Police shut down huge area of northeast London

556

View
comments

Police were forced to shut down a huge area of northeast London last night after hundreds flocked to illegal silent discos with no social distancing in sight – after a weekend of partying in pubs, bars and parks across the UK.   

Footage from Millfields Park in Hackney captured dozens of partygoers as they gathered for a late-night rave in the capital on Sunday, with groups seen drinking while wearing green and purple flashing headphones. 

In another clip, police officers stood watch inside Hackney Downs Park – where hundreds of revellers had gathered to party despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. 

The entirely of Millfields Park, near the River Lea, was last night subject to a Section 35 Dispersal Order ‘due to an unlicensed music event,’ Hackney Police confirmed on Twitter. 

The same order was authorised an hour later across the E5, E8 and N16 postcodes from 9:20pm until 11am on Monday, following ‘a number of unlicensed music events’ in Hackney Downs park and Cecilia Road.

The northeast London shutdown came on the second day of widespread post-lockdown boozing, after thousands seized the opportunity to celebrate eased restrictions on what was dubbed ‘Super Saturday’. 

Earlier on Sunday, Britons had continued the previous night’s revelry and flocked to beer gardens, bars and the streets of Soho, London to enjoy another long-awaited pint after new regulations allowing pubs in England to reopen came into force. 

The scenes come after social distancing was declared to be in tatters on Sunday after drunkenness, brawls and vomiting returned to the country’s nightlife as millions of pints were poured on Saturday’s night of heavy boozing.

Hackney Police said: ‘A Section 35 Dispersal Order has been authorised for the entirety of Millfields Park E5 by Inspector Norman due to an unlicensed music event. This dispersal is in place in order to prevent disorder.

‘Due to a number of unlicensed music events in the areas of Hackney Downs park and Cecilia Road, a Sec 35 dispersal zone has been authorised by Insp Weeks from 21:20 05/07/20 til 11:00 06/07/20 within the E5, E8 and N16 postcodes.’

Last night, eager Britons were spotted in close proximity as they sat outside bars and pubs in London to continue a weekend-long celebration of the return of pubs.

Others were spotted seated at socially distanced tables as they enjoyed a tray of pints and shots outside bars in Manchester. 

And in Leighton-on-Sea, Essex, Britons were pictured spilling out of The Crooked Billet with queues stretching around the street – as the nearby Peterboat pub was packed on Sunday. 

Elsewhere, in Poole Quay, Dorset, groups of people gathered outside the popular Poole Arms to enjoy a drink with their families and friends. In Liverpool, football fans enjoyed a drink outside Hotel Anfield before watching Liverpool vs Aston Villa in Anfield. 

Despite the chaos on Saturday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock hailed the biggest easing of restrictions so-far a ‘success’ and claimed the drinkers had ‘very, very, largely acted responsibly’. 

Speaking to Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Mr Hancock said: ‘Very very largely people have acted responsibly and this balanced message is so important. People should enjoy summer safely and of course the emphasis is both on enjoy and safely.

‘Of course everybody knows that we are doing everything we can to get back to normal but only to do that when it’s safe to do so.

‘Overall I’m pleased with what happened yesterday. It was really good to see people out and about and largely, very largely, social distancing.’

He added: ‘My overriding message to people is yes enjoy the new freedoms but do so safely following social distancing. It is so important and even the basics like washing you hands.’ 

Earlier, a senior police officer predicted a fresh coronavirus onslaught after being confronted with ‘pub fights, drunken violence and drunken, drugged-up fools’ last night. 

Police Sergeant Richard Cooke of the West Midlands force tweeted: ‘Just got home after a long shift late shift peppered with pub fights, domestic violence & drunken drugged up fools. If today was anything to go by the second wave won’t be long in the making!’ 

His account was mirrored by Police Federation Chairman John Apter, who recalled dealing with ‘naked men, happy drunks, angry drunks, fights and more angry drunks’ while on duty in Southampton.

He added ‘What was crystal clear is that drunk people can’t/won’t socially distance. It was a busy night but the shift managed to cope. I know other areas have had issues with officers being assaulted.’  

But Health Secretary Matt Hancock this morning hailed the biggest easing of restrictions a ‘success’ and claimed the drinkers had ‘very, very, largely acted responsibly’.

Yet the government’s one-metre plus rule quickly evaporated in the most vibrant areas last night such as London’s Soho, which became ‘out of control’ as thousands spilled on to the streets.  

Experts said Britons sank up to 15million pints yesterday, as revellers shrugged off the miserable weather and headed to pubs and bars to enjoy their first taste of a draught pint since late March. 

