THURSDAY, THE 11TH OF AUGUST
We’ve put together a short film about the riots that have taken place in our home borough of Hackney. You can watch us interview brave Turks and flee charging riot police over at VBS.
Videos by VICE
Got news of fighting or looting near you? Are you looting or fighting? Get in touch with us at Twitter @viceuk or email kev.kharas@vice.com. All times GMT.
11.54PM: Cameron’s just spoken in the emergency parliament meeting. Here’s what he said:
– The death of Mark Duggan is being investigated by the IPCC.
– Duggan’s death has nothing to do with the widespread looting.
– There will be 16,000 police on the streets of London until the weekend.
– “Phony human rights concerns” will not stop looters and rioters being identified and prosecuted.
– Police will be able to use rubber bullets and water cannons to quell any further unrest.
– The government will look into how they can stop people using BBM to plan riots.
– The owners of looted homes and businesses will be able to claim for compensation under the riot act even if they are not insured for rioting.
– The government will cover the costs of looking after those made homeless.
Ed Milliband’s at the stand searching for his and Britain’s soul at the moment. To be honest, I’d sort of forgotten he existed.
Wednesday, the 10th of August, on the next page.
00.22AM: OK, I think we can safely clock off for this evening. Though what’s this now in Aberdeen?!
Poetic, right? Like an ellipsis followed by a full-stop.
11.16PM: 200 men, some EDL among them, were throwing bottles at police earlier in Eltham. Other than that, it all seems to be fairly quiet across the UK.
06.03PM: A fascinating and unimaginatively titled insight into the minds of grime artists over the last four or five days.
05.58PM: Birmingham Riots Tumblr is carrying what it says is “an exact transcript” of a BBM and text floating around Birmingham this afternoon.
“everyman keep off the road tonight, Birmingham is going to be madness, people from london, leicester, derby, manchester to f**k up birmingham of them 3 asian guys that got killed in winson green there coming to riot hard and i don’t want no one to lose their life because of it, stay in your yards and pass this on”
Stay safe!
05.46PM: Westminster council knows a problem when it sees one, and it thinks it’s found a solution – it’s going to make anyone who lives in a council house who’s found guilty of looting homeless.
“Social housing isn’t a right, it’s a privilege and if people abuse that privilege then in common with anyone else they should face the consequences,” said Jonathan Glanz, cabinet minister for housing.
“Families have to take responsibility for children living in their households, and we have a responsibility to our communities at large. Many people living in these communities are playing by the rules and were not involved in criminal activity over the last few nights. They wouldn’t want to live next door to people who are getting away with bad behaviour and enjoying the privilege.”
Greenwich council are one of a number of local authorities who’ve announced they’ll look into following Westminster’s lead, though they may face problems pushing their evictions through the courts. Apparently looters would have had to have been in the vicinity of their own homes and forcibly broken into properties for the prosecutions to hold any weight.
But yeah, great idea, Glanz. If there’s one thing that’s gonna stop angry looters re-offending, it’s taking away their homes. (Via.)
05.20PM: …and here’s an in-depth report from Sam on what he saw in Manchester last night: LAST NIGHT IN MANCHESTER. Photos courtesy of him and Natalie Meziani. We’ll have a similar report from Birmingham soon.
05.06PM: Our man @samuelbreen‘s been roaming around Manchester again today. Couple of images from the town centre, the bottom one showing two kids being arrested by police.
04.10PM: This blog just posted video footage of those kids in Salford that joyrode (joyrided?) a stolen JCB last night.
01.56PM: Good to see inanimate objects taking their revenge on looters.
09.00AM: Woke up this morning to hear the grim news that three men have been killed in Birmingham. West Midlands Police said: “Three men have died following a road collision in the Winson Green area of Birmingham which detectives are treating as murder.” It seems they were coming out of a Mosque in the early hours of the morning. They had been part of a group formed to protect the building from last night’s lootings. The BBC report that police in riot gear have been blocking the hospital’s main entrance. It is not yet sure whether or not the deaths were directly linked to the rioting in Birmingham.
Coverage of Tuesday, the 9th of August, begins on the next page.
02.21AM: North London quiet as a mouse on the journey home from our offices to our beds. The fire at the council recycling depot in Tottenham is now out, but Merseyside police confirm that four fire engines have been “put out of use” during the riots in Liverpool that are still continuing on the edge of Toxteth. We’ll pick this up tomorrow, but it’s goodnight from us for now.
