Mugging Moray Road 1 June

Bridget

Gawd,

Was watching TV last night and heard shouting outside - my husband looked outside and say 4 young black guys beating up and man with smashed bottles and robbing him. It all happened in a split second and they were off.

The poor guy had blood streaming from his face and went to Red Rita and called the police. The police turned up 2 hours later.

Feel really safe now. I lived in Stamford Hill for a while and was knifed and beaten up outside my flat in the early evening, I wasnt even carrying a bag.

This has made me feel really uneasy again, right outside my house - that poor guy. I know Finsbury Park is a bit rough - oh well.

Thinking of starting up neighbourhood watch, though not sure how effective that is.

Sorry, had to get this off my chest. How safe does everyone else feel and have they seem much of this around?

Bridget

Colette

Crickey. I'm really surprised, and slightly disappointed - I probably somewhat naively reckon FP is actually quite safe, contrary to what many people think/say. I've lived in the area for over 10 years now - the last 4 just off SGR, and have never once seen anyone get mugged, or felt remotely threatened. Closest encounter I've had with crime is my hubby having his mobile filched out of his rucksack in the tunnel in FP tube - he noticed straight away, confronted the guy, who denied it, dropped the phone and scarpered.
Do you know if this was totally unprovoked/random?

Bridget

Hi Colette,

Well that has made me feel much better. We got a letter from the police today asking for witnesses for the 'serious robbery'. Unfortunately my husband said to police last night he saw it and they said they would call today to take a witness statement, and they havent. Oh well. I think the guy was coming back from the pub, they were about 16/18 and jumped him, the were all on top of him on the ground - they could have followed him. They smashed a bottle on his head I think. The police said last night he went to the pub to ask for help.

I have lived here for a year and have felt a lot safer than where I was, and I have a friend in Perth Road who walks around on his own at all hours who says nothing has happened.

We are near Fonthill Road, maybe that is still very rough. We also have a little alleyway nearby, so maybe that is handy for jumping people?

I do see lots of groups of teenage boys looking a bit scary sometimes - in hooded tops - on BMX bikes and brandishing a baseball bat at cars the other day.

I just have to make sure Justin - me bloke doesnt go out too late on his own to get take-aways which we do a lot!

Im pleased you have said that though, makes me feel better.

Thanks,

Bridget

Mike from London

Bridget, I have lived in this area since 1987, and in all that time I have never experienced any hassle at all. My sole acquaintance of street mugging is that once, about 15 years ago, a neighbour got jumped one early evening in Woodstock Road coming back from the tube and had his mobile nicked - and that's it. I've never thought twice about going out anywhere in this area, at any time of day or night.

Having said that I have always lived east of SGR and I don't have any reason to visit bars in the Fonthill/Moray Road area late at night. The Fonthill Road / Moray Road end always seems a bit edgier and a bit closer to Holloway. It sounds like there may have been something personal going on though.

katiejane

For what it's worth, me neither. Me and my partner have been here for eight years or so, and nothing (with the exception of a couple of full scale riots outside the WLOM).

I just figure nowhere's going to be completely safe. The closest experience I've had was my flatmate was mugged just outside her flat in Compton Road, Islington, which is a really posh road.

Can't believe the police took so long - have you spoken to the safer neighbourhoods lot?

Colette

Hmmm, one of the things I like about SGR is precisely the absence of gangs of kids - I never see any hanging about round our way - but maybe it's the proximity to Hornsey rd/Holloway rd that makes a difference?

katiejane

Or the Andover Estate. Not that there's anything wrong with council estates you understand. I blame Anne Widdecombe.

unaesthetic

really sorry to hear about the local nastiness…

we occasionally see gangs of behooded yoof strolling down woodstock road, once or twice i've seen 'em mucking around with "weapons" - sticks, mostly. a week or two ago a bunch was playing around with a fluorescent tube; one of them urging another to break it over his head. which he did. i rolled my eyes and scurried onwards.

i've always thought this area was pretty safe, although some of you may have seen my mrs post about the various times we've called 999 (insane naked crack-whore burglary, someone attacking a homeless woman under the railway bridge, bloke walking down woodstock road frequently kicking his dog so hard it was yelping) plus we had squatters in the basement flat and our front yard covered in heaps of stuff they'd clearly been stealing to pay for horse. so i don't know. i hope that it was a freak occurrence, but you never know.

matt

Really sorry to hear about this, but I suspect the police will ask your husband what exactly he saw - and judging by your story above that's not much at all. they can only act on fact. Also, I've never had any trouble in my 10 years(!) in the area, though when I lived the nearer/on Holloway Road it was a little rougher. A friend of mine used to live on Fonthill Road. Apart from the occupant of the flat above her dying - on two separate occasions - and a guy with psychological problems making up stories that he swore blind she was involved it - such as buying a race horse with him - she had no problems.

Ali

I have been around here for quite a while and can say that the area is a lot safer than it used to be. The only incidents that stick in my mind was the spate of armed muggings that went on around Marquis Rd, and Albert Road, lots of car break ins and burglaries but that was around 12 years ago during the dog end of Tory rule.

The outstanding incident was the kidnap of a drunken suit who had bought a takeaway at the Chicken Perfect place near to Cats on his way home. It was just after Davies & Davies had moved from that shop to corner. He was abducted at gun point and driven around London and dumped somewhere in the East End.

