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

I didn't usually go out at night, but came back through seven sisters at midnight the first night of the riots. The disturbance was further up but there were police vans abandoned there with the doors open, all their equipment was on display, I worried something was really wrong.

We lived on the main road and heard sirens for hours in the early hours. Then got up and checked the news to find it was so about 1.5 miles up our road.

The third night I was sure it was over and went out with a friend. I came back alone walking down the mainroad and could see someone trying to kick in the doors of the shops. I wasn't sure if I should stop to call the police, but then a black car (plain clothed police sort of cruised up to me, I looked at them and they looked at me then I hurried the few hundred metres home).

The sirens went on and on in the evenings and afterwards when things had calmed down there was a child in the playground singing siren noises, it was like he was getting it out of his system.

@ShowOfHands

I was 8 months pregnant and police officer DH got the call at midnight to kit up and report for duty. He was gone for 9 days and I had zero contact with him. He worked 20hr shifts and came back a stone lighter and bloody knackered. He was also covered in flea bites due to their terrible emergency accommodation.

This is the bit we didn't and don't hear about.

I think there needs to be more publicity about this side of the job.

I hope your DH, his colleagues and any other police officers here who faced this are ok now. That must have been horrendous for you and your families.

I remember leaving after it had all kicked off to spend a long weekend in Stockholm. And just being depressed at how much better it was there; more civilised, educated, healthy people, going about their business in a clean, attractive city. The people there felt like a different species.

@roarfeckingroarr

I lived by Clapham Junction and remember marauding hordes of young men and vast looting - notably only Waterstones survived untouched. Funny that. It was scary to be in the midst.

Waterstones and Jamie Oliver’s cook shop (recipease?) were the ONLY shops of the entire stretch from Clapham junction to Northcote road that didn’t get looted

Even the charity shops were robbed
And the bloke who owned Oliver Bonas* went to check on his shop on Northcote road and was set upon, and was all over the news with black eyes

*who ended up being the bloke married to Matt Hancock’s mistress

I was living not far from Clapham Junction at the time. Nothing came down our residential road, but we could hear the sirens and see the broken glass and burning for days.

I went out as one of the Broom Army and was part of sweeping up the high street up towards Clapham Junction. I remember wondering what kinds of idiots loot a party store bare of masks and costumes.

@Sparechange that's a fabulous random connection

Pictures of buildings burning..businesses gone just like that.

Then the story of the 3 men killed in Birmingham? One man went to help and then saw it was his son. Then the speech he gave after. So sad.

I remember crying my eyes out watching people destroy their neighbourhoods, while mine had been destroyed by an earthquake. But at the same time, understanding the level of frustration and anger that had reached boiling over point.

I remember sitting in the leafy green London suburbs and there was nothing going on at all. I went to work in central London, I collected kids from school and apart from the TV, saw nothing.
That was the day I realised London is sadly a tale of two cities in terms of poverty. It also felt like some areas of central London were policed more than others. There were few (any?) riots in Mayfair or the City.

I remember living in York at the time when my son came to me and said there was a fb group that wanted to do the same as in London (we’d been following it on the news)
I remember saying that none of mine where going out for the next few nights and they fully agreed with me-they where mates with some of the people who where ‘fucking up for that’
We lived about ten minutes from the city centre so we battened down the hatches and held our breath

Nothing happened-the police got wind of it and stamped it out

A mate of mine had to go to London (can’t remember why) and she said she drove so close that she could have touched them
She said they where just grabbing at anything and setting fires for the sheer hell of it

Going to my MIL’s funeral in Tottenham on day 2 of the riots and them assuring us we would be safe in the building as they had increased security but not to park our car anywhere outside of the crematorium grounds.

My ex was a PC in the met. All leave was cancelled and he missed a holiday. Didn't see him much at all for a few weeks. A few of his colleagues were injured. It was a worrying time as there was so much hatred towards the police.

@BuffySummersReportingforSanity

I was living not far from Clapham Junction at the time. Nothing came down our residential road, but we could hear the sirens and see the broken glass and burning for days.

I went out as one of the Broom Army and was part of sweeping up the high street up towards Clapham Junction. I remember wondering what kinds of idiots loot a party store bare of masks and costumes.

