Euston Square Gardens
 Tree protectors in Euston Square Gardens |
Euston Square Gardens is a public garden on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden.
The gardens are the northern gardens of the former residential Euston Square, the southern gardens were renamed Endsleigh Gardens.
Euston Square Gardens are enclosed by railings and covered with grass and London plane trees. The two lodges at the gardens date from 1870 and were once the entrance to Euston station. They are inscribed with the names of the London and North Western Railway.
A worksite for High Speed 2 and the proposed Euston St Pancras railway station is situated at the gardens. This is to construct an underground pedestrian link between Euston railway station and Euston Square tube station.
HS2 Rebellion
A protest camp against HS2 was set up in the park in September 2020.
It was revealed in January 2021 that protesters had built a 100ft tunnel under the gardens as part of protests against the planned High Speed 2 railway. Nine activists occupied the tunnels starting 27 January as part of the protest. The first protester left the tunnel on February 5th. A second protester left on the 6th. A third left on the 15th and a fourth on the 17th. A 5th was evicted on the 23rd and a further 3 left on the 25th. The final protester left on the 26th.
In March, a freedom of information request revealed that the Metropolitan Police had spent £140,000 on policing the tunnels during the removal of the protesters.[1]
Campaigner explains
Summary by campaigner Susan Donaldson:
Well according to us at HS2 Rebellion, paving over our formal public gardens dating from the birth of our great British Railways over 150 years ago, with individual trees already well established and much older (at the time) than that, all trees on the enclosed site having been carefully guarded from all molestation and other man-made interference under the protection and watchful eye of the church opposite inaugurated in 1822 and so approaching its bi-centenary next year, is not an inevitable consequence of the plan to build back better at the Euston terminus of the new High Speed Rail link from London to Birmingham and Leeds. It is an active design choice.
Charges dropped
On 6 October 2021, six environmental protesters who occupied a tunnel close to Euston station in protest against the HS2 high-speed link earlier this year walked free from court after charges in connection with the occupation were dismissed by a judge.
Daniel Hooper, 48, also known as “Swampy”; Dr Larch Maxey, 49; Isla Sandford, 18; Lachlan Sandford, 20; Juliett Stevenson-Clarke, 22; and Scott Breen, 47, faced charges of aggravated trespass at Highbury Corner magistrates court in central London for their 31 days underground in January and February of this year. A separate charge against Maxey of damage to a mobile phone was also dismissed.
An HS2 spokesperson said they were “bitterly disappointed” with the outcome of the case.
The protesters dug a 100ft tunnel network secretly over a period of months and stored up enough food and water supplies to last throughout the subterranean protest. During the tunnel occupation they spent much of their time digging and shoring up the structure they had created.
District Judge Susan Williams dismissed the charges in relation to the high-profile protest on the basis that HS2 was not carrying out any construction work on the site at the time the charges were levelled against the protesters. Instead, their aim was to clear the site of protesters and then begin the construction work.
She said: “There is no evidence of any constructor or construction taking place on the land at that time.”[2]
References
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