"What news on the Rialto?"

Thirty years ago today saw the last of 9 days of rioting in the L8 postal district of Liverpool, otherwise known as Toxteth.

One of the buildings destroyed in the riots was the former Rialto cinema and ballroom. The Beatles played there in the 60s but by 1981 it was a rather less glamorous furniture warehouse. It stood here on the corner of Upper Parliament Street and Princes Road.

The riots had been sparked by the arrest of a young black man, Leroy Cooper, under the notorious SUS law but although they are often thought of as 'race riots', that isn't strictly true. Toxteth was (is) certainly the area of Liverpool with the highest density of Black residents and they were certainly subject to some decidedly dodgy, institutionally racist policing - but the frustrations of the residents weren't 'black against white'... they were about poverty, unemployment, poor housing and social exclusion compounded by racism.

The Toxteth Riots were part of a wider series of riots including Brixton (London), Handsworth (Birmingham) and St Pauls (Bristol) during 1980 and 1981 and the number one record in the UK charts as The Rialto burned was Ghost Town
by The Specials, which summed up the mood of the inner cities during Margaret Thatcher's first term all too eloquently...

"Why must the youth fight against themself?
Government leaving the youth on the shelf
No job to be found in this country
Can't go on no more.
The people getting angry..."

Thirty years later there have been some significant improvements - but L8 still faces considerable difficulties, not helped by the current economic climate of course.

The Rialto was re-built and currently houses 'The Rialto Centre for Neighbourhoods and Enterprise'...

To see some photos of what this view looked like during and after the riots have a look here.