Occupy Edinburgh

Occupy Edinburgh was a protest against economic and social inequality as part of the global Occupy movement.

The "occupation" began with the erection of a number of tents in St. Andrew Square on 14 October 2011. The site was chosen because St. Andrews Square is the historic centre of the Edinburgh's financial sector and location of the head branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland, which was partly nationalised in 2008 following its role in the global financial crisis.

Journalist Peter Geoghegan visited St. Andrews Square on the second day of its occupation and described the participants: "A large number of the 200-odd people on St Andrew's Square were old stagers from the trade union movement or leftist political parties, but just as many were unaffiliated, concerned citizens angry at an economic system that seems to benefit the status quo and a party political structure is aloof, unresponsive and in hock to big business."

On the night of 24 November 2011, Edinburgh City Council became the first governmental body in the world to grant both the Occupy Edinburgh and the worldwide Occupy Movement official recognition.

On 24 December Occupy Edinburgh activists raised a pirate flag above the nearby RBS Head Branch, claiming it was "it was the work of santa".

The group was urged to leave the site by Essential Edinburgh, the business group that manages St. Andrews Square, and the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber's deputy chief executive, Graham Birse, said: "We did not spend all that public money for St Andrew Square to become a campsite for those with nowhere else to go." On 30 January the group relocated to The Meadows, a park within Edinburgh, before leaving this site a couple of weeks later ahead of a legal bid to have them evicted by the City Council.

The occupation of St. Andrews Square lasted 108 days.