• Police clear encampment from outside St Paul's Cathedral
• Protesters were given five minutes to leave site
• Police say 20 arrested but operation "largely peaceful"
• St Paul's accused of "betraying" protesters
Read a summary of events
We're going to close the blog now. Thanks for all your comments.
You can join thelive Q&A with Occupy London's Naomi Colvin and George Barda on guardian.co.uk here.
Here's a summary of events:
• City of London police said 20 people were arrested. But both sides described the eviction as largely peaceful.
• Activists have accused St Paul's Cathedral of "betraying" them after police said the cathedral had given them permission to remove protesters from its steps. The court order obtained by the City of London Corporation applied only to the area in front of the cathedral and not the steps. Mark McVay, director of visitor services, marketing and PR at the cathedral, said the steps had been cleared to allow cleaning to take place but the cathedral has not said whether it granted permission to the police to clear them.
The local government minister, Bob Neill (pictured left), has welcomed the eviction and said the government is exploring ways to make it easier to remove such camps, whilst insisting that he supports the right to protest:
"There is a right to protest but there is no right to set up permanent camps.
The local council was right to initiate enforcement action, which was upheld by the courts. We are already introducing stronger byelaw powers for councils to remove tent encampments, such as those which have blighted Parliament Square. The Government is now looking further at reforms to help local authorities tackle unauthorised encampments and development more quickly and so protect local amenity."
St Paul's has released a carefully crafted statement neither supporting nor opposing the camp's removal, although regretting that it was done by bailiffs.
In the past few months, we have all been made to re-examine important issues about social and economic justice and the role the cathedral can play. We regret the camp had to be removed by bailiffs but we are fully committed to continuing to promote these issues through our worship, teaching and Institute.
The cathedral is open today and set aside for prayer and reflection. The cathedral is accessible to everyone. The area currently cordoned off is for essential repairs to damaged paving.
Clergy are available throughout the day for pastoral care and support.
My colleague Sam Jones describes the scene outside St Paul's this morning.
Apart from the cigarette butts, abandoned tent poles and messages chalked on paving stones - "Love Unity"; "This is just the beginning" - there's now precious little evidence that St Paul's Churchyard was ever occupied. Police cleared the tents and their residents in the early hours and City of London cleaning teams are now doing their best to expunge any traces that they were here. Cleaners with high-pressure hoses are blasting gum, paint and chalk off the slabs and cobbles as French and Japanese tourists mill about, oblivious to the sudden disappearance of the camp whose presence plagued the cathedral authorities and the City of London Corporation for so many months. Not all dissent, however, has been silenced. A man in ear-muffs pushing a tandem through the churchyard has just paused to bellow, "Crude form of semi-democracy!" at the police, or Wren's cathedral, or someone else ...
George Barda, 36, a spokesman for Occupy London, who was at St Paul's from day one, said it is too early to categorise the movement as either a success or a failure but has insisted that their cause is one worth fighting for.
A largely peaceful eviction of the camp took place and that to me is very very important, that there weren't any really agnry scenes that could be used to divert much from the very important message of this movement ...We go onwards and outwards from here. St Paul's will remain a significant part of Occupy London. The [court] decision was against the tents and bedding and not against our rights to protest, free speech and assembly...
There have been obvious victories in terms of forcing even the Conservative government to talk about "crony capitalism" or "moral capitalism" or which ever turn of phrase [David] Cameron has been using recently. Although, getting politicians to talk about something is a very different business from getting them to do something about it ....We are occupying the City because the City has occupied the government in Westminister ...
We were hoping the cathedral would provide some sort of sanctuary for us on the steps but that wasn't to be ...it shouldn't be surprising - given that seven out of the nine trustees of St Paul's are ex-head of this bank or this asset management company - that they have sided roughly with the corporation and not with genuine Christian principles ...
We have been called every name under the sun. We're either "homeless crusties" or "trustafarians" or we're whatever label can be thrown at us to actually avoid engaging with the political questions for why we're here. The reality is that millions of people are already feeling the very tight squeeze of the cuts even though they have barely began. You know we're closing down community centres, decimating the health and education sectors and anyone who thinks that stuff is not worth protesting about then I would leave them to come and talk to me.
