Police were called to the Dame Alice Owen, a pub in Islington, on St Patrick’s Day after reports of a man wielding what appeared to be a machete.
Three armed police cars arrived at the Dame Alice Owen on St John Street last Thursday (17 March), after two men ran into the pub with an unconfirmed weapon just after 8pm.
Students from City University told Islington Now that the pair arrived on a motorbike and rushed inside to look for three young men who were already hiding in the back. A guest at the pub shouted he had seen a machete, so the police were immediately called and drinkers on the outside tables scarpered. The two motorists quickly disappeared and the three youngsters, who were between 18 and 21 in age, escaped through the fire exit before the police arrived. No one was hurt.
Olivia Emily, a student who witnessed the event at the Islington pub, said: “I saw them kind of like swoop up round the side of the pub and they stopped and my first thought was like, do they do Deliveroo here?
“Thinking of it, my fight or flight response was not very good, because I did not flee quick enough. My first thought was like I need to get my backpack, because my friend’s bag was stolen the other day.
“I basically had a panic attack, because I was just so terrified because I thought it was a terrorist attack. It was the person who shouted ‘He’s got a machete’ that just threw me over the edge. I just thought we were all gonna die.”
Charlie Rainbow, general manager of the Dame Alice Owen, said: “We have CCTV, we have counter-terrorism training, it’s a safe pub.
“This is the first time anything like this has ever happened here and I’m confident that it won’t happen again. It’s a very nice pub in a nice area.
“There’s a police scheme called Safe Haven, which we’re going to be joining up to. So in incidents like this where three young gents were running from two gents on mopeds, they can take refuge in the pub.”
Islington Council started the Safe Haven scheme to improve street safety. Local businesses sign up to become a refuge for those in danger, so there is a network of safe places across the borough which will offer directions, support or can call the police in emergencies.
“Thursday night was St Patrick’s Day, so it was super busy. We were on track for a record breaking evening since I started,” said Rainbow, who began working at the pub six months ago.
“We still had a record evening. The really unusual thing is, throughout the event, [the] two staff that I had with me on the evening, carried on serving. I said: ‘Stop serving and just make sure everyone’s ok‘, but they carried on serving, so people were ordering shots, beers, someone ordered like five pizzas, my chefs carried on making pizzas through it as well.”
“I would say about 80% of people who were in the night before came back the next day,” Rainbow added.
Rhodri Evans, a student who was drinking at the pub on Thursday, said: “There was talk that it was like a baton. Other people said it was a machete. Yeah, I don’t think anyone can say for sure to be honest.
“It’s not a place that I would expect something like that to happen.”
“It’s weird because I don’t feel 100% safe still.” Emily said. “Normally the area feels very like sleepy and fine and like quiet, but I mean it has been a crazy few days.”
According to Rainbow, the CCTV footage will be collected in a couple of weeks although he has not had any further communication with the police; the Islington pub has carried on as usual.
