Aldermaston March, Trafalgar Square

This colour photograph shows the first Aldermaston March assembly at Trafalgar Square on the 4th of April 1958, where protestors gathered to walk the 52 miles to Aldermaston over four days in protest against the use of nuclear weapons. Taken by Ted Richards, a 19-year old Australian photographer backpacking around Europe at the time, the slightly elevated vantage point of the photograph (probably as seen from the steps of the National Gallery) brings into focus the large number of people gathered in the square (estimated at 8000) and offers a clear view across the crowd towards the activists and banners at the base of Nelson's Column. The Aldermaston March is known to be the first expression of mass protest after the Second World War and marked the start of multiple decades of organised campaigning for nuclear disarmament.