M11 Link Road Protest - The Protest Campaign in East London

The Protest Campaign in East London

By 1990, the majority of the houses along the route of the proposed road had been compulsorily purchased, but the demolition process had not yet begun. This led to many of the houses being let out temporarily to housing associations, while others lay empty. Several original residents, who had in some cases lived in their homes all their lives, refused to sell or move out of their properties. Large numbers of the empty houses were squatted.

Locally-based protest against the link road scheme was taking place, but the availability of free housing along the route attracted large numbers of campaigners from around the UK and beyond. The arrival of these experienced anti-road protest veterans gave impetus to the campaign and introduced skills which would be put into practice in the construction of "defences".

Sophisticated techniques were used to delay the construction of the road. Sit-ins and site invasions were combined with sabotage to stop construction work temporarily. This led to large numbers of police and constant security patrols being employed to protect the construction sites, at great expense, the delays and security escalated the total cost of construction by tens of millions of pounds.

The protesters were successful in publicising the campaign, with most UK newspapers and TV news programmes covering the protests on a regular basis. Desktop publishing, then in its infancy, was used to produce publicity materials for the campaign and send out faxes to the media. A number of "stunts" were carried out, the most notable being rooftop protests on the Palace of Westminster and at the home of John MacGregor, the Minister for Transport at that time,

To counter the campaign, the government began evicting residents along the route and demolishing the empty houses. In response, the protesters set up the so-called "autonomous republics" of "Wanstonia", "Leytonstonia" and "Euphoria" in some groups of the houses, going so far as to issue passports. Extreme methods were used to force the engineers to halt demolition, including underground tunnels with protesters secured within by concrete.