Crack

Every Little Helps…

Camera packed, remote flashes charged. I jump in the car and head for the Burrows abandoned asylum and the site for a new Tesco development on Cheltenham Road.

Driving up Picton Street I’m greeted by the police and Cheltenham Road is closed off. I glance through and see a mass of police officers, protesters and onlookers. The bailiffs are moving the anti-Tesco squatters out of the old Jesters’ comedy club. I’ve been waiting for this day since hearing Tesco had pushed through for an accelerated eviction. Knowing they’d have a tough job ahead of them, I pull a U-turn and parked up.

Talking to a local from the squat over the road from the planed Tesco site, they’re already two hours in and have removed protesters from inside the building. The ‘cherry picker’ is busy plucking the campers from the rooftop and the tents had been ripped down earlier.

On the ground I count over 40 police officers, a dozen bailiffs, eight police horses and a handful of riot vans parked up in the distance. I later found out that all this would cost the taxpayer a massive £60,000. Hopefully someone will learn from this?

Cheers of respect as the local heroes are lowered to the curb. There are just three of them left now. Dobbs has super-glued himself to the top of a steel tripod constructed of scaffolding and the others are up to their elbows in a cement filled oil drum. The bailiffs don’t have it easy. After the painstaking task of un-welding his fingers, they then have to get a full harness around him before he can be craned down from his crows nest – but once this is done, he promptly removes it and throws it to the streets below. The crowd is getting excited and say: “Who’s streets? …Our streets!!!”





Dobbs takes this distraction as an opportunity, in a moment of genius he drops down to the roof, and starts to run up the crane arm. Shimmying a third of the way up, he’s grabbed by the feet and team of six slowly drag him back down.

Finally back on the ground, Dobbs is greeted by massive support; the locals push forward against the police in an attempt to free their new hero. Eggs smash on the police, horses rear up… I find myself in the middle of a riot, pushed and pulled in all directions, my camera clicking away.

More horses move in and Dobbs is arrested for obstructing the court-appointed bailiffs. With the concrete saw working away on the cement filled oil drum, a group of protesters split from the crowd and start marching towards the TV van that’d pulled up earlier. They were abusive and violent, accusing the media of being Nazis. They didn’t appear to be part of the peaceful protest, and were promptly arrested.

The sun is dropping and after an hour of chiseling, chipping and grinding, the bailiffs succeed and yet another Tesco’s site is ready for development. The light has gone, I guess I’ll have to photograph the derelict asylum tomorrow.

All images Copyright

Images: Jonathan Taphouse

Words: Jonathan Taphouse



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