Easter Monday 1962: CND march reaches Trafalgar Square
At Easter 1962(Monday 23rd April) CND held the fifth of its annual Spring marches. The first had gone to Aldermaston from London but subsequent ones including this one reversed the direction.
Easter was chosen in part because of religious symbolism and numbers of Church leaders were connected with CND at this point. The cause of nuclear disarmament (not to speak of departure from NATO which became CND policy in 1960 but was rarely a campaign focus) had by this stage become central to discussion in the Labour Party..
While historians myself included usually date the rise of large and very large demonstrations in London from 1968, the 1962 march had gathered around 80,000 people by the time it reached central London.
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