01.25AM: Someone posted this photo to Twitter. They reckon it’s Lawrence Road in Liverpool.
01.22AM: Apparently fire engines are en route to a council recycling depot in Tottenham, where 200 foot high flames are burning, possibly after the explosion of a recycling truck fire tank.
01.13AM: Ellis in Liverpool says “loads of scals are lobbing bricks at police.” Here are some pictures, from Bootle, Smithdown Road and Walton respectively.
01.09AM: A BAND ARE PLAYING FREEDOM JAZZ ON THE STREETS OF BRIXTON (via The West Londoner)
01.02AM: Reports from our man in Birmingham (@richardpfranks that a shot has been fired at police. Confirmed by Sky News, and West Midlands Police sent in a firearm squad.
00.55AM: A heartening video from earlier today this year in Manchester Vancouver. Still heartening, though. (Via @JayCrosbie)
00.47AM: A couple of pictures from VICE’s Sam Breen in Manchester, one captioned “H.Pollock by shudehill has been turned over,” the other “Subway staff on Piccadilly Gardens show some humour”.
00.44AM: Soul-stirring comment left on our THE BATTLE OF MARE STREET blog. “I am a Chinese young people, very concerned about your situation and hope that London will soon be restored to the original state, hope 2012 Olympic Games a great success. Come on London, I love the world, come on earth!”
00.37AM: North London is pretty sleepy. A VICE crew heard it was kicking off in Kentish Town, so they headed down. All they saw was three riot vans arresting two 10-year-old boys. While they were there, one of their mums called from round the corner. She said she’d just walked out of the tube station and come across a group of about ten young teenage boys in hoodies. One of them leant over and said to her, “We’re not a riot, you know.” “Don’t worry,” she replied, “I’m not the least scared.” As she walked past she heard one of them say, “What a nice lady.” Ahhh, don’t worry Manchester, it gets better.
00.34AM: Who would have thought it? Riots start in Slough. If those guys make the place where I was born look like a piece of grey shit, I’m not gonna be happy. #oh
00.28AM: Pretty funny aside to the Manchester riots, apparently Liam Gallagher’s Pretty Green clothing store was raided. Well, maybe that’s not funny – I still refuse to betray my early-teenage love for Oasis – but Sky News described Gallagher as a “former rock singer”. Looks like one news agency haven’t been keeping their beady eye out.
00.17AM: The EDL provide more comedy relief.
11PM till midnight on the next page.
11.57PM: We’ve been hearing from Sam Breen (@samuelbreen) in Manchester throughout the night. “The kids have broken into a posh booze store. Some of them have wine bottles, others are hurling magnums of champagne at riot police. One kid tried to hurl a Molotov cocktail at a police van, but it turned and sped off in the other direction. The police have neglected to break up smaller skirmishes all night, and this looked like it might come back to bite them for a bit, but now quite a few are going home leaving a residual hardcore who are smashing up the Mint Hotel.”
11.33PM: Did you see that video of the EDL walking around saying they were going to protect Eltham from looters earlier? Well there have been no reports of looting in Eltham tonight but somehow the EDL have still managed to get themselves arrested. Not just arrested, but kettled too. To my knowledge they are the only people in four days of rioting who have been stupid and immobile enough to get caught in a police kettle. ON A ROUNDABOUT.
11.23PM: Photo from Leicester city centre of a camera shop that’s just been looted.
11.04PM: A shop burning in Seven Sisters is quickly put out by fire services.
10PM till 11PM on the next page.
10.46PM: Trouble’s been building for a while in Birmingham now – we just got this report from an anonymous emailer.
“I’m in Birmingham right now – as the train pulled in, towers of thick black smoke were rising from the city. Parts of the station are closed down, and the only people I can see on the streets are a slowly advancing cordon of riot police, working their way towards the city centre. Amazing stuff…
“Walking around the station to find my platform, smells faintly of smoke. All the shops have their shutters down, police everywhere, people looking edgy, a few panicking at the entrance. When you go nearer the doors, you start to see smoke hanging in the air.
“They’ve started blockading the entrances to the station!