This picture shows the Occupy London camp before and after.
The image on the left was taken in October 2011 and the one on the right this morning.
In comments below the line, people are discussing the measures of success and whether the Occupy movement in London could be seen as achieving what it set out to do. Here are some of their thoughts:
From elscollonsdelgos:
Given the current times, not only in the UK but also in most of the Western World, the "Occupy" movement has neither succeeded nor failed. It's just emerged. Whether in New York, London, Madrid or Athens, police shifting protestors doesn't change the fundamental causes behind the protest. History is dynamic and not a succession of brittle events that stand on their own. What will happen is that the "movement" will morph into something else.
BTW World demo 12 May
From thesistersofmercy:
Occupy LSX has scared the hell out of some powerful yet cowardly bullies
Scroll down the comments and check out the profiles of the people who sneer and smear the protest.
You'll find an interesting pattern!
I might say that these people pose as ordinary citizens.... while working for PR firms.
But since they all post anonomously I can't be 100% certain.
Just 99.99% certain!
p>From mike321:
While the rich get richer at the expense of the poor getting poorer you will have this, even today we hear of Barclay's bank evading tax. This is what occupy protests about. Yes they were leaderless but as I have pointed out many times we do not need politicians, just representatives who do our bidding on a vote via the web. and just so you know yes I support occupy. There will be many more people in tents on the streets at the hands of this government soon.
From BenCaute:
The Occupy movement likewise was flexible enough to abandon the goal of halting Lsx and see the opportunity of calling out the COfE and using that base to bring the rotton borough of the CIty to greater attention.
This Guardian video shows the eviction operation last night.
While both sides agreed that the operation was largely peaceful, the video shows some incidents of violence.
About 1m 33s in, projectiles are thrown at bailiffs who are approaching the makeshift pallet fortress. An object strikes one of the bailiffs, who turns away in response.
About 2m 10s in, a police officer attempts to wrestle a protester down from an elevated position on top of a barricade and, as the protester is dragged down, the officer is also dragged down to the ground.
St Paul's Cathedral have give a cautious response to the question as to why protesters were removed from the steps of the cathedral (the steps were not covered by the court order obtained by the City of London Corporation). Protesters have accused the cathedral of "betraying" them by allowing police to clear them from the steps.
Mark McVay, director of visitor services, marketing and PR at the cathedral, said:
As you'll see from the Corporation's latest release (see 8.27am) they were carrying out a deep clean of the area immediately after the equipment was removed and our understanding is that this is why police asked people to leave the steps.
He does not confirm or deny the police's claim that the cathedral gave advance permission for the steps to be cleared so the Guardian has put the question to the cathedral again.
The BBC's Dominic Hurst tweets that the deep clean of the former Occupy site outisde St Paul's will take three days.
This sign outside #stpauls says deep clean of pavements will take 3 days. #occupylsx twitter.com/DominicHurst/s…
— Dominic Hurst (@DominicHurst) February 28, 2012
George Barda, 36, (pictured left) who had been camped outside St Paul's for four-and-a-half months, told the Press Association that protesters heard at about 11.20pm that police were gathering nearby.
"Pretty much as the clock struck 12, we heard that they were on the move to us, so from my point of view, sitting in my tent as I got the news, it was a question of packing up as much of my stuff as I could and being ready for them arriving ...The main thing was that it remained peaceful. We said publicly many times that this is a non-violent movement and it did remain peaceful. There were some arrests but only for resisting arrest and the main thing to focus on is the reasons we are here and not the drama of what happened last night.
Millions of people are already suffering from the cuts and they have barely got going. And these cuts are entirely unnecessary, they're economically illiterate and there is money to pay for the things we need, it's just in the hands of the people at the top.
The corporation made it very clear that they have nothing supposedly against protest, assembly, free speech in this area, just the tents and the bedding that have now been removed. So we will very much be back to this space where people have been assembling for 800 years next year. What we are saying is very simple - there is money to pay for the things we need, we need to get it from those who can afford it. This isn't about a class war, it's about being sensible about what our society needs."
