One sees the signs of the surveillance society everywhere one looks in London. This pre-dates 9.11 but has magnified dramatically since then. Here is a 2002 era poster:

Here is an even more sinister appearing poster I found yesterday upon leaving Sunday Roast at The Green:

Watch Your Neighbour

Seems this is a popular poster to photograph, as a Google search turns up these other images:

Watch Your Neighbour

Turns out this was just a clever guerilla marketing campaign for the Australian soap opera “Neighbours” which moved from the BBC to Channel Five. Oh well.

London is a very monitored city.  In the Greater London area there are literally millions of CCTV cameras, all either controlled by the authorities or available at their beckoned call.  Here’s a shot from Oxford Circus:

Oxford Square cameras

The pole to the right houses a camera in that globe.  This is a common sight on London street corners, you often see clusters of these robotic cameras in one place.  A careful look inside the decorative spheres reveals that they, too, house cameras:

Oxford Circus cameras

In the subways, both pedestrian and tubes, they are on every stairway, escalator, hallway, platform and plaza.  Everywhere you go you are being watched, recorded sampled, and biometrically profiled.  All in the name of counter terrorism.

Do I feel safe?  Yes.  Do I feel violated?  You bet.