“Bunch of people stood near me whose train was attacked while waiting to pull into the station. Apparently they smashed in the windows and hurt several people on board – one guy has his arm in a sling, another has been beaten across the head.
“Ah, just eavesdropped more detail from a National Rail employee – they’re bombarding the trains with bricks.
“Wonderful news! They’ve announced why my train is delayed. It’s on fire!”
10.32PM: If you want updates on Birmingham and you’re not watching Sangat TV, you should be. Find it here – it’s basically a Sikh guy, driving around Birmingham town centre with a camera attached to his dashboard. It’s great, like a live, riot special of Cops. Here are some stills we’ve grabbed so far:
10.21PM: Jesus, police in Nottingham confirming that 30 or 40 guys have firebombed Canning Circus police station.
10.13PM: Further proof that the looters are idiots. (Via @dashgetlow)
10.07PM: Video emerges online of gangs in Salford toppling cars. I’ve never seen a car look so humanly anxious before.
9PM till 10PM on the next page.
09.57PM: Sam Breen in Manchester: “Cycling past a pub in Gorse Hill on way into town. Overheard a teenager telling a police officer in the thickest Mancunian accent I’ve ever heard, ‘How am I supposed to be rioting, I’m wearing a cardigan.’”
Sam Breen is also from Manchester, by the way. So no poisonous regional bantz, please.
09.37PM: Sikhs in Southall also out on streets in force, vowing to protect local community and help out overstretched police force.
09.29PM: A group of 80 or 90 local ladz walking around Enfield on Sky News just now. They say they’re going to “apprehend” anyone they see looting in the area by citizen’s arrest and wait for police to get there to sort it out properly. They also explained that they’re tired of the police being too lenient with rioters.
09.24PM: VICE’s Sam Breen is on his way into the centre of Manchester from Stretford. He’s seen police arresting a dozen or so kids on bikes in the Broomwood Estate, and they’ve told him there’s not much trouble.
09.15PM: Report from Steve McLay in Nottingham. “There’s a group of ten or so youths on the roof of Nottingham High School. This has been confirmed by the @nottspolice Twitter feed.”
“Also, in Sherwood my friend just had her car attacked outside her house. Police said to her that the small gang had petrol bombs. This is confirmed by her (very sane, honest nurse).”
There you go. Who can doubt a very sane, honest nurse?
09.05PM: Looters have broken into an independently-owned hat shop called ‘Hat Man’ in Birmingham.
8PM till 9PM on next page.
08.57PM:
Domino’s Pizza in Shepherd’s Bush, putting on a brave face to the rioter menace.
08.32PM: Morgan Frost (@MechaMorgan) in Manchester’s retired for the evening after police let their dogs off the leash and told them “sick him”.
“Just caught in a K9 and baton charge, which was fun,” he explains. “Lots of shops are have been done in – the Swarovski is completely raided, and the shop selling UGG boots is completely clear, too. The Reiss store, the first to be raided, is now boarded up but empty.
“The Foot Asylum’s done, too. The bouncer was stood in front, guarding it, but the manager called to him and just told him to get out of the way and let the kids through. There were about 60 or 70 of them. When the riot police showed up, the kids just kept looting.
“Market Street and Piccadilly are swarming, you can’t get anywhere near them. The cops started off with half-shields, but now they’re wearing full-on riot gear. They’re letting their dogs off the chain, too. I’ve never seen a crowd of 200 people split so fast.
“There are so many kids just standing around everywhere. Jovial? No, the mood here is very, very nasty. Kids are getting their phones taken off them. A lot of people coming out work late can’t get through the centre of town because of the police blockades, so they’re taking the side streets. But there are lads hanging out in the alleys and down the side roads, taking workers’ bags and phones off them.
“We haven’t seen any weapons yet. I guess we’ll have to see what happens when the sun goes down.”
We’ll have photos from Morgan and his mates soon.
08.24PM: This would appear to be proof that dogs have indeed been unleashed in Manchester.
08.22PM: Our photographer in Manchester, Morgan Frost, has told us that the “police on Market Street have got the K9s off. People sprinting, it’s nasty here.”
08.17PM: Definite RT.
08.05PM: Heard from three separate sources now that some kids in Salford are riding around in a stolen JCB trying to crush cars.
7PM till 8PM on the next page.
