View from Above

I finished work at 5 o'clock this afternoon so that I could grab a bite to eat before heading off to the O2 in North Greenwich for the live Monty Python show. The BBC had warned staff that a demonstration would be happening outside Broadcasting House, starting at around 4.30 p.m. From our office at the front of BH we could hear a lot of noise coming from the street below, so I went up to the 7th floor balcony to see what was happening. It was a pro-Palestinian demonstration against the BBC, which protesters accuse of "anti-Palestinian bias" in its reporting of the Gaza conflict. The photo is my view of it from above at just gone 5.30 p.m.

Here is the Evening Standard's article on the protest including photos taken from ground level, in one of which you can see the balcony of Broadcasting House where I was standing.

We had to leave the building by a rear exit which was being closely guarded by many police officers, who advised us to remove our ID cards from sight as soon as we left the premises so as not to be identified as staff by protesters.

I made it to the O2 in time for the start of the Monty Python show, which was brilliant fun. Here's just one of the many photos I took of all the sketches they performed.