In photos: Just Stop Oil’s final protest on the streets of London

Orange-clad demonstrators rallied from St James’s Park to Waterloo, holding signs and occasionally blocking roads.

For the last three years, the climate group has made headlines for its controversial direct action protests, which included throwing soup at Van Gogh paintings in the National Gallery, spraying Stonehenge with orange powder paint and bringing part of the M25 to a standstill for four successive days. The group claims that more than 3,300 people have been arrested for their cause, as well as 180 jailed – their website stating that ‘eleven people are in prison right now for doing everything they can to limit climate catastrophe’. 

In an official statement shared last month, the group said: ‘Just Stop Oil’s initial demand to end new oil and gas is now government policy, making us one of the most successful civil resistance campaigns in recent history. We’ve kept over 4.4 billion barrels of oil in the ground and the courts have ruled new oil and gas licences unlawful.’

The claimed victory comes as the Labour government said it will not issue licences for new oil and gas exploration. However, the BBC reported that some members of Just Stop Oil admitted that new powers on policing disruptive protests ‘made it almost impossible for groups like it to operate’.

Time Out sent photographer Jamie Bellinger down to the protest in central London to speak to Just Stop Oil campaigners and capture all of the action on the ground. Check out the photos of the day below. 

‘We know for certain that we are heading down this dangerous path of climate breakdown and action needs to be taken, but isn’t being taken,’ said Marley, an activist on the march, to Time Out.

‘So I absolutely defend anyone’s rights to step out and make a scene. Just as we celebrate the Suffragettes, just as we celebrate the Civil Rights Movement and Nelson Mandela and anti-apartheid movements throughout history, we absolutely should celebrate this campaign.’  

One marcher, who didn’t want to be named, said: ‘As a young person, I’m very concerned about my future. Just Stop Oil has achieved a huge level of public awareness being brought to this issue. At the moment, this seems to be the most effective way forward.’  

Another added: ‘I’m here to meet and remember friends that I wouldn’t have met without being involved with this. And to remind people that it does work – we’re constantly fighting against the denialism backlash that seems to be building. And that is really worrying’.  

Addressing the crowd at the end of the march outside of the Shell headquarters in Jubilee Gardens, Just Stop Oil activist Chloe Naldrett said: ‘It has not been perfect. The nature of this work is that we don’t know the answers. So we try things, some work, some fail. So we evolve. We learn.

‘We reshape ourselves again in response to the times we live in. We regroup, we plan, we form new alliances and we rise again. Because this group of gardeners, GPs, social workers, teachers, electricians, students, artists, farmers, civil servants, and nurses will never give up responding to the truth. We will see each other here again.’