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 where a gas explosion in 1968 caused progressive collapse, killing four people. Broadwater Farm was built using the same Taylor Woodrow-Anglian system of panels as Ronan Point. The domino-like system of large structural slabs speeded the building and allowed cheaper, less expert labour to be used to assemble the prefabricated panels. Even so, construction standards were ignored; mortar joints stuffed with newspaper reduced drying time and weakened the buildings. The blocks were inspected for safety in 1985 about the same time that gas was installed. Gaps, wide enough to see the flat below, were found between the external wall panels