Death of Keith Blakelock Violence and looting spread throughout England for several days, leading to five deaths, extensive property damage and over 3,000 arrests. 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
Broadwater Farm the publication of Alice Coleman's "Utopia on Trial" in 1985, the area acquired a reputation as one of the worst places to live in the United Kingdom. This perception was exacerbated when serious rioting erupted later that year. However, following a major redevelopment programme, crime rates dropped dramatically, and the burglary rate was virtually zero percent in 2005. It is one of the most ethnically diverse locations in London; in 2005 its official population of 3,800 included residents of 39 different nationalities. Broadwater Farm was completed in the early 1970s and built using the same Taylor Woodrow-Anglian system of prefabricated