ToxtethToxteth is an area of inner-city Liverpool, England, starting approximately a mile south from the city centre. The area is, very roughly, located in the rough triangle formed by Sefton Street (A5036 - along the river), Upper Parliament Street leading into Smithdown Road (A562) and Ullet Road (B5342). It is also known as 'Liverpool 8' after the former postal district (now the “L8” postcode area). However, the bad reputation that Toxteth has had in the past means several L8 locations prefer to be known by their sub-area rather than Toxteth itself, eg, the Georgian area of ‘Canning’, around Catherine Street. Politically, the parliamentary constituency (Liverpool Riverside) and council ward (Granby) are both currently under Labour control (although the MP, Louise Ellman, is Labour Co-op rather than strictly Labour). House prices are cheap in Toxteth: in summer 2003, the average property price was just £45, 929 (compared to the national average of £160, 625). Housing tends to be in terraces but there is a growing number of flats available as larger Victorian properties (particularly around the Princes Road/Avenue boulevard) are broken up into separate dwellings. The previously mentioned Canning area, at the north of the Toxteth boundary, features many fine examples of Georgian architecture - previously the houses of merchants and those profiting for the port of Liverpool. Unfortunately, Toxteth is probably most famous for the riots that took place in 1981. Fierce battles between members of the local community and the police took place in July of that year - sparked by the arrest of Leroy Alphonse Cooper. The Merseyside police force had a poor reputation at the time for stopping and searching young blacks in the area under the infamous “sus” laws and the police officers’ handling of Cooper, watched by an angry crowd, led to a disturbance in which three officers were injured. Over the next weekend, this exploded into full scale rioting, involving petrol bombs (used by the “rioters”) and CS gas (used by the police). In the first week alone, there were approximately 470 injured police officers, 500 arrests and over 70 buildings destroyed. Outside popular opinion labelled the riots, like those around the same time in Brixton and the year before in Bristol, as simply “race riots” but this is not strictly the case. There are many reports of similarly frustrated white youths travelling in from other areas of Liverpool to fight alongside those from Toxteth against the police. Putting the blame on “race problems” allowed many people, including the Merseyside Chief Constable at the time, Kenneth Oxford, to ignore the possibility of general social problems behind the violence. \nExternal links
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"You got to be careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there." - Yogi Berra |
