As a pastime it has thrilled Britons and tourists for more than a century but feeding pigeons in London’s famous Trafalgar Square is now illegal — a move that has angered bird lovers but delighted the capital’s controversial mayor.
Mayor Ken Livingstone’s new by-law came into effect on Monday after he had already banned sellers of bird feed from the square and introduced Harris hawks and megaphones to the area — measures that helped reduce the number of pigeons from 4 000 to about 200.
The moves are part of a £25-million facelift of the central London landmark, which houses Nelson’s Column and water fountains and is overlooked by the National Gallery.
Livingstone, who was elected as London’s first mayor in 2000, has labelled the square’s pigeons ”rats with wings”, claiming that the birds’ droppings have caused up to £140 000-worth of damage to the column, one of London’s most famous monuments.
Multilingual signs erected across the central London square warn visitors not to feed the cooing creatures as they ”cause nuisance and damage”.
A five-lane ring road around the square has been pedestrianised and a small alfresco café opened next to Nelson’s Column as part of Livingstone’s grand project to freshen up the area.
”The introduction of a cafeteria on the square has given it a more pleasant environment,” Livingstone, known as ”Red Ken” when he was the left-wing leader of the now-defunct Greater London Council from 1981 to 1986, said on Monday.
”None of the improvements would have worked if the square was still infested with thousands of pigeons,” he said.
London’s main square was completed in 1841 to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson’s victory against combined Spanish and French fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar, off the Spanish coast, in 1805.
The revamped square and the ban on feeding pigeons have left a number of Londoners angry.
”People all over the world come here specifically to have their photo taken feeding the pigeons,” said Rose Williams, who on Monday took part in a small-scale protest against the new law.
She was among a small group of pigeon lovers who braved pouring rain to voice anger at the legislation but neither she nor her fellow protesters dared to defy the ban, which carries a fine of up to £50 if ignored.
”I have been coming here since I was two years old,” said Williams, who turns 80 next month. ”I started coming with my father and grandfather and was coming two or three times a week until I was 75.”
Just a handful of the grey-bellied birds flew into the square on Monday in marked contrast to the thousands that used to descend daily in search of sustenance.
Nigel Lawrence, of the Pigeon Action Group, said that more than 1 000 malnourished pigeons had been taken from the square to rescue centres since Livingstone banned the sale of bird feed here in 2001.
Lawrence added that the remaining pigeons would be fed by officials appointed by the mayor’s office.
”But it is not enough for them to survive,” he lamented. — Sapa-AFP