Shropshire Star

I saw the local bookies get smashed up live on TV

Alex Walters, from Diddlebury near Craven Arms, tells how he witnessed the riots in the London borough of Hackney first hand.

Published

Alex Walters, from Diddlebury near Craven Arms, tells how he witnessed last night's London riots first hand:

Every time I return to Shropshire, old friends and family ask where I'm living now. "Hackney," I say, proudly.

The raised eyebrows I see in response are enough to tell me that, to the average Salopian, Hackney means faintly remembered 1990s news stories about stabbings and crack addicts.

Normally I respond with a vigorous defence of Hackney's virtues, how exciting and rewarding it is to live there and how welcome I've been made to feel.

Yet on Monday afternoon I watched my adopted neighbourhood tear itself apart and wished for the rolling hills of home.

By midnight anywhere, let alone Shropshire, would have done - London was out of control.

Just before 5pm yesterday I switched on the news at work and was confronted of aerial footage of my local bookies being smashed to pieces.

Bins were burning, masked kids were running amok. By the time I got to Mare Street, the main drag in Hackney, it was clear that the police were struggling for control of the area.

Outside Hackney Empire theatre, a beautiful local landmark and one-time host to Charlie Chaplin, ugly scenes dominated the street.

An abandoned bus, its windows smashed, sat in the middle of the road just 200 yards from its depot.

To my right a shopkeeper with tears in his eyes was hauling down the shutters over his looted premises.

A couple of his friends stood guard, metal pipes in hand, staring down the passing, hooded youths as if daring them to try it on again.

Under normal circumstances I'd never condone it but with the police simply unable to protect them, these men were taking care of their own.

Later we heard reports of Turkish shopkeepers chasing down looters in nearby Dalston, and Asian boys doing the same in Bethnal Green.

To the people who are already trying to unjustifiably pin these riots on race, that says a lot.

Those immigrants, eh? Come over here, defending our communities...

Further up the street there was shouting, smoke and the constant sound of screeching tyres and the crunch of broken glass.

I made it home just as the police horses began to arrive, double locked the door and settled in with BBC News and the whirr of helicopters above me for company.

As darkness fell the reports of the riots spreading began to roll in. Croydon was ablaze, Clapham was completely lawless and only fools and police horses were willing to set foot in Peckham.

Even plush Notting Hill got its share, with rioters smashing a Michelin-starred restaurant and mugging the diners within.

As the dust settles this morning and police prepare themselves once again, the threat of violence still hangs in the air, but Londoners are already grouping together to clean up their streets.

Marshalled by Twitter, text messages and word of mouth, people are already going out into their communities to join together in cleaning up the mess, and to prepare to stand united tonight against those who made it.

Shropshire is England's most beautiful county and easily its best-kept secret.

I am proud to have been born here and proud of the people I grew up with. Yet people I know in Shropshire often complain about London.

How it's anonymous, dirty, busy and stressful, and at times it is all of those things.

But it's also the greatest city in the world, unifying a thousand identities, cultures and creeds and offering endless things to see and do.

And if there's one thing that London has proved over its long and turbulent history it is its ability to bounce back from the lowest of lows to return to the highest of highs.

So these days I count myself lucky to be part Londoner and part Salopian. It really is the best of both worlds.

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