07.52PM: Most of tonight’s trouble seems to be taking place in Manchester and its suburbs. According to Manc blog PYC Sessions, around 1,000 to 2,000 youths are fighting riot police in Salford. This photo is from Langworthy Road in Salford:
07.26PM: Apparently this leaflet was being put through letterboxes in the riot-hit neighbourhoods of Ealing earlier today:
07.20PM: People have started setting fire to things in Manchester. (Via.)
07.15PM: Not sure if you heard Ken Livingstone earlier, but the former mayor of London was asking that police formally classify last night’s looting attacks as part of a riot situation. Apparently this will help them claim more money back from their insurance companies.
07.06PM:
Every police officer in London is in Canning Town now?! I don’t know much about riot containment operations, but that seems a little foolhardy to me.
6PM till 7PM on next page.
06.55PM: When all this finally peters out, there are people who will never use the word “ransacking” again.
06.51PM: Police have confirmed that bins are on fire in Canning Town in the east of London. Uncomfirmed reports that a bus is ablaze, too, while a gang has kicked in the doors at JD Sports in Nottingham.
06.39PM: A friend of VICE’s Jamie Taete sent us this photograph from Manchester. Doesn’t look too dangerous just yet.
06.25PM: More from our photographer in Manchester, Morgan Frost: “They’re trying to clear Piccadilly Gardens with little success. Big show of force though. All the shops now closed up.”
06.24PM: Hearing rumours from a strong source that the army have been put on standby. Obviously there’s nothing happening that would warrant their deployment just yet, it’s just what we’re hearing.
06.16PM: Important to stress that nothing resembling a riot is occurring in Manchester at the moment. Our photographer says there are “60+ officers in full riot gear in Piccadilly Gardens, more arriving all the time. Maybe 100 kids, mostly 14-20 years old. Nothing kicking off, but it’s tense. Phone battery dying, will be in touch later.”
06.11PM: West Midlands Police have also confirmed that some shops have been broken into in Wolverhampton and two cars have been set on fire in West Brom. We’re trying to get in touch with people there now.
06.07PM: The first reports of trouble today have come through. Our photographer in Manchester is telling us that 100 youths have stormed the Arndale shopping centre, “trashing” a branch of Reiss. Image below from Twitter:
06.02PM: If you missed it, it’s been confirmed that at no point did Mark Duggan shoot a gun at police.
5PM till 6PM on the next page.
05.55PM: A guy is trying to organise a looting spree in Barnet tonight on Facebook. He looks a fucking pillock.
05.49PM: Some guy in a bad hat has done a good thing and set up a live feed from Oxford Circus.
05.46PM: We also went to the Broadwater Farm Estate to interview Mark Duggan’s friends and make sure no one forgets about that. Read that article here.
05.28PM: We’ve put together a short film about the riots that have taken place in our home borough of Hackney so far. You can watch us interview brave Turks and flee charging riot police over at VBS, or in the embedded player below. Kind of weird that something that has led to massive factories burning in Essex and riots all over the country started on our doorstep.
05.25PM: Maybe you saw this already while we were away, but sales of baseball bats have risen by over 5,000% in the last 24 hours on Amazon. Any of you guys air-swinging one in a satisfied kind of way right now?
05.24PM: Sorry for the big gap there. We’ve been moving this to another server as it’s crashing every ten minutes or so. Should be plain sailing now.
04.21PM:
Ha.
04.11PM:
Arrests are being made on Oxford Street now. Reports that members of the public have gotten involved to help police. (Via Pavitar Mann)
04.04PM: Shops are closing on Oxford Street. Lots of teenage girls on Twitter are getting very worried, but it seems to be calm down there at the moment, and there’s yet to be a Molotov tossed in anger so far today.
3PM till 4PM on next page.
03.48PM: Loads of you are telling us the Twitter and Facebook profiles of that ugly looter girl are fake. We’re inclined to agree. Sorry, ugly looter girl!
03.20PM: Hoxton Square idyllic at the moment. Couples picnicking while Seal’s “Kiss From A Rose” blares from a homeless man’s hi-fi. Shall we use it to soundtrack the VBS film we’re making about the riots?
Also, Jamie Taete’s just spotted the guy who plays Harry Potter’s fat brother in those wizard films.
