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Barriers / Privately Owned Public Space, London

Privately owned public space becomes visible when it is threatened. This barricade around Paternoster Square in London, with its notice, was quickly erected when Occupy London tried to reclaim the privately owned square. The protestors ended up camping adjacent to the square outside St Pauls cathedral. Customers who wanted to access the square's bars and restaurants had to sign-in with private security guards who controlled the square's points of entry.

 

The square is owned by the Mitsubishi Estate Co.