Kristallnacht

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron has returned from his holiday and today (9/8/11) visited riot-torn Croydon Town Centre. This did not make my visit to riot-torn Croydon Town Centre any less complicated.

In order to understand last night's violence in Croydon you first need to know a little a bit about the local geography. There is a road that passes through Croydon which stretches from central London all the way down to Brighton on the south coast known as the London to Brighton road or London Road for short. Along the mile (1.6km) of this road between Thornton Heath Pond and West Croydon railway station where the rioting began there are eight large, newly built apartment buildings containing over 1000 apartments and 100 retail units. It is in this area where most of the worst arson occurred.

As you enter from Thornton Heath Pond the first fire you come across occurred at the junction of London Road, Sumner Road and St James' Road. This is the fire the BBC have been reporting from for most of the day. On one side of the road you have one of these large apartment buildings. On the other side there used to be a Tote bookmakers and a parade of two level shops dating from the 1930's. Last night a fire was started in either the bookmakers or the neighbouring shop and totally gutted four properties and damaged several more. The entire parade will now have to be demolished and re-developed.

The second and third major fires occurred on a parade of shops approaching the junction of London Road, Mead Road and Oakfield Road. This is where David Cameron visited today. At one end of this parade of two level shops dating from the 1930's you have the stand alone, newly built headquarters of the Croydon Voluntary Action "community" group which is partly funded and I believe owned by the Whitgift Foundation. Fortunately this building was untouched but the shop next to it which had an occupied apartment above it was set ablaze. This fire spread up the parade destroying four or five properties. At the Oakfield Road end of the parade there used to be a pawnbrokers and a music shop called "Rockbottom Music" which was something of a Croydon landmark. Both the pawnbrokers and the music shop where set alight and the fire burned back up the parade destroying four of five properties. The entire parade will now have to be demolished and re-developed.

You then come up to West Croydon railway station and a street called North End where Croydon's two shopping malls; the Drummond Centre and the Whitgift Centre are located. These contain some of Croydon's best shops including jewellers, many mobile phone shops, electronic stores and sports stores like JJB Sports which have all been major targets for looters in other parts of the country. Curiously though these shopping malls were left undamaged save for a branch of Comet which was looted, some minor damage to the Wellesley Road entrance to the Whitgift Centre and some minor damage to the Tamworth Road entrance to the Drummond centre.

If you continue down Tamworth Road you come to Reeves Corner, scene of the fifth and largest fire - footage of which has been seen on TV screens from San Diego to Sydney. On Reeves Corner there used to be a pub and a furniture shop called "Reeves Furniture" which has been there for 150 years and has been owned by the same family for five generations. It is such a local institution that they named the street after the shop. This has all already been destroyed by the fire and will have to be re-developed. Across the road stands the newly built Whitgift Foundation nursery school and a newly built apartment and office complex which houses Whitgift Foundation funded charites.

So I don't care what the Prime Minister says. In Croydon the people responsible for last night's violence and destruction won't be punished. Instead the police will protect them just like they've been protecting them for years. To make matters worse last night's riot will be re-classified as "an incident of serious violent disorder" because a riot means the police lost control and therefore have to pay for all the damage. Violent disorder though means that the business and home owners will have to pay.

And to think there are still people who can't understand why large sections of British society truly hate the police.