Two Greenpeace activists started climbing Nelson’s Column at 4am to demand action on air pollution. Alison Garrigan (29) and Luke Jones (30) fit the statue of Admiral Lord Nelson, towering 52 metres above Trafalgar Square, with an emergency face mask.
A separate Greenpeace team eluded security and climbed over the fence around the Houses of Parliament to put another mask on Oliver Cromwell’s statue. Famous statues of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, Queen Victoria opposite Buckingham Palace and Eros at Piccadilly Circus, have also been given protection against London’s dirty air by environmental activists.