Public Address | Cafe | Speaker: Listening to Coldharbour Lane https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/ en-us Copyright (c) 2026 Public Address Robert Urquhart https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224120#post224120 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224120#post224120 http://www.hipmama.com/node/45867
I'm writing this from from the relative safety of a third floor flat in Hackney, east London. Over the last few days I've listened to nonstop sirens, watched armoured vehicles rumble past, helicopters hover overhead, as cops partitioned part of the neighbourhood. I have watched from the window as…

]]> Thu, 11 Aug 2011 07:31:42 +1200 Hebe https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224101#post224101 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224101#post224101 Just in from my friend, as I was posting the previous. She's safe. In Notting Hill Gate, nearer Westbourne Park end, holed up in the flat:
The night before last there was a lot of noise of shouting, cars roaring and breaking glass. As far as I can tell, the…

]]> Wed, 10 Aug 2011 21:15:55 +1200 Hebe https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224099#post224099 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224099#post224099 It’s also a product of a long-standing narrative in Britain which has seen elites across the political spectrum look the other way as many of a generation of urban youth, the stereotypical council-estate-dwellers, are excluded. The boom years camouflaged this.
I totally agree. The words and attitudes I have been…

]]> Wed, 10 Aug 2011 21:00:54 +1200 Christopher Dempsey https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224084#post224084 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224084#post224084 I hate the consumerism of the rioters. I wish they were chanting slogans, I wish they were carrying placards, I wish there was a clear political point to what they’re doing. I wish they didn’t seem to be so clearly shopping.
I do think that any riot is political, even without… ]]> Wed, 10 Aug 2011 17:52:54 +1200 Jean Hughes https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224073#post224073 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224073#post224073 That's insane
yes just as insane as these riots.

]]> Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:30:37 +1200 Russell Brown https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224068#post224068 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224068#post224068 Also our teams in Blackpool, Bolton, West London, Wakefield, Wolves, Salford etc have had their funding stopped or severely reduced. Associated agencies who help with transition from education to work have also been closed down in these areas.

Oh, damn. You know that I know what a lifeline your services…

]]> Wed, 10 Aug 2011 13:37:51 +1200 Jean Hughes https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224063#post224063 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224063#post224063 Wed, 10 Aug 2011 12:29:50 +1200 Sacha https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224042#post224042 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224042#post224042 Here we have a government which draws its power from demonising those at the bottom.

and we should all be wary about any resurrection of the "underclass" narrative by Act and the Nats in our own neck of the woods.

]]> Wed, 10 Aug 2011 10:38:36 +1200 Carlos Rey https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224020#post224020 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224020#post224020 Wed, 10 Aug 2011 06:48:10 +1200 Conrad Heine https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224019#post224019 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224019#post224019 An excellent post there, summing up my own feelings. Russell’s post is also thorough and accurate, from afar.

I’ve lived in Peckham for almost two decades now, and strolling along the high street this morning, coathangers crunching under my feet, I’m struck by the teenagers plastering “Why I love Peckham”…

]]> Wed, 10 Aug 2011 06:18:41 +1200 Tamsin6 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224007#post224007 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224007#post224007 I hate that the rioters are mostly spoken of as young black youths, when the pictures clearly show other races and young women as well. I hate that we have so demonised young black men that they are the first image people seem to conjure when they hear of riots.… ]]> Tue, 09 Aug 2011 23:56:55 +1200 Ben Austin https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224001#post224001 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=224001#post224001 I don't see that this is going to have an immediate impact on David Cameron. I would think instead that this could bolster him if he strikes the right tenor to the nation. Hard to judge that till we see it though.

