Peter Ackroyd: 'Rioting has been a london tradition for centuries'

RIOTING, A LONDON TRADITION: Peter Ackroyd puts London's chaos in context. "I can't get at all worked up about these most recent phenomena... I don't like those commentators who keep on saying that London will never be the same again. London is always the same again. I remember those comments were made very loudly after the [July 2005] terrorist attacks – 'London will never be the same again, London has lost its innocence' – it was all nonsense. London was exactly the same again the following day. Rioting has always been a London tradition. It has been since the early Middle Ages. There's hardly a spate of years that goes by without violent rioting of one kind or another."