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Twenty years ago a protest against what had been dubbed the poll tax erupted in violence and led to rioting that could be heard in nearby Downing Street. Some of those who were there remember the day's events.

The rioting in central London on 31 March, 1990, was not the first demonstration against the so-called poll tax to end in violence. In the weeks beforehand a number of protests around the country had culminated in violent skirmishes.

But the riot that turned London's Trafalgar Square, a top tourism spot, into a battleground between police and protesters came to be seen by many as the fatal blow for the government's community charge.

A central policy of the Conservative Party's winning 1987 general election manifesto, the charge, which replaced the old rates system, was levied on individuals rather than properties. It was supposed to increase accountability. But its introduction met with fierce resistance among some sections of the public.

In the London poll tax riots, up to 3,000 of the 70,000 demonstrators turned on police, attacking them with bricks, bottles and scaffolding poles, and 340 were arrested. Of 113 people injured, 45 were police.

By the end of the year, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had been forced to step down. She was replaced by John Major who scrapped the charge in favour of the council tax that continues today.

Insp Tanner was in charge of the 20-strong team of mounted officers whose charge across Trafalgar Square under a hail of missiles became one of the most replayed incidents of the riot.

The officer, now retired, recalls following a mass of demonstrators into the square:

"There was an angry noise. You could sense the tension. A building was on fire and officers on the ground were trying to sort out scuffles, linking arms and looking frightened.

"It was not a good situation."

The order came to clear the Northumberland Avenue side of the square to allow fire crews access to the burning building.

"We weren't cantering all-out, we were trying to push the crowd away," says the 54-year-old, now a web manager from Ashford, Kent.

However, one horse turned sideways and knocked over a demonstrator. TV footage showed her being picked up by fellow protesters and reports suggested she was shocked but not badly harmed.

"We tried to trace her afterwards but never managed," says Mr Tanner.

As the officers advanced, they were pelted with bricks. One injured Mr Tanner's hand, another tore a chunk from the flank of his horse, Keswick.

"I couldn't shake hands for about six months," he recalls, adding that other officers suffered psychologically afterwards.

For six hours after the crowds had dispersed from Trafalgar Square, mounted police "chased incidents" around central London.

"We were exhausted by the end. None of us had ever seen or experienced anything like it," he adds.