I suspect there will be a huge amount…

]]> Tue, 09 Aug 2011 22:51:45 +1200 nic.wise https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223982#post223982 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223982#post223982 @Islander: man, the number of times I could’ve used that – thank you

Feel free to. (CC) :)

I can’t recommend it tho. Not at all good for the blood pressure

]]> Tue, 09 Aug 2011 20:44:25 +1200 Bruce Wurr https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223978#post223978 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223978#post223978 Tue, 09 Aug 2011 19:13:29 +1200 Islander https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223974#post223974 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223974#post223974 this post may have been bought to you by way too little sleep and not enough coffee

man, the number of times I could've used that – thank you!

]]> Tue, 09 Aug 2011 18:14:39 +1200 nic.wise https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223972#post223972 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223972#post223972 Thanks Stella – nice reality check. I had to stop watching twitter – esp searching for my area – as it was winding me up to much. It ended up there was nothing, and most if not all of the twitter stuff was hoaxes and RTs

I hate that they’re…

]]> Tue, 09 Aug 2011 18:10:08 +1200 Russell Brown https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223969#post223969 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223969#post223969 short, purely descriptive post on the London Review of Books blogsite does it for me — this is all around my old house, I've walked on every one of those streets. He doesn't say so, but some of this shit's going down about 100 metres from the police… ]]> Tue, 09 Aug 2011 18:02:11 +1200 Simon Grigg https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223964#post223964 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223964#post223964 I love that Speaker has a guest post from Stella Duffy.

Indeed... thank you. I spent large slabs of time in the 1980s in Coldharbour Lane and it's environs, beginning a year or so after the '81 riots when the scars were everywhere and Railton Rd was still The Front…

]]> Tue, 09 Aug 2011 17:51:32 +1200 Biobbs https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223962#post223962 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223962#post223962 Tue, 09 Aug 2011 17:18:25 +1200 BlairMacca https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223953#post223953 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223953#post223953 Tue, 09 Aug 2011 16:24:43 +1200 giovanni tiso https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223951#post223951 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223951#post223951 This probably the best piece I have seen so far

I rather preferred this one, me.

]]> Tue, 09 Aug 2011 16:21:56 +1200 BlairMacca https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223949#post223949 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223949#post223949 This probably the best piece I have seen so far http://pennyred.blogspot.com/2011/08/panic-on-streets-of-london.html?showComment=1312858926012#c2976450711685191503

They don’t know, because they were not watching these communities. Nobody has been watching Tottenham since the television cameras drifted away after the Broadwater Farm riots of 1985. Most of the people who will be writing, speaking and pontificating…

]]> Tue, 09 Aug 2011 16:19:01 +1200 Russell Brown https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223925#post223925 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223925#post223925 This is so strongly against the media narrative, thanks for telling us

There's a #riotcleanup hashtag going off right now. That will be a cheering sight on a sobering morning.

]]> Tue, 09 Aug 2011 14:39:37 +1200 Paul Williams https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223921#post223921 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223921#post223921 I love the number of people on twitter who are offering to get out tomorrow morning and clean up Brixton and Croydon and Hackney and Liverpool and Birmingham and anywhere that needs it.

This is so strongly against the media narrative, thanks for telling us.

I saw a tweet that…

]]> Tue, 09 Aug 2011 14:28:13 +1200 Don Christie https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223915#post223915 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223915#post223915 I love that this surely must signal the end of Dave as PM.

Don't you believe it. Margaret Thatcher kept in power for far too long by setting the British up against each other. A mindset that continues today.

I wonder about the number of looters who will (deservedly) end…

]]> Tue, 09 Aug 2011 14:10:21 +1200 Carol Green https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223906#post223906 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223906#post223906 Tue, 09 Aug 2011 13:42:14 +1200 BenWilson https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223905#post223905 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223905#post223905 And anyway, I’d always rather play Pollyanna than Cassandra, the latter is so damn smug when things go wrong.

Nice. Word.

]]> Tue, 09 Aug 2011 13:40:42 +1200 Public Address https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223904#post223904 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-listening-to-coldharbour-lane/?p=223904#post223904 Discussion from blog post.

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