixton rally on Saturday and its organisers insisted they did not want trouble. Their aim was to demonstrate the community’s concern about the area’s gentrification, with locals being priced out of the housing market and smaller, individual businesses being driven out by high rents.
For the early part of the afternoon, the crowd who gathered in Windrush Square were content to wave placards and play music. However at around 3.15pm, some protesters managed to push their way into Lambeth town hall where they were confronted by police. No damage was done and no arrests were made.
Protesters then turned their attention to Foxtons estate agents, which has become a focus of local opposition to the area’s gentrification and has been targeted for vandalism in the past.
One of its windows was smashed and the words “Yuppies out” were written in spray paint across another window. Police officers arrested one person on suspicion of criminal damage.
Later police revealed that they had also used CS spray on “a small group of protesters” who had entered Brixton police station at around 4.10pm. Again no one was arrested, although police said on Saturday night that they were continuing to keep a strong presence in the area.
There were reports throughout the evening of continuing acts of vandalism on shops and other premises in Brixton.
The afternoon began peacefully with housing forming a key focus of the protest: campaigners from Brixton’s Cressingham Gardens and Loughborough Park estate waved banners asking for “social housing, not social cleansing”.
The London Black Revs, a socialist-activist group, had also organised a march through Brixton. Brixton Community United, a group campaigning to save the businesses under the railway arches – which have been threatened with eviction – organised a human chain around their properties.
They then marched to Windrush Square, leaving their shops closed: “A sign of what’s to come” said Lorne Mash, from Mash & Sons fishmonger.
Valerie London, a campaigner who grew up in Brixton, said she wanted to show the council and government that they are “selling out” the area’s poor people. “Brixton is losing its originality, we don’t want it to turn into Wimbledon or Richmond.”
Anna McKie is news editor of the Brixton Blog
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