St Paul's campers: We're comfy and preparing to dig in

Londoners were today warned that a new anti-capitalist "tent city" outside St Paul's Cathedral could be in place until the New Year.

Police said they were preparing for a long-term protest by demonstrators who have set up the makeshift camp in the City.

As the protest entered its third day, the Canon Chancellor of St Paul's appealed to campers to allow the "daily life" of the cathedral to go ahead without interruption.

St Paul's owns Paternoster Square, around which the camp has been set up. The Rt Rev Graeme Paul Knowles said the church needed to be allowed to operate "as normally as possible" and for all people "to be respectful of this need".

Activist Sophia Samra, 23, from Harrow, said: "People are going to stay as long as it takes. We are getting comfy and are prepared to dig in. We are totally prepared for it.

"We have a kitchen and classes and everyone is sharing food."

Activists set up the camp on Saturday after police blocked about 2,000 protesters from entering an area around the London Stock Exchange.
Eight people were arrested for public order offences and assaulting police. Six were charged.

The event coincided with similar protests, inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York, which took place all over the world this weekend and led to violence in Rome.

Today St Paul's protesters came face to face with City workers travelling to work but there were no clashes. Activists have set up kitchen and recycling facilities outside St Paul's as well as a "media area" powered by two generators. Volunteers cooked breakfast on two portable stoves.

The demonstrators told the Standard that they were willing to stay at the site until December or even into the New Year if allowed. One protester said: "We are in it for the long run.

The police have no jurisdiction here and the church likes us." Police said they were preparing for a low-key policing operation if the protest stayed peaceful.

One source said: "They are on private property so if the church is happy for them to be there there is nothing we can do. We are talking to the protesters and the cathedral."

Local businesses, including a number of major coffee chains, were said to be doing a roaring trade. A nearby branch of Blacks was said to have sold out of tents.

There was even some support for the protest from City workers today.

Heather Athie, 27, a business manager from Dalston, said: "Generally speaking I would agree with Occupy London Stock Exchange. I think it has been interesting the way it has happened in other countries. Overall I agree with the message but I have got to pay my rent too. We work in a system that is based on capitalism."

Simon Kirby, 31, a stockbroker from Southend, said: "I think some of their comments up on the walls are about right, they make some really good points. It is a reaction to everything that is going on."

Corie Walton, 26, a receptionist from Island Gardens, east London, said: "I think good on them. St Paul's Cathedral is an interesting place to protest but they are going to get noticed. I don't have a problem with them being here, they are doing it for a good cause and are not doing anything wrong."

Meanwhile it emerged that one of the protesters had quit his job as a teacher in the state sector to move to Saudi Arabia to teach in a private school run by the Saudi royal family.

English teacher Samuel Mack-Poole, 26, said he had quit his job at a comprehensive school in Kent to take up a position at a school in the oil-rich Gulf.

The married father of a two-year-old daughter revealed to the Standard he has recently converted to Islam and will take up his new job in the next two weeks.

He said: "I quit my job as I was a bit sick of the State education system and thought I would see what my options were. I looked around and did some supply work and a job in Saudi came up.

"Unfortunately it is for the Saudi royal family. I would like to work for a charity [but] I have a mortgage to pay and a wife and child and responsibility."

A London student told today how she was camping outside St Paul's despite only moving into a new flat the previous day.

Noora Devrede, 23, joined the demonstrators who slept in tents last night. The post-graduate student at the School of Oriental and African Studies plans to go to her lectures during the day and stay in a tent at night.

She said she had moved into her new flat on the Holloway Road over the weekend.

She said: "I moved in and said to my flat mates I was just about to leave for the demonstration. They looked at me as if to say 'really?'.

"It is an exciting time to be part of this movement of people who are coming together for a safe and peaceful protest."