Climate campers descend on Barclays Wharf HQ

The group travelled up at 2.30pm from the climate camp, which has been pitched in Blackheath since Wednesday. They filed out of Canary Wharf DLR station at 3.30pm and made their way past bemused mall shoppers to the foyer of One Canada Square, where they unveiled a banner saying, "Stop climate killer coal".

"Hello Canary Wharf. We're here", yelled a protester with a megaphone as the crowd pushed against the West Desk security gates. Canary Wharf security guards flocked to the tower's reception area, but the group then moved off to the Reuters Plaza screen before heading past the Citi headquarters and making their way towards the Barclays tower itself.

The gathering attracted several curious parties on its way from Blackheath.

One woman said: "It was a complete fluke that I joined in today.

"I was meeting a friend in Greenwich, and I saw the climate camp people travelling past. I figured that I believe in the issue, and I wasn't doing anything else today."

As a small cluster of police and security posted themselves near the main entrance, protesters chanted slogans such as "More Future, Less Capitalism", and played football in the drop-off point outside. While several showed a deft touch with the ball, some wild punts sent it hurtling into the massed crowd, bouncing down onto the heads of other participants.

Activists handed out leaflets detailing Barclays' links to coal-related industries such as E-On and Alliant, and in arms-related companies such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Thales. The issue will be raised again when the DSEi arms fair arrives at Excel on September 8.

Sophie Williams told The Wharf that "Barclays' green corporate image was not borne out by its investments".

She said: "If Barclays was serious about wanting to create a better, greener world, it should de-invest from projects with E-On, and those with Lockheed Martin that are producing bombs that kill babies."

Ms Williams added that police interference in the protest had been "very minimal".

She said: "Even a year ago, there's no way we would have been able to have a banner here and to be doing this."

Sticky notes were handed out to the gathering, which were then used to paste slogans around the entrance such as "Invest in Life! Not Death", "We Are The Compassion You Lack" and "Yuppy (sic) Scum".

Former City financial services worker Charlie Veitch hollered at Barclays employees peering from the windows using a megaphone, urging them to "step outside, take your suit off, come out naked, and we will hug you".

Mr Veitch told The Wharf that "we are reaching a phase of the world where human consciousness is changing".

He said: "You can't change the psychopaths in big business, but you can shame them enough to change their ways. People like us need to be the example."

The group then made their way past the East Wintergarden to Heron Quays, where they briefly blocked traffic on both sides of the road before returning to Heron Quays DLR at around 4.30pm.

Barclays issued a statement to The Wharf this afternoon saying it prefers to take a "case-by-case" basis, "taking into account the social and environmental risks and issues that are relevant".

It said: "We do not boycott whole sectors, which would be impractical given that many of our larger corporate customers are multifaceted groups involved in many different types of business which are subject to sudden change according to shifts in markets, mergers or acquisitions.

"In short, we do not ring fence ethics in one central policy, but aim to include an ethical dimension in all our decision making and sanctioning procedures across our organisation. This is an integral part of our risk assessment process and contributes to the final decision to proceed or decline.

"Our asset management business, Barclays Global Investors, offers their institutional clients a number of socially and environmentally responsible products and should a client wish to apply specified ethical criteria to their portfolio we will comply with their requirements."