I was living in Clapham at the time, too. You can see my post about the party supply shop being raided - it was so that the looters could use them for disguises.

The people who owned the shop are friends of a friend. They were absolutely devastated by what had happened. Clapham High Street was carnage.

I remember the Croydon fire at the furniture store, too. Family business and it all went up in the smoke. And the poor people who lived in flats who had to jump to safety. Heartbreaking.

I remember thinking just how tragic it was that so many of these young men were about to see their entire futures go up in flames. It was pure chaos. My worry is that something similar could happen again and this time perhaps even far worse.

I was living in Balham and following it all on Twitter. Then-DP and I thought it might spill down to our neck of the woods but apart from one litter bin fire, nothing happened. We could hear more sirens than usual and there were helicopters out, I think.

We live in the far north so I don’t have any first hand experience but BIL is a policeman and they got bussed down there with no notice to the point where they had to stop at Matalan to buy underwear and socks! To be fair he had a ball and made a killing in overtime!

I was in a quiet part of Wandsworth, so although quite close to it geographically (Clapham Junction), felt relatively protected. DH (then just a boyfriend) was in his flat right by Clapham South and felt much more exposed. I think we just texted and called each other a lot! It was very scary.

I remember watching it on tv and feeling very relieved that I didn’t live in London any more. And feeling very angry and sad. And the picture of Reeves going up in the flames, and that poor woman having to leap out of her window to escape the fire. Just awful.

I can understand the anger that sparked it all off, but it seemed to so quickly devolve into people grabbing massive TVs and trainers.

@Spudlet

I remember watching it on tv and feeling very relieved that I didn’t live in London any more. And feeling very angry and sad. And the picture of Reeves going up in the flames, and that poor woman having to leap out of her window to escape the fire. Just awful.

I can understand the anger that sparked it all off, but it seemed to so quickly devolve into people grabbing massive TVs and trainers.

It almost always does devolve into looting: televisions, electronic goods, trainers, alcohol etc.

It all started on my wedding day, I remember watching it on the tv in the hotel reception at 3am after our wedding reception had finished. As we flew off on our honeymoon a couple of days later we did wonder what we would come back to!

I had been living abroad for some years, but moved back here about 6 months before this. On moving back I noticed a bitterness about Britain - a 'me first' and 'I'm alright Jack' attitude that I'd not noticed when I grew up here; but maybe it was nothing new - it just took being exposed to a different culture for it to become noticeable. Either way, the looting and the bandwagon jumping just seemed to top it all off, like the icing on the horrible cake.

We didn't see much in Dulwich, a bit of stupid graffiti but not much else.

Do remember the Overground stopping early, like @JohnLapsleyParlabane said. I actually made a new friend that day. Was trying to get home to Forest Hill Station when the driver said Croydon was on fire. The train would be terminating early. A fella tapped me on the shoulder and said he'd recently moved to SE London and could I help him get home. We got off at New Cross Gate (I think) and I said it's best if we take the NR train instead. It soon turned up, and on the trip we chatted about what's going on. I alighted at Forest Hill, he was going to Sydenham. I then walked to Dulwich.

My husband lived through the New Cross fire and Brixton riots age, and doesn't think the Met are making enough effort to engage with the communities they serve. I'm now living with the realisation that the Met give no fucks about women, or sexual offences. They certainly give no fucks about black people. They try and get away with doing the bare minimum. Their twitter feed is FULL of virtue signalling bollocks (I remember them putting out an all female task force on the south bank on IWD, for example). All talk and no action. I think London is due some riots, tbh.

Being very frightened and feeling so vulnerable as I had to make my way in/out of central London at night for work and all the buses kept going out of service etc. The very kind man who let me come in his taxi with him

Was in Clapham. I remember hearing helicopters in the night and turning on the TV to see Sky News reporting from the end of my road Someone ran past our front window shortly afterwards with a bin bag full of what looked like sport shoes.

On a positive note, people walking past that same window the following day carrying brooms, on the way to clean up the damage on Clapham High Street.

I remember the Poll Tax riots,that's aged me for sure!