Public sector strike: march and picket lines in SE1

Striking lecturers from London South Bank University were joined on Thursday morning by teaching staff from elsewhere, including Kingston University, for a gathering in Ontario Street at Elephant & Castle.

More than 80 set off on a march by way of St George's Circus and Waterloo Road to join the national rally in Lincoln's Inn Fields.

There were cheers of solidarity as they passed Public & Commercial Services Union pickets outside the Department of Health's Wellington House building.

Slogan sheets specially printed for the SE1 marchers included the chants:

Stop your sell-offs
And pensions hikes
Then shove off
On a Boris bike.

Cameron and Clegg
You've got it wrong
Your demise
Won't be long!

Meanwhile a picket was being maintained at Southwark College's Waterloo centre in The Cut.

There was a brief strike presence outside Palestra in the morning but pickets at the Crown Prosection Service in Southwark Bridge Road and HM Revenue & Customs in Upper Ground failed to materialise.

Court sittings at Inner London Crown Court and Southwark Crown Court were disrupted during the strike action.

There was also a picket line outside the Equalities and Human Rights Commission in Tooley Street.

In Lambeth Road police officers were drafted in to answer 999 calls at the Met's central communications command as the civilian call handlers were on strike.

SE1 primary schools closed on Thursday included Boutcher Primary School, Charles Dickens Primary School, Grange Primary School, Snowsfields Primary School and St George's Cathedral Primary School.

St Joseph's Catholic Primary School and Tower Bridge Primary School remained partially open.

St Saviour's & St Olave's Girls' School and London Nautical School were both closed.

Globe Academy remained open for some secondary school pupils but the primary school was shut. Walworth Academy was open as usual.