Still reports that crowds gathering slightly further north towards Hoxton Market, though. Council workers are putting locks on bottle bins to stop looters raiding them for ammo.
03.14PM: More eyewitness reports of “large gathering” on Hoxton Street. Not sure what their intentions are just yet. A few from VICE en route, so we’ll let you know.
03.05PM: Eyewitness reports from our own sources of trouble brewing in Hoxton. Apparently a man ran into Hoxton Square screaming “They’re coming! Clear the square!” It’s empty now, but photograph of Hoxton Street found on Twitter seems to show gang amassing.
2PM till 3PM on next page.
02.58PM: The girl who was bragging about her loot haul on Twitter earlier can be found here on Facebook.
02.57PM: For those asking about the Sugababes quote earlier, we removed it at the request of Children in Need. It was real.
02.44PM: London mayor Boris Johnson coming under heavy attack in Clapham Junction right now. Furious crowd shouting references to Stephen Lawrence, closed community centres. “We want Ken Livingstone.” “What about Mark Duggan?” “You’re racist, you need to resign.”
02.41PM:
Lots of emails and talk on Twitter saying they can see smoke billowing into the air above Stratford.
02.20PM: Reports that shops in Brixton are closing, too. This isn’t the place for speculation, but if we had to guess – “HAD” “TO” “GUESS” – we’d say the police are shutting everything down so they can deal with shit forcefully this evening.
02.16PM:
BBM broadcasts apparently going around in Leicester, Sheffield and Manchester.
02.13PM: Reports of shops shutting on Shoreditch High Street and in Soho. Man’s gonna bust up Nickelodeon:
Midday till 2PM on next page.
01.48PM: Lots of panic on Twitter about London Fields, but as far as we’re aware it’s just hype at the moment. We’ll let you know as soon as we hear any different.
01.44PM:
I know this looks like a Little Britain parody of a girl rioter, but apparently this account was 100% real. She’s deleted it now. Look at her ugly face!
01.23PM: Apparently, some rioters are on their way to Hackney Town Hall, but we’re not sure how much there is left to ruin around there. The council didn’t slack this morning, and had tidied away most of the rubble from yesterday’s street battles before we showed-up. The only people left clearing up were JD Sports.
The two photos below are from the Carhartt warehouse that was looted yesterday. Jamie Taete was almost as dismayed by the looters’ decision to leave behind a photo he took as he was by Carhartt staff’s irony-bypass (surely it’s obvz that the image is a piss-take?).
1.18PM: Police have called workers at the Westfield Shopping Centre to warn them that they’re gearing up for violence there later on. Officers are currently setting up barricades.
1.14PM: The man shot in Croydon last night has died, according to Guardian journalist Vikram Dodd.
1.10PM: Police will be using plastic bullets (baton rounds) tonight if necessary.
1.06PM: Best to avoid Mare Street again today – we’ve heard through our own sources that a young mob’s on its way to Hackney Town Hall. Apparently staff have been evacuated. Proper confirmation on that when we get it.
01.00PM: The FA have announced that the game England were scheduled to play against Holland at Wembley tomorrow night is off.
12.45PM: As usual, it’s fallen to the Iranian regime to provide the voice of reason in the chaos. Their Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast has advised the Met to stop being so nasty to the looters and to discuss their demands in order to calm the aimless rioting that’s torn through London since Sunday night.
12.30PM: A Tumblr’s been set up asking for your pictures to help police catch looters. Surely only a matter of time now until a black and white image of Audrey Hepburn scarpering down Mare Street clutching six pairs of Reebok Ultralites emerges.
12.08PM: Our leader has spoken. Here’s a brief summary of what came out of his mouth:
– There will be 16,000 police on the streets tonight, as opposed to 6,000 last night.
– “If you are old enough to commit these crimes you are old enough to face the punishments.”
– Parliament will be recalled for a day on Thursday.
– Nice tan.
12.02PM: “Not heard of any rioting in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland,” says Mr D in the comments below. “Shouldn’t it be renamed The English Riots?” Well, perhaps, but last night we limited ourselves to London and looked what happened there.
10AM till midday on next page.
11.54AM:
Which just goes to prove the old maxim: If you run a fancy-dress shop, don’t try to help people who need it, because they will come and burn your livelihood down.
