Death of Keith Blakelock Death of Keith Blakelock Keith Henry Blakelock was a London Metropolitan Police constable who was murdered on 6 October 1985 during rioting at the Broadwater Farm housing estate in Tottenham, north London. The trouble broke out after a local black woman died of heart failure during a police search of her home, and took place against a backdrop of unrest in several English cities and a breakdown of relations between the police and black communities. PC Blakelock had been assigned on the night of his death to Serial 502, a unit of 11 constables and one sergeant dispatched to protect
Broadwater Farm the Department of the Environment concluded that the estate was of such poor quality that the only solution was demolition. While residents objected to conditions, some also opposed the demolition plan. Relations between the community and the local authority became increasingly confrontational. A process of redevelopment began in 1981, but it was hampered by a lack of funds and an increasingly negative public perception of the area. By the time that Alice Coleman's critique of 1960s planned housing, "Utopia on Trial" (1985), was published, the estate was regarded as being representative of unsuccessful large-scale social housing projects. When a major