   the poll tax riots were a series of riots in british towns and cities during protests against the poll tax (officially known as the "community charge"), introduced by the conservative government led by prime minister margaret thatcher. the largest protest occurred in central london on saturday, 31 march 1990, shortly before the tax was due to come into force in england and wales. the disorder in london arose from a morning demonstration which became a violent confrontation between the metropolitan police service (mps), protesters and other activist demonstrators, which ended in rampaging and looting until 3 a.m.  ==1989== in november 1989 the all britain anti-poll tax federation (the fed) was set up largely by the trotskyist militant tendency as a national body which included many anti-poll tax unions. the committee called a demonstration in london for 31 march 1990, the saturday before poll tax implementation in england and wales, having been introduced in scotland a year earlier. three days before the event, organisers realised the march would be larger than 60,000 (the capacity of trafalgar square) and asked permission from the mps and the department of the environment to divert the march to hyde park. the request was deniedchannel 4 critical eye documentary, "battle of trafalgar", 9 july 1990, despite tv on the basis that the policing had been arranged for trafalgar square and there was no time to re-plan it. a building site on trafalgar square with easily accessible supplies of bricks and scaffolding was left largely unsecured while the police set up their centre of operations on the other side of the square. in the days before the demonstration two "feeder" marches had followed the routes of the two mob armies of the peasants' revolt of 1381. these arrived at kennington park in south london on 31 march.  ==events of the day==  on 31 march 1990, people began gathering in kennington park from 12pm. turnout was encouraged by fine weather, and between 180,000 and 250,000 arrived. the police report, a year after the riot, suggested close to 200,000. an abandoned rally by the labour party may also have contributed to the number of protesters. the march began at kennington park at 1:30pm, moving faster than planned because some of the crowd had forced open the gates of the park, presumably in order to avoid being forced through smaller gates. this spilt the march over both sides of the road, and continued in mu
1990_in_England 1990_in_London 1990_in_the_United_Kingdom 1990_riots Civil_disobedience Protests_in_the_United_Kingdom Riots_in_London