James Ball and Ben Quinn have written a lengthy account of how the night's events unfolded:
It was a moment the protesters had been expecting for five days, since the final appeal against eviction from the environs of the cathedral was denied at the court of appeal. The first signs that the authorities were ready to clear the camp, which had stood in the square since 15 October came shortly before midnight, as occupiers noticed an unusually high number of police officers in the streets around the site ...
Some protesters joked they were due to go away soon and would not have wished to miss the eviction, while others were more upset. As crowds of supporters gathered at cordons on the edge of the square, the campsite thinned to a small number, a little over a dozen, protesters atop the makeshift "pallet fortress", with dozens more sitting on the steps of the cathedral ...
Eventually, piece by piece, the fortress was demolished. Heavy steel bins were first dragged away, followed by pallets, followed by a badly out-of-tune piano, to the great relief of some nearby onlookers who hadn't greatly enjoyed the music it was making at 3am.
A small ladder was then placed on the remaining structure, scaled by a single orange-clad bailiff, who in a bizarre scene reminiscent of the game show Gladiators began to wrestle the line of Occupiers off the raised platform one-by-one, taking down three before being dragged off himself.
Unnoticed by the protesters was a small number of officers in riot gear moving up one side of the steps of St Paul's Cathedral.
As soon as fresh bailiffs resumed dragging protesters to the ground from their makeshift fortress, the police line made its move: slowly advancing, sweeping protesters – a small number of whom were praying – from the steps they had hitherto regarded as safe ground.
The court order obtained by the City of London Corporation only applied to the area in front of the cathedral but St Paul's Cathedral gave City of London police permission to remove protesters from its steps, James Ball and Ben Quinn write:
St Paul's Cathedral has been accused of "betraying" Occupy London activists after giving the City of London police permission to remove protesters from its steps and end the four-and-a-half month camp.
The cathedral's decision, coupled with a previous high court decision obtained by the City of London, meant police successfully removed the entire Occupy London Stock Exchange camp from the square outside St Paul's.
Among them [the protesters] was Jonathan Bartley, director of the Christian thinktank Ekklesia, who claimed he was kicked repeatedly by police and dragged away from the cathedral.
"What happened is a great sadness – it is exactly as Giles Fraser warned might happen.
"The tragedy is that while Christians were praying on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral, the cathedral gave permission for them to be forcibly and violently removed. The cathedral has backed and colluded in this eviction."
By 4am, no protesters or camping equipment remained in the square.
No one from St Paul's Cathedral was available to comment.
Bartley says:
"Do you have permission from St Paul's to move people off the steps of the cathedral?"
A police officer responds:
"St Paul's have given us permission under section 14 of the Public Order Act."
The same, or another officer, continues:
Under section 14 of the Public Order Act there is an assembly here which we believe is antagonising other people ...You have seen what's happening tonight, okay? It's antagonising people, especially round here. We believe there is a breach fo the peace because of that and will be moving people off the steps.
Stuart Fraser, policy chairman of the City of London Corporation, said the area is now undergoing a deep clean:
It is regrettable that it had to come to the need for removal but the high court judgment speaks for itself. The site has now been cleared and the area is undergoing a deep clean. Some areas of the site may be cordoned off during this cleaning but we will complete the work as quickly as possible, in order to return the site to its regular use.
The corporation added:
High court enforcement officers employed by the City of London Corporation undertook the removal with the support of the police to ensure public safety and maintain order. The City of London Corporation ensured any vulnerable people at the site were helped and supported to find appropriate accommodation in partnership with Broadway, a charity for the homeless.
Here is the full statement from Occupy London on last night's events. In it, they accuse St Paul's of collusion in their eviction. We are awaiting a response from St Paul's to this allegation.
The last thing to go were the kitchen shelves. Around a dozen occupiers peacefully resisted to the last; a short distance away a vigil continued on the cathedral steps as others observed, supported, prayed and remembered. The police cordons made the groups seem further apart than they actually were.
On the steps, a mini GA [general assembly] discussed events as they were happening around it – and in particular the collusion of St Paul's Cathedral in the eviction they had previously said that they did not want to see. At around 2am in the morning, the floodlights which illuminate the neoclassical edifice of that great building were turned off. When the lights returned, four policemen could be clearly seen on the balcony, in silhouette.
