This is some rough footage I captured during the London Riots on the night of Monday 8th August 2011. It was shot using a helmet-mounted ContourHD video camera, which is why it’s a bit shaky and at an angle (the only way you can review footage is to plug it into a computer).
I realise this isn’t the best footage, it’s very shaky, but I think with the notes it gives a good sense of what the scene was like.
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Notes
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00:14 – Carphone Warehouse window smashed in, corner of St. John’s Road and Battersea Rise.
00:38 – Currys.digital smashed in.
00:57 – There’s a distraught woman in Toni & Guy (manager?). The window has been smashed. Workmen are boarding it up.
01:10 – Ryman’s and Waterstones are untouched.
01:53 – 3 mobile phone shop is completely looted. Jamie Oliver’s Recipease shops is untouched.
02:05 – At this point I had hooked up with a freelance photojournalist. We were forced to use the back streets to get to Lavender Hill. Here, on Illminster Gardens, riot police are blocking people.
The street is cloudy with smoke and we can’t see the end of the road. Some people come through the smoke reporting that The Party Shop is on fire and that other riot police are under attack. These officers quickly head down there but stop when some people with their faces cover sprint towards us then slip into a housing block. The police stop and rethink the situation.
03:24 – Lavender Hill, corner of Beauchamp Road. People are being forced back up Lavender Hill. A fella next to me is close to tears, shouting that there are people in that burning building as well as residents living above it, and that the police should let them into the shops to get the fire extinguishers to help put it out. There are no fire engines in sight.
The camera with it’s wide angle lens doesn’t convey the scale of the fire. It was two storeys high at this point. Smoke was filling the town centre. Nearly everyone that came up from the fire were saying people were still in the building. Most of the shouting is from people scared that other people might die.
04:12 – The police advance up Lavender Hill. The crowd walk up at first but the shouts from the riot police makes everyone run. When others ran, so did I. I was running with my bike and found it hard to turn to see what was happening behind me. I had to rely on the behaviour of those around me to see if it was safe to stop.
04:43 – At this point, most the troublemakers are further up the hill. Some are in Asda. Most are milling while a few smash shop windows. The people around me are concerned locals, displaced residents, and some photographers.
05:01 – The riot police get into formation. Some raise their batons. Their silhouettes are cast against the burning building.
05:38 – Another charge by the riot police. This one was much fiercer. They were closer and louder. We had to run over broken glass from shop windows. I nearly ran into a woman with a suitcase. There were lots of people fleeing the area with their belongs, many were people who lived above shops.
This is where I lost contact with the photojournalist. He was right in front the police line when they charged. I think he retreated down a side street as it was safer. As well as taking pictures, he was also trying to get back to his car which was parked near Falcon Road. His plan was to go to Camden.
06:21 – One of many impromptu groups that formed when there was a lull in action. The guy next to me expresses a fear of the police, feeling that our presence here is making us a target.
06:47 – The police seem to be holding the line. I walk up Lavender Hill and see that a fire has been started outside a dental practice. Someone has smashed the glass pane on the door that leads up to the residential flat above the shop. Another person tries to kick it in. Others throw stuff on the fire.
07:13 – A man in a green novelty party afro moves in and kicks the fire away from the building. Those throwing stuff on the fire don’t challenge him. There’s a good chance his actions saved that building from going up. However, his novelty afro suggests he might have looted the now-burning Party Shop.
07:40 – The crowd begins to move up the hill. The police seem to be staying where they are. I contemplate making sure the building is safe from the fire but then the police move. At first they just walk in line, no shouting. Suddenly they charge. A glass bottle is thrown over me at the police. I move across the street to where a row of shop sticks out and I can hide from the missiles being thrown. The police are approaching fast. I assume their urgency is driven by the fire. The police slow their advance and I move away, walking with one hand steering my bike and the other in the air. At this point I’m wondering how I got into such a dangerous position. For the rest of the night, I make sure to stay safe.
08:42 – In the direction I’m walking, I see a fleet of armoured vehicles moving towards me. I cross the street to where some locals are stood.
Not shown in the video: I find myself outside an estate agent. At first I don’t see it, but then I notice that behind the ads in the window, the estate agents’ office has been ransacked.
09:06 – The armoured vehicles pass by.
09:42 – A middle aged cyclist on a Brompton with bright white shorts and tennis racket sticking out of his bag comes home to see rioting in Battersea.
09:58 – Not shown in the video: The police had charged suddenly. There is a lot of waiting then sudden bursts of action. All evening I have been turning my camera off in quieter moments to save battery power. I didn’t have time to turn it on during the last event. They charged and I ran. My bike was slowing me down and the police were gaining on me. I saw a some people standing in the gated front area of a bar. I threw my bike over and a fella helped me on the other side. I turn my camera on to catch the police retreating.
10:22 – I found myself in the front garden of Sugar Cane Bar. The fella who helped with my bike and his two friends/colleagues all worked there and were guarding the place from looters and fires. We talk about the threat to businesses. They are defending bricks and stock, but also jobs, income, and their futures. Even with insurance and its financial compensation, the people who are depending on these businesses will need to devote their irreplaceable time to sorting it out.
Not shown in video: There was another person who took shelter in the beer garden. A asian teenager. He was on his mobile and couldn’t hear us telling him to step back in the doorway with us. Missiles were being thrown. When he hung up he realised what we were trying to tell him. He explained that his father was down the street outside their family shop. He was trying to make sure his father was safe.
10:31 – The police charge again, with vans this time. One fella swaggers around the street and narrowly avoids getting his hip smashed.
11:00 – The vans reverse back up street
11:11 – The swaggering fella hangs around in the middle of the street.
11:44 – As the police move on, I double back, slip down a side street and go home. I can still smell smoke as I ride over Clapham Common.
