Anti-immigration demonstrators and counter protesters are gathering
Daniel Clark Content Editor
13:10, 05 Oct 2025
Anti-immigration demonstrators and counter protesters are gathering in Bristol city centre as police attempt to keep the two sides apart.
Campaigners are gathering at the Cenotaph in Bristol and have expressed their intention to march through The Centre to College Green against immigration.
However, a large group of counter-protesters have said they intend to oppose the protest and are gathering near the Cenotaph too. Follow updates from the scene in our live blog here.
Up at the Cenotaph, a group of around 40 anti-immigration protesters have arrived two hours early and are occupying the area police have fenced off for them.
Counter protesters gather in Bristol (Image: Paul Gillis/BristolLive)
Avon and Somerset police have drawn up an elaborate plan to try to keep the two sides apart and warned that people who don’t enter one of the four different ‘protest zones’ could be arrested or ordered to disperse.
But a police officer reading out the powers declaring the area not part of the designated zone, warning protesters they could be arrested, was drowned out
Police read out powers declaring areas and designated zones (Image: Tristan Cork/BristolLive)
At The Centre, the numbers of counter protesters has swollen massively to more than 300. Police have parked four police vans in an arc.
A small group of masked counter protesters gathered then across the road outside the Hippodrome but were forcibly moved across the road to the area of the main protest.
Police riders have stopped traffic now on Baldwin Street as the number of people at the scene increases. There have already been minor skirmishes between officers and counter protesters.
Police close road (Image: Tristan Cork/ BristolLive )
Ahead of the protest and counter protest, Bristol City Council leader Tony Dyer called for unity and calm while three of the city centre arts venues have released a joint statement condemning racists and offering their venues as a ‘safe space’ for people to take refuge.
Previous protests of this nature in the past two months in Bristol have seen large numbers of counter-protesters come out to oppose the anti-immigration protest, with local councillors complaining of aggressive and violent police tactics to deal with them.