The government has come under fire for lifting restrictions too early while Leicester is still battling its own local outbreak, with many opting to stay at home for fear of driving a second nationwide wave.   

While much of the evening passed peacefully, paramedics were seen tending to inebriated revellers collapsed on the floor, while other pub-goers were seen vomiting in the street. 

A massive brawl erupted at the Three Tuns pub in Tamworth shortly after the first pints were pulled. Fists flew as about a dozen men scuffled in the beer garden to the horror of witnesses.  

In London, Metropolitan Police Commander Bas Javid some venues decided to shut early, yet he said that the night went relatively smoothly.

The police chief said: ‘The majority of the public complied with social distancing guidelines and remained vigilant.  While some areas were notably busy such as Soho and Portobello Road, we are pleased there were no significant issues or incidents in the capital. 

‘A small number of premises decided to close early following advice from officers due to crowding and social distancing issues and we thank them for their responsible actions.’ 

He urged the public not to throw away the past three months in wresting down the virus by risking a second wave 

Forces across the country have reported a busy night for constables, with police in Devon and Cornwall saying they received more than 1,000 reports last night, most of which were ‘drink-related’.  

The force tweeted last night: ‘We have just topped 1000 police logs for today with two hours left to go. The majority of reports this evening have been linked to drink related disorder and anti-social behaviour.’ 

Officers in West Yorkshire were called to a ‘safety concern’ at a village pub near Bradford, while crowds flocked to a rave in Leeds’ Hyde Park.

As drink flowed and tempers flared, four people were arrested in Brentwood High Street, Essex, following a ‘disturbance’, while in Nottinghamshire, some pub owners took the decision to close up after incidents of anti-social behaviour.

Cleveland Police broke up an ‘illegal rave’ in a forest on Teesside, where they drove out more than 200 people with a police helicopter.

West Midlands police made four arrests connected to pubs and bars and said they had very few calls regarding any trouble – although received a high number of fight-related 999 calls, while also seeing a spike in domestic abuse reports.

And worryingly in Leicester, where a local lockdown has been enforced due to a spike in coronavirus cases, police called on ‘more officers on duty than on New Year’s Eve’ – to prevent people attempting to sneak out of the city in order to reach the pubs outside the lockdown zone.

Down the road, in picturesque Market Harborough, which is not part of the local lockdown zone, police last night authorised special powers to disperse groups of people following anti-social behaviour and ‘low-level disorder’. 

In Southampton, Mr Apter said: ‘It was an incredibly busy night, we all had our fingers crossed, which is not how we should be policing… The vast majority was sensible… It wasn’t the carnage so many of us predicted.

He added: ‘There were some pockets of resistance and when we were trying to educate people, we did get some push-back, some abuse, cameras thrust in our faces telling us what they thought of us.’ 

In Soho, police watched the crowds from boxed-in raised platforms, but did little to disperse the crowds.

Rafal Liszewski, 36, a store manager at Clonezone on Soho’s Old Compton Street in London described crowds in the area on Saturday night after pubs were allowed to trad again as ‘out of control’.

‘Saturday started very easy. But you could feel tension in the air.

‘Around 1pm crowds started to arrive… quickly everything got out of control and by 8-9 pm it was a proper street party with people dancing and drinking.

‘Barely anyone was wearing masks and nobody respected social distancing… to be honest with that many people on one street it was physically impossible.’

Mr Liszewski, who is originally from Poland but now lives in Finchley, estimated there was between two and three thousand people on the street but his shop was only allowing seven customers at a time.

Rubbish piled up on the streets of Soho as drinkers continued to party into the early hours of Sunday.

Marc Foley-Comer said the bars he went to in Soho on Saturday night had ‘excellent safety measures’ and social distancing in place, but the scenes outside resembled London’s Pride celebrations.

‘It was packed… it was like it was Pride – and very chaotic and people were pretty drunk but the police were en-force and doing a good job.

‘We decided to leave as it was too busy and too risky still… there was no social distancing.’

The guidance from the government allows groups from two households to gather inside pubs while maintaining one metre of social distancing from others, and groups of up to six from different households to gather outdoors. 

The Prime Minister urged restraint and ahead of the lockdown easing warned people not to undo the hard work in wrestling down the infection rate.

Health experts fear Britain is still at risk of a second wave of coronavirus with the R number between 0.7 and 0.9 for the whole country and feared to be creeping above one in London. 

