The one-dimensional city

On the day that Occupy London's appeal against the eviction order from its St Paul's encampment was rejected in the UK Court of Appeal, a spokesman for the Corporation of the City of London summed up the problem: ‘Peaceful protest is a democratic right but the camp is clearly in breach of highway and planning law.’ The bathos of the statement is to the point: democratic principle is one thing, but the city's obligation to keep the highway clear cannot be gainsaid. The agonism of protest is quieted by the anaesthetic of the by-law.