Riots

In 1981 I was cycling back from a meal at friends in Wood Green at about midnight, when I noticed people walking down the high road with TVs etc. It really did not dawn on me that it was a riot, I even waited for the red light to change before cycling on back to Islington. The next night in Upper St shopkeepers were boarding up shops which all seemed a bit over the top.

When I moved to Tottenham in 1986, it was a year after the Broadwater Farm riots. The riots continued to cast a shadow over the place for the whole 10 years I lived there; but it did seem that things had moved on.

Today Rowan and I were in London for the day; Science Museum, Clothes Shops in Oxford Street [Rowan has decided to be a teenager after all], lunch at Yo Sushi etc. By 4pm shops were being shut early and a feeling of fear was tangible. We were due back on the 19.30 train, but I checked if we could leave early because of the quasi-curfew. We could, so here we are on the 17.30 train just coming up to Stevenage.

When we had set off I had failed to make the connection between a day-trip to the capital and the depressing riots in the suburbs; I soon woke up to the situation.