A further 67 new coronavirus deaths were announced yesterday – the lowest Saturday tally since lockdown began, bringing the UK’s total deaths from Covid-19 to 44,198 – and there were 624 further positive coronavirus cases. 

Sir David King, the government’s former chief scientific adviser who has set up a rival Independent Sage, this morning said he believed ministers were lifting restrictions too soon.

He forecast that another 27,000 people could die of Covid-19 in the UK with the current rate of lockdown easing.

He told Sky News: ‘Britain as a whole should demand zero Covid UK. 27,000 excess deaths are likely between now and next April. 

‘If the expectation by the chief medical officer that he would be surprised and delighted if the UK is in the same place next spring then we would still have about 2/3000 new infections each day, then the amount of deaths would follow that.

He added: ‘This is almost entirely preventable, unacceptable it’s immoral, it is best for economic recovery. The quicker we can can get down to zero Covid, the quicker we can get economic opening across the UK.

‘It looks as if the policy is to maintain the current level of about 3,000 new infections a day across England while Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland are heading towards net zero.’

Speaking after the pubs reopened yesterday, he said: ‘I fully understand publicans who want to be getting back to full operation, but I would also advise only open that area of your pub where people can be outdoors and serve people outdoors where they’re not brushing up against each other

‘There are means of achieving these objectives (net zero cases) but we have to be patient and if we’re not patient because it’s not just a second wave, because if it bumps along at 3,000 a day, that’s what produces the 27,000 deaths.’ 

Confronted with pictures of packed streets today, critics of the lockdown easing flooded Twitter this morning with anger directed at ministers.

But others were pleased pubs were finally allowed to pull in punters after lying dormant for 104 days in lockdown.

The hospitality sector was among the hardest hit by the draconian restrictions as landlords were starved of income while in some cases still paying lofty overheads.

Drinkers were hit with hiked prices for beer, wine, cider and spirits as pub chains, including Wetherspoons, desperately tried to make up for lost business. 

To breathe life back into the UK’s flagging trade and wider economy, the PM last month announced that pubs, cafes, restaurants, cinemas and hairdressers could reopen on July 4 – which was instantly dubbed Independence Day and later morphed to become Super Saturday.

Only one chain of cinemas, Showcase, opened yesterday, but hundreds of hairdressers welcomed back customers with strict social distancing measures.

The lifting of curbs was the biggest leap out of lockdown since the nation shuttered on March 26, but the government insists it is acting cautiously.

Gyms, nail bars and nightclubs remain closed, sparking criticism from frustrated fitness junkies in particular who claim the dangers of working out are far less than going to the pub.

It is unclear when these venues will be allowed to reopen, but the PM has said gyms should be able to open in ‘a couple of weeks’.  

Among the first on the booze yesterday was Andrew Slawinski, 54, who return to the Toll Gate Wetherspoons in Turnpike Lane, north London. He said his Guinness was ‘gorgeous’, adding: ‘It’s like winning the [Premier] League.’

Ben Clark and his friends Curtis and Connor, were waiting for The Briar Rose in the heart of Birmingham to reopen from 7am.

The Geordie trio, covered in dust following a night shift working on a building site in the city, were ‘watching’ the pubs since 4am, eager to get their hands on the first pint since lockdown.

The mates wanted to grab a ‘well-deserved’ San Miguel and English breakfast from the Bennett’s Hill boozer.

Mr Clark said: ‘We’ve just finished night shifts, I’ve been watching the pubs since 4am this morning, when we came and reserved our tables ready for the pub opening ready for a pint of San Miguel and a breakfast.

‘I’m a big fan of Wetherspoons have been waiting for it since the first day of lockdown.’

Martin Sherrell, 63, pitched up at a Wetherspoons in Bristol at 8am and wolfed down a breakfast – before ordering alcohol as allowed at 9am.

He said he usually visits The Commercial Rooms but, as it was shut, was forced to relocate to The Berkeley with his two friends.

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage boasted he was the first inside his local boozer, but quickly saw himself fending off accusations of flouting social distancing rules

He denied breaking lockdown less than two weeks after he returned from a trip to the US – but the leader of the Lib Dems reported him to police.

Mr Farage, 56, said he returned from America two weeks ago and after quarantining tested negative for the virus.

The Brexit Party leader proudly posted a picture online of himself at lunchtime today holding a pint and declaring ’12 o’clock, first customer in. Love it.’

But critics weighed in on the former UKIP leader and said he had been in America on June 20, questioning how he could already be out of quarantineThe row took a surprising turn when acting Lib Dem leader Ed Davey reported him to Kent Police and asked them to investigate.

Read more: