The Days after the Broadwater Riot 1985

People in Tottenham protest arrests that followed the Broadwater riots cromacom/flickr

This story is a compilation, created from articles written after the 6 October 1985 Broadwater Riot in Tottenham. Sources: The Weekly Herald and The Journal (now-defunct) and The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph.

Estate Riot Elicits Tough Talk from Met

Police Commissioner Sir Kenneth Newman has promised to crack down on future unrest after bedlam at a North London estate left a police officer dead and hundreds of people injured, some from gunshot wounds.

PC Keith Blakelock was hacked to death with a machete as police fought into the early morning to contain rioters at Broadwater Farm in Tottenham. The violence marked the capital’s second major disturbance following fatal police actions in as many weeks.

Both victims were black, raising fears that racial tensions between black residents and a largely white police force threaten to embroil the city.

While not directly addressing those concerns, Commissioner Newman said violent mobs will now be met with rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons. Those tactics were not used yesterday.

Instead police with riot shields and batons confronted hundreds of rioters last night when an overheated situation combusted. Earlier in the day a crowd of about 50 people had gathered outside the Tottenham police station to protest the death of Cynthia Jarret. (She is believed to have had a heart attack as police searched her home earlier in the week).

Officers dispersed the crowd, but a meeting of community leaders at the estate failed to diffuse local anger.

Making Sense of What Happened

With the streets still covered in glass and burnt cars smoldering, police and local officials directed accusations at different sources.

The Met claims to have found hordes a petrol bombs stored on the estate. “The signs are that it was premeditated. Preparations were made for trouble before this woman’s unfortunate death,” Commissioner Newman said.

But Broadwater Farm Youth Association worker, Dolly Kiffin, saw the episode’s origins elsewhere.

“For days the police have been saying, there’s going to be a riot,” she said. “I kept on saying everything is peaceful here. But they wanted a riot and they got one.”

“I kept on saying everything is peaceful here. But they wanted a riot and they got one.”

Tottenham mayor Bernie Grant was even stronger in his criticism of the authorities. “The blame rests with the police. They raided an innocent woman’s house and whatever flowed from that the police are responsible for.”

A Series of Riots

The riots at Broadwater came on the heels of demonstrations and unrest in Brixton after followed the shooting of a woman there by police.

That fact was not lost on Haringey Council’s senior community relations officer Jeff Crawford, who described the area as “dismayed and depressed” by what happened in the neighbourhood. “It was only one week end ago one black woman was shot and badly injured - one weekend later another has died in her home, and the community is beginning to wonder what the hell has gone so terribly wrong in the Metropolitan Police force.'

Commissioner Newman, however, fired back at Tottenham’s elected. “Many politicians are acting irresponsibly,” he said. “They are trying to subvert what the police do. People actually want more protection not less.”

 “Many politicians are acting irresponsibly. They are trying to subvert what the police do. People actually want more protection not less.”

Last night it was the police and fire department that needed protection at the Broadwater Estate, where about 20 civilians were reported injured, but more than 200 police were hurt, some critically.

Police reinforcements arrived at 7pm following initial skirmishes, and within two hours casualties piled up. As the night progressed, the crowds grew into the hundreds, according to witnesses, as some fled and some fought.

Petrol bombs and slabs of concrete rained on the police. Rumors of busloads of people from outside the community swirled, but by the morning certain facts emerged.

The shops and schools in Broadwater Farm were looted, cars were set alight, and several people, including a journalist and police, were having shotgun pellets removed at nearby North Middlesex hospital.

Eye Witness Accounts

A caretaker at the estate witnessed the mayhem. “I heard a lot of yelling and screaming and saw a group of youths pushing a car down the street outside,” he said. “Then two more cars were set alight to form a barricade in Griffin Road and more cars were set on fire.”

Estate resident Terry Phillips described his family’s flight from a burning flat. “My mother’s a bit shocked,” he said. “When they threw the fire bomb at the house over the road, the family ran.”

They made it to another apartment, where police rescued them.

By 4:30am officers had broken through the barricades and brought the riots under control. Dozens of arrests were made, and today crews arrived to clean up the rubble.

An inquiry is ongoing into the death of Cynthia Jarret, but Home Secretary Douglas Hurd said it will take more than that to stem future violence.

“Inquiries do not stop riots,” he said. “All the riots we are dealing with are the results of criminal action.”

Hurd has promised a wave of prosecutions of rioters. In the meantime, police and civilians recover in the hospital as Tottenham picks up the rubble and tries to make sense of what happened at Broadwater Estate.