11.16AM: So it turns out that the Sony DADC in Enfield which burned down contained most of Britain’s decent record stocks. XL Records, Domino Records, Angular Records and many more may have lost their entire stock. We called Joe Daniel from Angular Records for a quote. He said: “Cunts.” Seconded.
10.56AM: Still waiting to hear from the Prime Minister. Apparently he’s going to announce that parliament will be recalled on Thursday, back early from its summer recess.
10.19AM: Fire crews still putting out blazes in Ealing, Enfield, Croydon, Woolwich and Woodford Green. If the police have been woefully overstretched the last couple of nights, will it be fire crews who struggle to cope with demand this evening? A chilling thought.
10.15AM: A couple more things before David Cameron’s rallying speech at 10.30AM: find news of clean-up operations here, and you may have noticed that we’ve changed the name of the liveblog to take into account what happened in Birmingham, Bristol and Liverpool last night.
10.00AM: Suffice to say London’s waking up with a bit of a sore head this morning. We’re back now, and we’ll be bringing you reports from the clean-up scenes in a short while. For now, let us know what’s going on where you are, and we’ll begin with this picture we took in Mare Street yesterday of that guy who used to be in The Darkness.
Yesterday’s liveblog begins on the next page.
MONDAY, THE 8TH OF AUGUST
03.37AM: OK, we’ve been mugged, threatened and unable to get a beer for the last ten hours, so it’s time for us to go to bed. We’ve been cutting a film we made today and will have a lot more to report tomorrow.
Please continue to send your pictures and updates to us on Twitter, @viceuk.
If you’re interested in helping clean this poor city up tomorrow morning, check out #riotcleanup. I’d check the news first though. Good night, let’s hope everyone wakes up feeling sensible.
02.54AM: The West Londoner have re-posted reports that the fire services in Croydon are running out of water, as well as word of fresh clashes in Hackney.
02.50AM: Update from Mitchell Currie in Leicester. “Large police presence in Leicester, they were streaming cars into city centre, sirens going, not as many as when we had the EDL march but a damn lot. Seems they’re also on high alert.”
02.36AM: Man who caught 20 men starting fire at the Sony distribution centre in Enfield talking on BBC News now. Was punched by one, and warned friends working at centre to evacuate building. Name’s Tommy Thompson. Fire continues to rage. It’s gigantic.
02.34AM: Reports of trouble in Finsbury Park seem unfounded. Apparently rioters tried to set fire to a petrol station, but police got there in time to stop them. Those brave Turkish fellas are out patrolling the streets.
02.27AM: Fair point raised on Twitter by Ian Berriman, who asks: “Time to get rid of the word “London” at the top of the page yet?” London seems to be quietening down now, as trouble spreads out towards the suburbs and other English cities – with Birmingham, Bristol and Liverpool confirmed.
02.24AM:
Video sent in of trouble brewing in Romford by Sam Walker.
02.11AM: Riot police out in the city centre of Nottingham, but no disturbances reported there yet.
02.09AM: Jesus, huge fire at Sony depot at Waltham Abbey in Essex. Apparently that’s what that huge ball of fire was at 01.51AM.
02.08AM Looks like there’s definitely something going on in Bristol (link).
02.01AM: More photos from Birmingham coming through from photographer Chris Cove. Apparently the guy is an ITV cameraman and the woman in the purple an ITV reporter.
1AM till 2AM on next page.
01.51AM: A big ball of fire in Enfield. I have no idea what this might be.
01.49AM:
More footage from earlier today on Mare Street.
01.44AM: Had enough spectacular misery yet? No? This video is pretty much a human nadir.
01.33AM: Update from Henry on Camden: “We drove from Dalston Kingsland up to Camden, and just as we got to Camden Station, we ran into a huge group of maybe 200 youths all armed with baseball bats, knives, crowbars, anything they could get their hands on. They charged towards us, so we tried to reverse, but even though I was leaning out of the window shouting at the cars behind, they were too slow. In the end I just told my mate to floor it, and thankfully the mob scattered.
“We parked up on a side street, and there were gangs of armed kids everywhere. Either Boots or an O2 store was being looted when the police finally arrived. They pushed them back, and tried to stop and search a couple, but they had the dogs out by that point, so everyone had run off. It was too dangerous for us to get our cameras out. Hairy.”
01.24AM:
Video that Sky News are reporting as being shot in Liverpool, but apparently was actually recorded in Woolwich.
