Went to the Climate Camp in Bishopsgate after hearing that it was incredible. I didn't want to miss it so off I went.

north end, guarded with banner and bikes

colourful atmosphere. 5.30pm

man with an order to smile

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the north end

the south end

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police vans in the middle

crowd. 6.15pm

south end. 9pm

police in the middle. 9pm

after two police charges in the south end. 11pm

south end of camp. 11pm

I arrived at about 5pm, at the north end of it. Police were already forming a line alongside the barrier that had been erected made up of railings and bikes attached to them, but they were not blockading and every one was free to visit, come in and out.

There was a festive atmosphere, colourful tents, banners, street decoration...

A man with the slogan "God is too big for religion" on his t-shirt then started to try and make every single riot policeman and woman on the line to smile. "This is an order", he shouted, "and if they don't comply, things will only get worse". He managed to get or steal a smile of every single police officer including a police woman who tried just too hard to keep a stony face.

He then proceeded to try and hug every one "of these very wonderful people" as a sign of his love. To try to get to their hearts, he asked them if they had children: "please raise your hands if you do not have children, or keep your hands down if you do have children". None of the police moved their arms but he did not succeed to hug every one of the officers. One of them claimed that he was embarrassing them.

I then proceeded to photograph the rest of the camp. A few police vans had somehow made their way into the middle of the climate camp.

At about 6.15pm the south end of the camp started to get "nasty". Police charged into the peaceful people, bringing tents violently down to the ground, but people managed to peacefully stop the police violence, and a party was established in front of the police lines.

A few police also moved to the middle of the camp, next to the vans, and it looked like they were trying to divide the crowd. But people kept the area occupied and this didn't happen.

As it got darker, more and more riot police and vans gathered at the south end of the camp, and I heard that a demonstration had formed at the north end of the camp, but that the police were afraid of the growing numbers and were preventing people from getting in or out of the camp. We had been cordoned off without warning.

Three meetings were held in the camp. One at the south end, another at the north end, and another one in the middle, right in front of police. We were informed that the police had decided to keep us penned for two hours, and that after that, they would allow us out in groups of 20, after taking every one's photograph and details.

Some people considered sleeping the night in the camp, but it was clear from the beginning of the night that police were going to disrupt people's sleep all through the night, just like it had happened during the climate camp in the summer, last year, with a helicopter flying over our heads firing an intense light over the street and with the vans' strongest lights also focusing on the campers.

At about 10.00 I tried my luck to get out of the pen by asking permission to leave to one of the police officer. He said, "I can not tell you if you can go out. Ask one of your senior members (eh?) Your legal observers should know more". A legal observer told me that the police had decided to only allow people out in groups of two after pushing the crowd in a way that I didn't manage to understand.

It was getting colder and most people present in the camp by then had not brought a camping tent or sleeping bag. Luckily people had brought plenty of food, which was widely shared. Music was heard around the camp most of the time, and at about 10.30 members of Radio Revolucion gave a taste of their music towards the middle of the street. Police officers looked at the scene in astonishment and a security guard inside the building began to video them using his phone, as if he had never in his life seen spontaneous acts of arts happening. After a few songs, random people in the crowd took on the microphone and the instruments and shared their art with a small crowd dancing around them.

At about 22.45 we again heard desperate cries from the south end of the street and there we went, to learn that the police had charged again on the peaceful crowd, using batons and pepper spray, and to see that the people had decided to sit down and hold the site as much as possible.

I joined some people that had shared their food with me before and started to help them putting their tent down. It was pretty clear that the police were going to charge again so we thought better to have the tent and other things on our backs than destroyed. As we were in the process of undoing the tent, the whole of the police line that was at the north end of the camp moved in and we frantically continued to undo the tent as the police approached, with people running ahead of them, crying for help. We decided to stay and continue to gather and pack everything until the police stopped us with their batons.

Strangely, they just passed by. It seemed all they wanted to do was reach the north end of the street and join the cops there.

By then it seemed that there were fewer people than before and we were informed that, although the police had intended to search every one before leaving, they were only doing so randomly. We gathered tent, sleeping bags and food, and headed for the convergence centre unmolested.

At 11.30 the street was still cordoned off and people were not allowed in, but from the outside, it looked like the people who were remained inside the cordon actually wanted to be there; exit seemed to be allowed.