The 'riot' in Woolwich ... one week on

I moved to the Woolwich area in 1975 when I took up a teaching post at the Woolwich Polytechnic Boys School. The building was situated in Macbean Street, just off the main shopping street, Powis Street.

At the time Woolwich was a still a thriving town (it may be in London, but it has always been a little apart form the rest of inner London because of its poor transport links into the centre), with two department stores and lots of little specialist shops. Unemployment was not very high, but there were already signs that the area was beginning to decline after the closure of the Woolwich Arsenal, which had been the largest employer in the area for many years.

In 1975 Woolwich had a thriving retail area and was the headquarters of the Royal Arsenal Cooperative Society, one of the largest cooperative retail organisations in the UK, it was also the site of the headquarters of the Woolwich Equitable Building Society (which was one of the top five mortgage providers in the UK before it became part of the Barclays Bank Group) and there were significant numbers of factories and distribution warehouse along the edge of the River Thames. These major sources of employment have all now gone … but few new businesses – other than retailing – have replaced them. Even the Army presence has been downgraded to being a station rather than a garrison, and the Royal Artillery – which was founded in Woolwich – has moved its regimental headquarters elsewhere and only maintains a small presence in the town.

I still live within a mile of the centre of Woolwich, but I rarely go there any more. Despite the efforts of the local council, the town centre has continued to decline. It cannot compete with other local retail areas, and other than the council itself, there seem to be very few opportunities for non-service industry employment in the area.

This is the background to the events that unfolded in Woolwich last week. Today I visited the centre of Woolwich to visit the local branch of the NatWest bank and to see for myself how badly the centre of Woolwich has been effected by the ‘riots’ … although confronting the police, looting and arson would be a better description of what happened. Riots implies that there was a political element to what happened, but as the following photographs will show, no government or local government buildings were attacked; all the damage was done to local businesses.

The actual area affected by the events is quite small; it was mainly confined to Woolwich New Road, Thomas Street, and Powis Street (although I understand that there was also some damage to shops in Hare Street which branches off northwards from Powis Street) and these can easily be identified on the following map.

Woolwich New Road looking north east from Love Lane towards Woolwich Arsenal Station. Several buildings were badly damaged by fire, including a branch of Wilkinsons.

Woolwich New Road looking south west from the corner with Wilmount Street. Barclays Bank seems to have been unaffected by the fire that swept through the rest of the block, but the branch was shut when I went there today and I was unable to discover when it will reopen.

The branch of Costa Coffee located at the entrance to Woolwich Arsenal Docklands Light Railway station did not escape damage, but was open for business today.

Thomas Street looking north west from the corner of Thomas Street and Love Lane. Thomas Street was the scene of a major confrontation between the 'rioters' and the police. It is interesting to note that the shop front of the estate agents was damaged during the 'riot', but that the funeral director next door seems to have escaped untouched.

The Wimpy on the corner of Thomas Street and Wellington Street/General Gordon Place was boarded up and shut, and showed evidence of extensive smoke damage. The pawnbrokers next door (The Money Shop) was also attacked and damaged during the 'riot'.

Thomas Street looking north west. The Earl of Chatham public house was left alone during the 'riot' (it can be identified by the baskets of flowers hanging up outside) but the jewellery store opposite it was completely ransacked and most of its contents stolen.

Unlike the Earl of Chatham, The Great Harry (a Witherspoons public house) was completely gutted by an arson attack. It employed nearly forty full and part-time staff ... all of whom must now be out of work.

The boarding outside The Great Harry has now become a wall where locals can write what they think about the 'riot' and the 'rioters'. The comments on it reflect the anger that many local people feel about what has happened.

Some of the other shops in Thomas Street that were damaged ... a pawnbrokers and a hair salon. The latter seems to have been an unlikely target for the 'rioters' to choose to attack.

Powis Street looking south east from the corner of Powis Street and Calderwood Street. The safety fencing currently runs right across the street, and prevents pedestrians from walking from one end of the Powis Street to the other.

At the other (south easterly/Greens End) end of Powis Street, the local amusement arcade was attacked and its windows broken.

Further along the same side of Powis Street, several shops (including Phones 4 U, Broadway Shoes, and JD Sports) were all targets of the rioters.

On the opposite of Powis Street, the local branch of Priceless Shoes was also targeted. The shop next door – Blue Inc – was the subject of an arson attack that damaged the building so badly that it has had to be demolished.

Warren James (a jewellery shop) was another target of the 'rioters' that was extensively damaged and had its stock stolen.

The Woolwich branch of McDonalds is also located in Powis Street. It has a very significant site as it was the very first branch of McDonalds opened in the UK. Woolwich was chosen by McDonalds because it was regarded as being a typical example of a traditional British high street; I doubt if they would come to the same conclusion about Woolwich today.

Another view of the site formerly occupied by Blue Inc. It is worth noting that the branch of T Mobile next door was also targeted by the 'rioters'.

One can hope that Woolwich will rise like a phoenix from the ashes of the 'riot' ... but until the attitudes and criminality of a small group of people within the community change, there is every likelihood that such events will reoccur in the future.