‘Young people want to come together’: experts respond to mass teen meet-ups in Clapham

Academics and youth workers say cuts to services, not social media, help explain recent unrest in south London

It started with a flyer sent around on Snapchat. Teenagers were invited to gather at a south London basketball court to celebrate the start of the Easter holidays. They were told to bring their own weed and laughing gas because it was going to be a late one.

What followed in the hours after was chaos. Hundreds of young people came to the “link-up” last Saturday, and then gathered on Clapham High Street.