When Matthew Varnham travelled from his family home in Leicester to London in October last year, he had no idea what to expect. The 23-year-old law graduate had seen the sea of tents outside St Paul's Cathedral on television and although he did not know anyone there he was sure he wanted to be part of whatever it was that was happening.

"It was funny, but it felt like I had been waiting for something like this," Varnham says 12 months later. "I had wanted to get involved in a social justice movement and then this started and I felt I had to go."

Nowadays, Varnham is looking for work and researching a book, The Practical Guide to Protest. He says that although the tents and banners have gone, the Occupy movement that began in the UK outside St Paul's still takes up most of his time – and is still gathering momentum away from the media attention.

"Looking back and trying to evaluate what happened, I think it is important to recognise the scale of the task we took on – it was quite daunting. It isn't something that was going to be achieved overnight or in a couple of months, it has to be seen as a long-term thing."

Varnham says the lessons he learned about politics and justice at the Occupy St Paul's camp are a crucial part of who he is today.

"I remember it was unseasonably warm on the day I arrived and this group – I later learned they were the process working party – were sitting on the floor in a circle outside Starbucks discussing what to do next … Everyone was given an opportunity to contribute as an equal, with the diversity of views respected … it reflected a better society, where people matter, and this was inspiring."

For the first few weeks he held down a job as night manager at a luxury hotel in Mayfair, returning to the camp during the day to sleep. But he soon realised the two sides of his life were incompatible.

"I was spending a lot of the time during the night working on Occupy stuff as well as all day and it began to feel wrong – that I was protesting against the 1% during the day, but then effectively working for them at night."

The camp was eventually evicted in February amid recriminations and accusations that it had ultimately suffered from a lack of focus or purpose.

But Varnham insists the end of the camp was not the end of the ideas behind Occupy.

"Occupy is still very much alive. What happened during those weeks and months was that all sorts of different people came together to work out how to organise effectively, how to understand what was happening around them socially and financially, and how to do something about it.

"The connections and lessons learned during that time have formed a network of people and groups that are becoming increasingly active – mostly below the media radar."

Varnham points to strong links between veterans of the Occupy movement and similar groups across Europe, with activists attending meetings in the past few months in Athens, London and Madrid.

Occupy campaigners have also been involved in smaller-scale campaigns around the UK, such as that at Friern Barnet library, where they have worked with local residents to fight against its proposed closure. And Occupy campaigners are taking a leading role in the City Reform Group, set up to examine the governance structures in the City of London.

"A whole host of things are going on away from the glare of the media and this is likely to gather momentum in the new year," says Varnham.

"Obviously we are not getting the level of attention we were during the occupation outside St Paul's, but it would be a mistake to think the end of the camp was in any way the end of the movement."

But looking back now to the freezing nights and days in the media spotlight, does Varnham think the Occupy movement will ever have the same impact again?

"The legacy of Occupy will ultimately depend on the confidence of ordinary people to assert that enough is enough – the movement need only continue the conversation, encouraging others to help lead the way."