UCL occupation- Students face police inquiry after chalk graffiti damage to Grade-1-listed buildings in Gower Street

Published: 13 January 2011
by TOM FOOT

POLICE have been called in to investigate possible “criminal damage” to University College London’s buildings during the student occupation last month, the New Journal can reveal.

UCL have paid more than £5,000 to clean up chalked messages on the walls of the Grade I-listed quad buildings and Slade School of Fine Art in Gower Street.

The dozen or so messages ranged from political slogans such as “Rise Like Lions”, to more blunt criticisms of the coalition Government including “Nick Clegg is a W****r”.

One UCL student who took part in the occupation, who did not want to be named, said: “There is a long tradition of using chalk political messages so as not to damage property. That’s why chalk was used. It just washed off with water so I’m surprised the cost is so high. 

“At the end of the day they are making a big fuss.”

He added: “The messages were not something that we collectively as an occupation decided to do, but at the same time it was not something we wanted to distance ourselves from.”

The undergraduate described the sentence handed down to 22-year-old student Edward Woollard for throwing a fire extinguisher off Millbank Tower into a crowd as “clearly designed to be a deterrent”, adding: “Everyone thinks the guy’s an idiot, but the sentence was a massive overkill.”

But he said UCL students would not be shaken and that the group had already begun organising further “flash mob” demonstrations scheduled for later this month.

The UCL nine-day occupation ended on December 18 after university bosses won a possession order to reclaim the building.

The college struck a deal with two students that they would not be forced to pay £40,000 in legal costs if the occupation disbanded peacefully. 

A UCL spokesman said: “The matter is now with the police who are investigating. The intention is that if those responsible are pursued for criminal damage (and found guilty) we would seek a contribution from them.”