I see the Andover is mentioned as the source which I guess is quite likely I would walk through there at night. The Harmonsworth Hospital in there is like a fortress and there was always loads of security protecting the BBC filming vans when they where left there while filming that Rolf Harris show.

matt

If we're talking cars, then yes I've had one break in - they smashed a window when it was parked on Ferme Park Road along with a handful of cars up and down the road on the same day. They didn't steal anything, but on the passenger seat took their time to lay everything they could find in there (not much: an A-Z, some pens, a sticker, and other rubbish) and then obviously decided none of it was worth the bother! I found it hilarious. Also had a car window smashed in down in Chiswick - go figure.

Billy Bookcase

We've been here for 26 years off and on. Again, we've always been east of SGR.
Ali is right about what went on twelve years ago but the person who was responsible was dealt with harshly and not by the courts.
We started to lock our front door around that time after an early morning visit from somebody who took a camera from our hallway. Apart from that nothing to report. Our--extremely tall--next door neighbour was threatened recently on SGR but the only violence I have ever witnessed locally was being administered enthusiastically by the police.

Glyn

Can only add that SG is the safest place I have lived in London.

Was in Golders Green for three years and had no end of hassle there amazingly, including getting severely beaten by a gang of young urchins, resulting in surgery on one of my ears. The police were beyond hopeless.

I was massively disappointed to learn that the brats used my credit card to buy £24 worth of booze in Willesden and nothing else!

As has been said above, the seeming lack of kids aged 14-18 around the place seems to be a bit of a bonus when it comes to avoiding pointless violence.

Bridget

Good to hear all the responses, which makes me and Justin feel a lot better. We were both really shaken up, it was quite a violent robbery and sounded horrible, I can still hear it in my head. Oh well.

That is so funny I say those guys with the inner tube - a blue one I think. The young girl downstairs say a kid getting attacked by a crowd of yoofs on Fonthill Road a couple of months ago as she was cycling home from work and they ran off with his mobile phone.

She kindly got of her bike and went up to the kid to check if he was ok and helped him up - he asked for her phone to call the police which she gave to him.

And then he ran off with it!

There was a spate of muggings in the 80s in Haslemere Road in Crouch End mum says!

I spoke to the woman next door to me and she was very suprised as there hasnt been any muggings for a long while. She said the corner of Moray and Woodfall Road used to be a hotspot about 10 years ago and for 5 years women kept getting their bags snatched on the corner and her friend kept finding their empty bags in her garden.

We had our wing mirror taken off a couple of weeks ago and a few weeks before that our hubcaps. We have just changed car and gave my mum the golf - her wing mirror was taken off in Haslemere Road last week!

There you go! Thats me crime monthly.

Bridget

katiejane

@ jeremy fisher - how tall is your extremely tall neighbour? Is he over 6' 5"? In fact, who's the tallest person in SG? (I think I might know a couple of contenders.)

matt

I'm only 5'10.5" But its worth remembering that Ive only witnessed one crime event in the area in 10 years. I'm sure you'd get similar numbers if you asked people to think positively about crime. Conversely, just try looking for bad reviews on Amazon. Much more difficult.

Billy Bookcase

I'm afraid he is certainly over 6.5. Though I don't know the actual metrics. His knees stick out sideways when he is cycling.
His stature seemed to be a factor in what drew this angry violence towards him. Sadly, he didn't say how tall his threatener was.
The would-be attacker seemed to regard him as something of a challenge or potential trophy victim if that's the right phrase.

SimonB

I've lived around here since 1996 ... and never had a serious problem. In fact I feel safer round here than in Cambridge where I grew up!

The only problems I've witnessed are:

* my brother's car being broken into outside my flat
* some bloke tried to walk off with my huge and very heavy bag on SGR while I was talking to a friend (he didn't get far)
* some guys trying to steal from passenger bags on the buses

Liz

When I lived on Turle Road, off Tollington Park, there was always quite a lot of car crime because of the school/Turle-Wray open space. My very old Volvo got totalled by some local yoof in a stolen pink mini Metro (obviously the twockers car of choice...). But apart from that, I don't think it's much more or less safe than most other places outside Hackney...

Giles

Never seen any violence here (apart from the bi-annual beatthecrapoutofeachotherathon depending on which end of the Seven Sisters Road you live )

Had a car nicked from Quernmore Road about 12 years ago.

matt

Helicopter hovering over the other day, Police out and about Trinder/Shaftesbury/Hornsey roads. Was in the shop at the time and a Police woman came in and when asked about the out come responded "oh yes, we got him!" 

Bridget

I just found out from my lovely neighbour that the arrested the mugger who attacked the man in our road!

Amazing!

andy

Touching wood, I've always felt quite safe in the fonthill parts of FP. For what it's worth, I am 186cm tall.

tosscat

How tall is everyone else on SG.org? I'm 193cm tall.

katiejane

I'm 6' 1 and 1/2"

Colette

I'm a primordial dwarf.

andy

My BMI is 24.5

tosscat

Ergo Andrew weighs 85kg.

andy

give or take a cake or two

katiejane

Mine's 21.67.

Philistine'sMonster

Don't tell anyone, but I'm just over 6' 5.

There are taller people, though, but we're surprisingly good at hiding.