Street

The headline in one of the newspapers that feature this photo is ‘Covent Garden Celebrates 50 Years of Street Performance Amid Renewed Licensing Concerns’

I was asked to photograph the street performers to publicise the event due to take place on Sunday 11 May to mark 50 years of modern street performance in Covent Garden.

The performers were great to work with and for the photo at the top of this page my only direction was to choose the backdrop and tell them to bunch in from the sides and stay as close as possible from front to back so they would all be in focus.

The photos lower down this page are them getting ready, like any artists do.

The Event Will Take Place On 11th May

The photos I was asked to take are to publicise the event that will take place on Sunday 11th May 2025 with performances from past and present artists, including poet and performer John Hegley, who began his career busking in Covent Garden in the 1980s.

The Square has a proud history and has delighted millions of visitors and launched the careers of household names – names like Eddie Izzard, Dynamo, and Stomp. So the all-day event on 11th May has a pedigree stretching back 50 years. That’s 50 years since public awareness saved Covent Garden from being turned into offices and allowed artists to come in an fill the space.

Renewed Licensing Concerns

And now Covent Garden’s street performances are threatened by Westminster Council’s 2021 licensing scheme, which would make the performances vulnerable to being shut down.

It has already happened on Leicester Square.

After 50 years of successful self regulation the Covent Garden Street Performers Association wants recognition of their proven success in self regulating.

And it’s pretty obvious that the public likes things just as they are.

Look at the photo I took, the photo at the top of this page.

I asked the performers to arrange themselves. But nobody asked the crowd to gather.

The crowd gathered all by itself because the performers are entertaining.

After years and years of street performers entertaining the crowds, the crowds gather, which is proof that people like and them want them – just as they are.

So mark 11th May on your calendar and get down to the Square for what the performers do best.

People of all stripes dress up on the third Thursday of each month and do a Colour Walk around and about in Old Spitalfields Market in London. It’s advertised on various sites recommending things to do in London, and that’s how I heard about it.

I went and it seemed that there were as many people photographing as there were parading. I thought the people who were dressed up would be in a group or parading as a group, but no. At least not when I arrived, after it had started.

It was advertised to start at 1:00pm and perhaps they did gather at the start. When I got there colour walkers were being shunted off in ones and twos to stand against a dark hoarding to be photographed. It all felt a bit odd somehow, as though the original bonhomie had gone or deflated a bit.

But there was one person who would not be deflated, and here is a shot of him. I recognised him because I also saw him in the middle of a crowd at the Extinction Rebellion protest in 2019 when protesters nailed a pink yacht to the intersection on Oxford Circus in the middle of London, and handcuffed themselves to the stanchions that secured the yacht.

The police at the Oxford Circus protest were a bit nonplussed about how to deal with what was then a novel situation. Eventually they made some arrests, but in terms of human interaction it was a success.

Two women I bumped into on the way to the Oxford Circus protest that day saw only good things that would come from it. A bit like young soldiers marching off to war. But we are all wiser now. ‘Just stop destroying the place’ has taken a back seat.

Just Stop

When the last Conservative Prime Minister issued new licences for oil drilling, the UK was in uproar. When President Biden said it would do incalculable harm to stop using fossil fuels rather than wind down their use, the US and the world’s media just took it on the chin. I guess it is the manner of the delivery.

Whatever the case, the Just Stop Oil protest movement has had less success in uniting the populace when they have blocked motorways to protest the use of fossil fuels. And where is Extinction Rebellion now? I haven’t heard from them for a while.

Back To The Colour Walk

Here is a photo of a woman who I think is one of the organisers of Colour Walk, being photographed, with a good natured attempt at a smile.

I shot this with the Canon EOS R6 and Canon RF28-70mm F2.8 IS STM lens at f2.8, 1/30th of a second, and ISO 100. The lens was at 70mm.

ISO 100

I shot this little group after taking a shot of the buildings across the River Thames. When I turned and saw this happy group I had to take the shot. Canon EOS R6 with 50mm f1.8 lens. shot at 1/800 second at f3.5 and 400 ISO.

The tall buildings look as though they have been corralled by the smaller buildings surrounding them. It’s easy to imagine them bursting out of the fence and marching across the river like alien creatures.

On Saturday 22 February, people gathered to protest at the Russian Embassy in London against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The protesters stood at the entrance to Palace Court off the Bayswater Road opposite Kensington Gardens. The road was cordoned off and the protesters stood behind the barriers, with police controlling any overspill into Bayswater Road.

All photos shot with the Ricoh GRIII