A Monkey's Revenge - My Blog

May 8, 2011

Zombie Friday

Friday 29th April was THE big news job in London. The Royal Wedding-Prince William marrying Kate Middleton. I was a tad disappointed to be shunted off into a siding and not actually covering the wedding for The Telegraph, but a protest by anarchists and 'zombies'. It did mean a chance to get some different images from all the usual pics though!

Arriving in Soho square early I discovered that organisers of the 'Government of the dead' had been arrested the night before and their guillotine on wheels impounded by the Met police. The appointed time for the protest came and went. No sign of anyone. Just as I thought a protest against the wedding was no longer on the cards, 'Anarchista' turned up. To be more precise a bloke with a hoodie, a scarf, a black and white 'anarchy' flag and a can of special brew. Shortly afterwards he was joined by several others, including a man dressed as 'Saint George' with a colander on his head.

Unfortunately my 'Mifi' wireless device couldn't get a signal within the square so I decided to walk around the corner into Oxford Street where I had earlier seen a Starbucks cafe. I set up in the window and was just wiring my early photos to the paper when a group of 'zombies' turned up. They were ejected from the cafe and held by police right outside the window where I sat! The 'zombies' were handcuffed and then lead away-presumably for breach of the peace, although in truth their only crime was to be wearing white makeup with splashes of fake blood.

After wiring the zombie arrest pics, I moved on to another area to capture some of the street parties- it was an amazing atmosphere with people literally dancing in the closed off streets.