Not long afterwards, police were given leave to clear the steps themselves, the site of former Canon Chancellor Giles Fraser's famous intervention of 16 October, when he asked the police to leave and recognised our right to assemble. Giles Fraser, who is so much a part of this story, was prevented from crossing the police lines to reach the Occupy London Stock Exchange site tonight. We would have liked to see him there.
This morning, the City of London Corporation and St Paul's Cathedral have dismantled a camp and displaced a small community, but they will not derail a movement. The attention given to the final hours of the Occupy London Stock Exchange site is testament to that. We would like to thank all those who got the word out on social and traditional media overnight. We are deeply appreciative of the sustained attention we have received; it's all the more precious at absurd hours of the morning.
The natural question to rush to in these moments is "what next?" In the short term, there will be a GA at 7pm on Tuesday by the steps of St Paul's. In the medium term, it is only right that people will need time to rest, reflect and recharge, to take stock and learn the lessons of the past four and a half months. But be assured that plans are already afoot: plans of some ambition, employing a diversity of tactics and delivered with the aplomb you would expect from us. All will be revealed in time. May is one of our favourite months.
This morning also saw the eviction of the Occupy London School of Ideas in Islington in, to say the least, somewhat unorthodox circumstances, while their case was still progressing through the court system. We trust that occupiers will be able to fully retrieve their belongings before what sounds like a hastily brought forward demolition is enacted. What happens to Southern Housing Group's planning application this week deserves careful examination, as do the views of local people living near Bunhill Row.
We'll miss Occupy London Stock Exchange but not because of the tents, or even the kitchen shelves: it was a makeshift, loosely cooperative, occasionally quarrelling and fiercely idealistic group of people who came together to achieve something extraordinary. The relationships forged during these strange and beautiful four and a half months still have much further to run. This is only the beginning.
Giles Fraser (pictured left), former canon chancellor of St Paul's, wrote last month that any forcible eviction would be a failure for the church, not the camp. Today, he said he stands by that.
He said:
"Occupy does not herald the beginnings of a world revolution. But it has given many world leaders a good kick in the pants and made them know, in no uncertain terms, the degree of frustration that exists about an economic system that, among its many other crimes, rewards the rich with huge bonuses and penalises the poor with cuts to welfare.
But to St Paul's, the existence of the camp has been seen too much in terms of a little local difficulty – graffiti, hassle, problems with income and visitor numbers. This is a mistake of perspective that comes about through years of ingrained thinking that the building is the purpose of the cathedral. After a decade-long fundraising campaign to find £42m needed to clean the building, it may be inevitable that the cathedral's whole administrative infrastructure is bent towards this end. Thus it becomes just too easy to worship Christopher Wren and not the God who spoke of the rich having to give up all their possessions. Which is why the forcible eviction of Occupy will be far more a failure for the church than it will be a failure for the camp."
Naomi Colvin, from Occupy London, will be taking part in an online Q&A on guardian.co.uk at 12pm to discuss what the protesters achieved, what's next and any other questions you wish to put to her.
I will post a link when it is online.
Colvin took part in Occupy Cif in November last year, when Occupy London guest-edited Comment is Free for the day.
Giles Fraser, who resigned as canon chancellor of St Paul's over plans to forcibly remove protesters from its steps, has tweeted about last night's events.
Really proud of the way Occupy conducted themselves last night.
— Giles Fraser (@giles_fraser) February 28, 2012
Fraser now does a podcast for the Guardian.
This video shows a protester being removed from the steps of St Paul's Cathedral as he chants the Lord's Prayer.
Others can be heard swearing at the police and questioning the police's authority to remove them from the steps (more on this in a bit).
Good morning. Welcome to live coverage following the latest developments and reaction after police and bailiffs began clearing the Occupy London encampment outside St Paul's Cathedral shortly after midnight.
It followed a high court decision that gave the green light for the City of London to clear the protest site. Protesters were given five minutes to comply with an order to leave.
City of London Police said 20 people had so far been arrested in the "largely peaceful" operation. A spokesman said "a small minority of protesters obstructed the work of bailiffs".
You can read our earlier live blog here.