I'm told by my daughter (she has several friends who are musicians) that buskers are no longer allowed in our town centre and in some cases are having their instruments confiscated.
It is absolutely ridiculous that in some areas young people are prevented from assembling in groups of more than four - and disgusting that being homeless may give you a criminal record.
What is also very worrying is the increasing privatisation of formerly public spaces - which is happening a lot in central London. Quite large areas are policed by private security people who can remove people for, for instance, taking photographs, protesting, preaching, being filmed or filming, taking part in street performance and pavement art, etc. There are dozens of large privately owned so-called public spaces, including Broadgate, Canary Wharf, King's Cross Central, The Olympic Park, Paternoster Square, Tower Bridge, etc., etc.
This article in the Guardian warns against the growing number of privatised public spaces and the writer suggests that such spaces can become sterile and limit creativity and natural human communications.
www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/aug/04/pops-privately-owned-public-space-cities-direct-action