New Brockley Co-Op damaged in riots

Last night, Brockley was lucky to emerge relatively unscathed from the riots. As looting swirled around SE4, in Lewisham, Deptford, Peckham, New Cross, East Dulwich, Lee, the Old Kent Road and Catford, the distant sound of sirens racing to another location and the occasional whiff of smoke were most people's experience.

However, last night it appeared that the Brockley Cross Business Centre was broken in to and this morning, there are reports that the new Co-Op, which opened only days ago in west Brockley, was vandalised. We're trying to get more details. If anyone has a photo, please let us know.

We'd like to think that Brockley's escape was due to the warmth of our hearts, the cohesiveness of our community and the responsible attitude towards social media engendered by the Brockley Central massive. However, the more realistic explanation is that Brockley was saved by the inadequateness of its high street - unlike all the areas that were hit, it doesn't have a strong identity as a central location for people to gather and loot. Its status among property writers as "London's best kept secret" applies equally well among looters.

Or maybe the Orange mobile signal was so bad that flash-looting by mobile became technically impossible.