Image © Will Pearson

Trafalgar Square is world-renowned, in a large part for its pigeons, and people came from all over the world to feed them, and be photographed covered in these feathered Londoners. An idyllic scene, but one that the then Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone was determined to eradicate. He claimed that the birds posed a health risk, and that their unsightly droppings damaged stonework. He was also keen to open a cafeteria as part of the regeneration of Trafalgar Square, and the pigeons didn’t quite fit with this plan.

So, starting in 2000, Mayor Ken started a campaign to eradicate the pigeons or the “rats with wings” as he terms them. At that time, some 4,000 pigeons would gather at the square awaiting the tourists buying 30p cups of grain from Bernie Rayner, whose family had been selling pigeon food in the square since 1948.

In February 2001, the Mayor revoked Rayner’s licence to sell the feed, hoping that by cutting off of their food source, the pigeon population would be dramatically reduced. This technique failed and so a Harris hawk was employed to ’scare the pigeons away’. This hasn’t been quite the case however, as it seems that hawks are not so good at distinguishing between ’scaring’ and ’slaughtering’. 121 pigeons were killed on the bird of prey’s daily swoop in the three years between 2003-6. At a cost of nearly £300,000.

Save the Trafalgar Square Pigeons (STTSP) was set up in 2000 when the anti-pigeon campaign began. The group claimed that methods which weren’t cruel could be employed to reduce numbers, with food gradually being reduced to encourage them to forage elsewhere without actually starving the birds to death. The Mayor and the GLA initially agreed to a plan along these lines with feeding at 7.30am each day (which reduced the numbers to around 200), but then rescinded the agreement and banned feeding altogether.

In 2003, Livingstone made it illegal to feed the pigeons. Feeders would face prosecution and a £50 fine under a new by-law. However, STTSP were able to circumvent the new law, as part of the area did not come under the Trafalgar Square remit (controlled instead by Westminster City Council).

The pro-pigeon groups claimed that the Mayor was now aiming for wholesale starvation. There were also incidents reported of the birds being cannoned with high-pressure hoses and swept up into industrial hoovers whilst still alive. In September 2007 further by-laws were implemented, and the fine increased from £50 to £500.

The pigeons are definitely controversial, with many adhering to Ken Livingstone’s “rats with wings” school of thought, seeing them as a nuisance, a heath risk and unsightly. Others miss the pigeons, who were for so many years an integral part of Trafalgar Square, and one of London’s greatest free (or at least cheap, at 30p!) attractions.

To see a virtual tour of Trafalgar Square before the great pigeon purge, please click here.

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Tags: hawk, ken livingstone, mayor, pigeons, Trafalgar Square

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 10:01 am and is filed under London History & Information, London Landmarks, London Squares, Trafalgar Square. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.