On Saturday, 13 September 2025, I travelled to London to join friends and take part in the Tommy Robinson Unite the Kingdom and Free Speech rally.
This was an uplifting day spent with fellow patriots who shared a deep care for our United Kingdom. I had never experienced such a vast gathering before, with numbers that may well have reached 500,000.
At no point did I see any violence or unrest; instead, I felt entirely safe and comfortable among like-minded people. Ben Habib delivered a powerful and inspiring speech that is well worth watching. I was disappointed, however, to see the mainstream media misrepresent what was in truth a peaceful and positive rally.
All photos and videos in this blog were recorded by myself, except for the Ben Habib Speech.
It was at 07:45 when I left home and I made my way to Havant train station. On arrival, I was greeted by a sizeable crowd of people, many dressed in Union and England flags, already creating a lively atmosphere. By the time I had crossed the footbridge to the opposite platform, a London-bound train had just pulled in and departed, carrying away around 75% of those waiting. The station instantly felt less crowded, though the sense of expectation remained. I caught the 08:34 train and found myself seated with two ladies and a gentleman, who soon revealed that they were Advance UK members travelling up for the Rally. We chatted the whole journey, and it was clear they were excited for the day ahead as I was.
Arriving at Waterloo at 10:00, I made my way across the busy concourse towards Spoons, where I had arranged to meet an Advance UK couple who are friends of mine and who had stayed overnight in London.
Spoons was ram-packed with supporters attending the rally, flags on display and conversations clearly audible.
After hearing word that many people had started gathering at Stamford Street, we headed over and joined them.
The mood there was calm, positive, and unmistakably patriotic. Seeing so many union flags together was a wonderful sight.
As the morning went on, the crowd steadily built up, and just after 11:00 the rally began moving westwards down Stamford Street towards the iMax roundabout.
By 11:30 progress came to a halt near the iMax; where tens of thousands of people could be seen.
There I saw that the police had positioned vans across Waterloo Bridge and set up a loose cordon to block access to the marchers.
Since Waterloo Bridge was not part of the approved route, us marchers would not have and did not attempt to cross that bridge at this point.
However, I crept past the Police, and waved my flag on the other side of the barrier.
On my way back, I exchanged a few words with one of the officers, wished them well, and they mentioned that estimates put attendance around 100,000 people, an incredible number.
Just after midday we were on the move again, this time heading down York Road towards Westminster Bridge (I am front left).
The view was spectacular, with a sea of flags stretching as far as the eye could see.
Along the way, I spoke to marchers who had travelled from across the country, including some who had come all the way from Glasgow; and others had come from the Midlands.
A few canisters of blue smoke were let off to mark the occasion, adding a celebratory edge to the procession.
Passing outside the Premier Inn, the streets were absolutely packed, shoulder to shoulder with people waving flags and holding banners.
The sense of unity and scale was striking.
I had never experienced anything like this before.
By 13:30 we were approaching Big Ben, and from my viewpoint I could see people stretching both forwards and backwards as far as the eye could see.
What struck me was the cheerful mood of everyone and the bright flags contrasting the buildings.
Despite what the mainstream media reported, there were neither disturbances nor any kind of anti-social behaviour, just cheerful people making a point to this government.
Around 13:40, one bold fellow had climbed the Southbank Lion and was waving both the England flag and a wooden cross high above the crowd, to the admiration of the marchers below.
With the wind blowing strongly, it looked precarious.
I thought health and safety officials would have been horrified, but what an iconic image it made.
Once we moved onto Westminster Bridge, the sheer strength of feeling was impossible to ignore.
The atmosphere of patriotism was everywhere, and I managed to capture one of my favourite photos of the entire rally here.
It felt especially powerful to see Big Ben in all its restored glory watching over us, symbolic of the rally’s purpose: to Unite the Kingdom and to Support Free Speech.
I leaned against one of the iron security bollards to take another photo of the marchers with Big Ben rising proudly in the background. This is another of my favourite photos that captured the moment.
As we passed by Big Ben, the march began to feel hemmed in, with movement forward becoming more restricted, almost kettled.
After some time, I eventually managed to reach the area with the large screens on the other side of the river, where the speeches were being shown, and settled there to watch the event.
Ben Habib gave a very emotional speech about his, and his party's ambition to Unite the Nation, the need for real Democracy, the need for Equally Under the Law, and importantly we must regain Free Speech.
Ben also commented about Keir Starmer.
Please click on the video to see the control to view full-screen.
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Even though there was heavy rain at times, this did not dampen the enthusiasm of the supporters.
When I has seen and heard enough, I forced my way through the crowd as others were arriving and walked along Father Thames to see the London Eye again.
Getting on the Underground at Embankment, I arrived at Picadilly Circus.
Picadilly Circus is one of my favourite London Tube stations as it is close to The Crazy Coqs and The Lyric Theatre where I have seen some of my favourite artists perform.
You cannot visit London without going to Chinatown and sampling real Chinese food. My favourite restaurant is the Young Cheng, and the buffet was £16 for all you can manage.
After my evening meal, it was the underground from Picadilly Circus back to Waterloo, where I caught the Portsmouth bound train where I met another Advance UK member.
We handed out the remainder of our flyers in the train carriage. I arrived home at 20:30, after a long, worthwhile and enjoyable rally, and I felt that I had done my bit for our United Kingdom.
Later in the evening I was dismayed to see the headlines on ITV and BBC about the trouble at "the far-right rally"; the mainstream media completely misrepresented what had happened that day.