I arrived for Walthamstow riot nervous – crowd apprehensive me till I obtained nearer

When I walked out of Walthamstow central station, I was a little bit nervous i wasn’t sure what I was going to find.

The station was a ghost town and then I came out onto the road and looked out left and saw a huge crowd in front of me.

At that moment slightly my heart rate went up because I didn’t really know what that crowd was, who was there. As I walked towards it police vans lining the streets and perimeter around it it quickly became apparent that there was no one from the far-right there.

The place was completely dominated by people who believed in peace, who had no time for the rioters believed to be coming out.

The crowd was peaceful it was a real feeling of resilience and hope to some extent it felt like the people of Walthamstow had come together and completely rejected the idea that their town could be anything other than a place that was with good people who wanted to get along with each other. Cars were beeping, there were dogs everywhere. People of all shapes and sizes of all walks of life were walking around it was a very harmonious atmosphere.

It wasn’t completely free of edge, you got the feeling that had it kicked off there were people ready to maybe push against it. There was the odd person walking around with there face covered. A few people who seemed a little bit amped up maybe, but generally speaking the vibe was one of rejection and of community.

To be honest I spoke to one guy and by all assumptions I thought he was going to say that he wasn’t in favour of the way the protests had gone today and he told me that there was no space for fascists in Walthamstow or in London at all. And the whole thing felt like a victory for people who rejected the far-right.

Some friends of mine who live in Walthamstow who also came down to the protest told me the local owners of businesses from the Lebanese and non-white owned businesses were all out in support. It was the community coming out to reject their town being turned into something that it wasn’t. There was a lot of boarded-up shops which was a little but jarring to see but ultimately the people running those shops came out and the reason they weren’t in their shops is because they were at the counter-protest themselves.

The hub at the heart of the community the ye old rose and crown had closed its doors to drinkers which I fell a foul of I must admit because I was hoping for a pint there – it’s a good boozer. But they had instead turned it into a welfare centre so the doors were shut for people who wanted a pint but open to people who needed somewhere to feel safe if they felt overwhelmed by the crowds.

And that was the sign that Walthamstow fully rejected the far-right protest.

Local residents Matt and Becky told me: “So a great side of the community spirit. In our local group chat people were inviting other residents to join them at the protest so they didn’t have to be alone and just making sure that anyone who wanted to go felt like they could. And sharing information about the day, making sure everyone was feeling okay it was a real sense of Walthamstow coming out in full force.”

It’s now 10pm and crowds have all dispersed, Walthamstow has largely gone back to normal. Young people are having drinks, there’s a celebratory atmosphere for sure. Now it’s business as usual.