The battle of Stokes Croft

To start things off im going to have to do some back tracking so let me take you back to last year. Its March and the sun is shining in the Stokes Croft area of Bristol. A group of squatters are fortifying themselves in the building of a proposed new Tesco's store; preparing for an eviction. They accuse Tesco of saturating the area with outlets and will not stand to see another one open up.

I arrive at the scene to find scores of people watching as a cherry picker and bailiffs try to pick people off of the roof. But the squatters are putting up a fight. Using ladders and throwing foul smelling liquiuds they manage to fend them off.

There's a circle of police officers and  maybe 10 horses keeping people away. The whole of Cheltenham road from Jamaica street to the arches is blocked off, its a battle ground.

Bit by bit the defences are broken down, one by one the squatters are picked from the roof; coming back down to earth to the sound of cheers from the crowd. Its game over.
















to be continued...