Coming home up through Camden Town - it brought home the full impact on our area- even though there had been only minor disturbance in Camden compared to the scale of what has been seen in other boroughs.
Everywhere was boarded-up or being boarded-up unless they had metal grills already. The few exceptions were kebab and burger shops that looked as though they intended to sta open.
There was a very substantial police presence as I passed by at 8:00pm and things were calm. However, the Chalk Farm area had been the focus of activity in the borough last night - so it seems like shops were given extra warnings.
Finchley Road I didn't notice any difference to normal. West End Lane - Sainsbury's was closed early - and Domino's Pizza was putting up protective boards.
Kilburn High Road also didn't have much boarding - but did have a heavy police presence.
Car Phone Warehouse seemed to be taking extra precautions as they've clearly been a target in other places. The Camden Town branch had a notice saying all stock had been removed - and Kilburn High Road said it was closed for renovations. I hear their fairly isolated store on Finchley Road was attacked last night. How bizarre to attack that store - it goes to show how much opportunism there is amongst the theives.
I heard unconfirmed reports that Cricklewood Broadway McDonalds had been attacked - which no doubt explained why there were more than a dozen police officers outside the Kilburn branch.
Whilst I was speaking to a police officer a young girl from a flat 2 stories above us called down to ask the officer if he was using plastic bullets. At first I thought she was worried if he was - but it was soon obvious she would very much welcome him being armed with baton rounds to protect her local area.
Isn't it awful that that despite the massive, welcome, but delayed police response the streets are so intimidating; that such London feels a lot less safe than it did last week and that we're bring made to retreat further into our homes by the gangs.
West End Lane was relatively free of hoardings compared to Camden Town - Just Domino's taking precautions around 9:00pm on Tuesday.
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