01.19AM: Report from our photographer Henry Langston, who’s had to get out of Camden because it is “Fucking feral mate, so dangerous. 200 armed kids ran towards the car so we had to drive through them.”
Midnight till 1AM on next page.
00.50AM:
Pictures reporting to show Liverpool rioting are currently making the rounds on Twitter.
00:35AM:
Current situation in Clapham. Via.
00.27AM: Some people on Twitter are saying that riots have begun in Liverpool. Looking for confirmation. If you have any information, please leave a comment below.
00.22AM: Someone on the BBC saying that people in Clapham saying that they have set a party shop on fire and have stolen the masks. This just gets scarier.
00.15AM: Reports on Sky News now of people’s homes being broken into in Ealing in quiet, residential streets.
Midnight: Vice’s Hugo Donkin, Henry Langston and Alex Miller have been driving around East London meeting the locals. The Turks seem to have the right idea. They’re all stood outside their shops, arms folded, and they say they’ll be there all night.
We spoke to a bunch of them holding snapped pool cues; they explained that earlier a bunch of the gangs charged up the Kingsland Road. The Turks chased them off with fists and cues. The younger guys are triumphant, but angry. The older men are worried though: “London is playing a dangerous game,” one said.
11.40PM:
Writers Bench have sent us this video of a stand-off earlier at St. John’s Church in Hackney.
11.37PM: A man on the BBC says Ealing Shopping Centre is on fire.
11.32PM: Confirmation of those reports of looting in Romford which seem like decades ago now. “Yea romford lootin happenin,” says essex girl in the comments down there. “Both jds been don, bank, mcd’s and pizza hut plus 3 buses and one alight.” [sic, gic]
11.30PM: Police have confirmed that a man was shot in Croydon, but apparently he’s still alive.
11.26PM:
Battles starting between police and rioters in Camden.
11.21PM:
Nice haul, idiot. (via Tom Howard.)
11.20PM:
According to EagleRam on Twitter, rioters and looters are using Boris bikes as getaway vehicles.
11.16PM: RE Tiger: yeah, we know it’s a hoax, you can stop tweeting that at us.
11PM: ITV News are reporting that a man has been shot dead in Croydon.
9PM till 10PM on next page.
10.55PM: A pretty great speech.
10.49PM:
According to a guy who writes for The People and The Mirror, people have been leaping from a burning building on Church Street in Croydon.
10.44PM:
What’s that blob shape? It’s a tiger that has escaped/been released from London Zoo and is now wandering around Primrose Hill, according to Twitter.
10.36PM: Report from our photographer in Birmingham: “There’s police EVERYWHERE. I asked a news reporter for a press pass and he got shitty. Got in the middle of some of it, scary as fuck! Not got any good enough photos but I have one very shaky video. Almost got my 7D smashed by some lads though and had to get out because they were following me. Just driving around to see if we can get somewhere safer.”
10.26PM: Reports coming in that the rioting has reached Shacklewell Lane, where both a bus and the local Nando’s are reportedly on fire.
10.22PM: Apparently The Dolphin pub on Mare Street is on fire. The Turkish bar and restaurant owners on Kingsland Road aren’t taking the same chances. They’re all out in the streets with bats.
10.18PM: Anyone hear those guys who own the Croydon furniture shop on Sky News just now? :(
10.12PM:
A woman employed by Currys getting arrested for trying to loot Currys.
10PM: Anyone seen that video Sky News shot in Clapham? Not sure the guy’s got his riot etiquette down. If you walk around whining at a riot crowd like a public school prefect, it’s likely you won’t be leaving with your camera.
8PM till 9PM on next page.
9.44PM: From VICE’s Jamie Taete: “I was walking down Whitechapel High Street when a gang of like, 100 kids came out of nowhere, smashing windows and attacking cars and vans. During the obligatory JD Sports raid, a voice came out of nowhere saying “WE HAVE YOUR IMAGE ON CCTV”, which I think was coming from the camera outside JD Sports. That’s pretty cool.
“The kids started throwing bottles at East London Mosque, but then a load of Muslims came out and chased them all off. There was a guy in a white robe walking down the middle of the street shouting “HOW DARE YOU DO THAT HERE!” followed by cheering when the riot police turned up.”
