The London riots, what do you remember 10 years on?

[54321nought]

I was teaching in London then. Mostly I remember the drip drip drip drip as days and weeks and months later, students were arrested and charged, and some never returned to school. The crime rate went down, it was the safest it had ever been locally for a long time. I also remember the smell of smoke that lasted weeks

and I remember the stream of stolen property flowing through the school, and the constant warnings that anyone who handled it would be slowly and inexorably identified and arrested, and they were

I remember shops being boarded up and men standing in front of the shops that were open. It was unnerving.

A friend of mine was a Duty Solicitor in Brixton at the time. In his off time, he cycled around Brixton documenting looting. Very interesting.

I was supposed to be packing for a holiday but instead I watched Croydon burning on the TV
Our local high st was also looted

Nothing. I had a long, difficult labour and missed it all!

I'm more concerned about it happening again in the future. Public trust in the police is rock bottom, unemployment among young people high and youth services non existent. It only takes one (more) incident for it to start again.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jul/30/conditions-2011-uk-riots-still-exist-today-experts-warn

I was at work near Greenwich at the time. The atmosphere over the afternoon had turned feral- some customers had seen a huge group of youths with balaclavas on, brandishing hammers and baseball bats. We quickly shut up shop on got the f out of there.

On my ride a few miles home I was passed by a convoy of those hummer type riot trucks, about 20 of them heading for central London.

Made it home to my heavily pregnant partner and felt very worried. Got in and double locked the doors. We were only a mile or so from Peckham high street where it kicked off badly- it was surreal to be watching the news as the helicopter they were filming from was visible from my front window. Scary times.

I was working in retail at the time. Talked to colleagues in stores that were looted who completely pooh poohed the idea that these were food riots. It was all electrical goods, clothes and booze that was taken first.

I remember friends who lived in Clapham saying they could see parents dropping off their kids from 4x4s to go looting.

Remember it well. Mead house sitting in north london. Barricaded the door and put valuables in suitcase in garden shed.
Next night I was home in central London as the riots were moving across Lambeth and rumours of trouble coming across bridges. Barricaded my door here. Both places there was noise/stuff going on on my streets.

DH was in Met police at the time. We had just gone to Northumbria on holiday, totally serene surroundings, we were going to my parents after. It was surreal to see it on the news. When they said all police leave was being cancelled, DH reached over and switched his phone off. As it goes he wasn't called in. I worked in prisons at the time, phenomenal work was done across criminal justice to process unprecedented numbers of offenders. Courts and prisons working through the night.

Shops and houses boarded up. Loads of police on the streets.

@bakingdemon

I was working in retail at the time. Talked to colleagues in stores that were looted who completely pooh poohed the idea that these were food riots. It was all electrical goods, clothes and booze that was taken first.

I remember friends who lived in Clapham saying they could see parents dropping off their kids from 4x4s to go looting.

Hair supply places and a shop selling party supplies were among the prized locations for looting in my neck of the woods.

@Namechangeforthis88

DH was in Met police at the time. We had just gone to Northumbria on holiday, totally serene surroundings, we were going to my parents after. It was surreal to see it on the news. When they said all police leave was being cancelled, DH reached over and switched his phone off. As it goes he wasn't called in. I worked in prisons at the time, phenomenal work was done across criminal justice to process unprecedented numbers of offenders. Courts and prisons working through the night.

This is the other side of what I saw then, students arrested weeks or months later, it didn't stop.

What was interesting was the response to the rioting, the same criminals rioting in Belfast, a part of the UK would be met with armoured vehicles, plastic bullets and water cannons, the question remains why not in London?

I remember trying to plot and time my route home from the office (part on foot and part on bicycle). Riots were happening in all of the areas I would normally pass through.

I did manage to avoid getting caught up in any of it by taking several different routes home over the course of several days. On all of these routes, the mobile phone stores and the shops selling trainers had been cleaned out. One of them had been burned out as well.

I don’t remember them at all. Was quite puzzled when they mentioned it on the news this morning

I was in my house alone, rest of family away, just off the High Street. We had scaffolding up and it was visible from the high street. I was worried it might attract trouble and signed up to Twitter to keep an eye on whether any looters were coming to our area. I don't think there was any trouble near me in the end.

I was also on jury duty at the time, spent most of the two weeks being sent home early but finally sworn in at the end of one day. The next day we turned up and went in to court to be told by the judge that the trial was going to be delayed as the court had to deal with looters instead. We were sent home and that was it.

Wow, 10 years! We were living between Mare Street and Tottenham and my most vivid memory is all the media and police helicopters hovering and circling my back garden. I was working in Highgate so drove rather than take the bus and felt incredibly lucky not to witness anything at all.

@changes50

What was interesting was the response to the rioting, the same criminals rioting in Belfast, a part of the UK would be met with armoured vehicles, plastic bullets and water cannons, the question remains why not in London?

we probably didn't have anything like that to hand! A couple of water cannons were bought after, but then sold again without having been used

I remember a black kid getting a really harsh punishment for nicking a bottle of water while a white kid got sod all for nicking something worth £££

I remember the terrible mishandling of the death of Mark duggan by the met which sparked it.

I was a police officer based in West London. I just remember very very long shifts & driving into North London which looked like a war zone.

I remember this woman telling rioters off, I thought she was brave.

I flew to Chicago the day after and it was interesting to see how it was reported in the US press.

I remember arriving at our hone station with 4 year old DS and walking up a boarded up high street with the riot police on one side and Millwall and Charlton football supporters on the other.

The football supporters were protecting the high street apparently. DS and I walked up the middle of the road between them with the football supporters chanting at the police and trying to wind them up. DS asked for weeks what certain rude words meant.

And then at work my new team member asking to delay his start date as he was a special and had been asked to come and do a full week of shifts.

I was watching in the news and following the MN thread, as one of the centres of destruction was very close to where I used to live. So strange to see it all unfold in streets I knew so well.

And then the clean up squad the following day, when the community came together pretty spontaneously with brooms and binbags and started to out it right

I was at a conference in Paris. It was all very surreal, relying mostly on the internet and the French news. Lots of conversations with European and American colleagues about it.