Riot urls

The BC traffic spike in August, caused by the riots

Shinji Mimura: When we escape, it will be together.

- Battle Royale

Over the years, Brockley Central's monthly traffic has been on a slow, steady, satisfying upward trajectory, with most months setting new records. This month has buggered that up.

The London riots sent traffic through the roof, with 35,000 visitors on the Monday, when riots in Lewisham took place and 45,000 visitors on the Tuesday, when Brockley Kate provided coverage of the aftermath and we provided a live report, during which mostly nothing happened. On a good day, the site normally gets 2,000 visitors. In total, Brockley Central got more than 135,000 visits this August.

We know that other local websites like Transpontine and 853 experienced similar phenomena, which underlines the important role that hyperlocal media plays in covering these sorts of events. We imagine that for some people it was the first time they Googled their local area and discovered sites like these. We hope that some of them stick around for the post-Apocalyptic rebuild.