Mystery surrounds a series of sinister red paint attacks...

0:04Hi, it's Rachel Abbott and welcome back to The Standard Podcast. If you're new here, hit follow and give us a rating. For all the latest news, head on over to standard.co.uk. Coming up later in the show, how to recreate the cottagecore garden aesthetic in the city. With the cottage garden, I liken it a bit to a no-makeup makeup look. So that natural look is underpinned by quite a lot of work. But first, mystery surrounds a series of red paint attacks both in and outside the capital. Undertaken in the early hours of the morning, vandals have splashed or smeared red paint across multiple properties, and residents fear the attacks could escalate.

0:52The latest incident in the early hours of May 16th in Leighbridge Road in Walthamstow was revealed by the standard City Hall editor Ross Lydell, who came across it by chance. In some cases, handwritten notes have been put through nearby letterboxes, identifying the same property as a brothel. But who is responsible and why? Joining us now is journalist David James Smith. David, when did these red paint attacks begin? Well, I think it's something that's been around for quite a few years, but the recent spate of them appears to be a couple of years old generally. And in London, they seem to have started about a year ago.

1:35In fact, exactly a year ago. Where in London have the attacks been most concerning? Well, the most attacks have occurred in the constituency of Stella Creasy, the MP for Walthamstow in North London, and in the wider borough of Waltham Forest in which Stella Creasy's constituency sits. How has the Met Police responded? Well, the Met Police told me that they'd been making inquiries through their local Safer Communities team. And they said that they've been gathering evidence where evidence has been available. We know something about some of the attacks. We know that in some of the instances, so it's common for red paint to be daubed across the front of buildings.

2:18They could be residential homes, apartments, shop premises. and sometimes the word brothel is daubed either in red paint or in other graffiti on the doors of properties and also some neighbours of properties that have been targeted had notes put through their door saying that the address you know near them is a brothel there's no obvious evidence that the places are actually brothels a couple of the places that you know one could suspect that maybe they are, but there's nothing really clear cut about the places that are supposedly identified as being brothels. It's kind of a strange and slightly sinister set of events.

2:58Can you explain more about the possible link to the activities of the Chinese triad gangs? There are two instances that appear to have potential links to the Chinese community in London. Obviously, the Chinese community is much bigger than people who are connected to gang activity or whatever but there is a history of triad gangs in China and also imported into UK and in an incident in Apton in West London that somebody else initially reported a website called London Centric there was CCTV with audio recording and the two people or group of people who were were seen daubing the paint and also using a hammer to smash a window they were speaking Mandarin in.

3:47Apparently, that's what's reported. And then in the very most recent attack, which was identified by another standard journalist, a chap of Chinese appearance, Chinese heritage was seen outside the door trying to clean the paint off afterwards. So these are slender links to triads. But what we do know is, and this is something that I researched myself, so I can speak to it, is that in mainland China, and particularly in Hong Kong as well, where there is triad activity, that one of the techniques that they use is splashing red paint on the homes of people. And it could be associated with loan sharking, debt collecting, extortion.

4:25It's kind of a warning to people. It's a threat, it's an intimidation. And sometimes in those cases, there have been further incidents where something more dramatic has happened. In one case, a chap who ran a restaurant, he claimed later that the Triad gang, this is in Hong Kong, were trying to extort money from him and he refused to give money, they daubed paint on the front of his property, and eventually it was burnt down. And he associated that escalation with the attempted extortion. So we haven't really seen the escalation in London, but there is obviously concern that it might happen. And it's not just in London.

5:03There have been attacks outside the capital too, haven't there? Yeah, so there've been a number of attacks. In the last couple of years, there've been incidents in Liverpool where three buildings were daubed with red paint in Reading. There was a cafe, a charity shop, a couple of houses were affected in Huddersfield up in Yorkshire, a Thai massage parlour and another premises were targeted and labelled as brothels. There's another attack in Yorkshire in Bradford and also a residential property in Clacton-on-Sea. So kind of everywhere really and no discernible pattern in those particular incidents but really you can say that the repeated incidents in the last year in the Waltham Forest area cannot be coincidental.

5:45They could be copycat attacks, that's been suggested, but there is something odd going on, definitely. I should say as well that in the most recent attack, the one that was identified by another standard journalist in Walthamstow, that there was CCTV footage seen in that as well, and it appeared to show two women being responsible for the daubing of the red paint. They always take place in the early hours of the morning where there isn't really anyone around. What has Stella Creasy, MP for Walthamstow, said? Well, Stella Creasy's been commenting on it for a while and she's appeared on BBC Newsnight talking about it.

6:21She wants to see the police doing more. I think that she's not entirely convinced the police are taking it seriously as yet and is wondering whether the local police need greater expertise to investigate. Gay, I think she perhaps had in mind the National Crime Agency who look at organised crime on a wider level. And she recognises that people are alarmed and distressed, particularly some of those affected. You know, I think it's quite a disturbing thing. If it happens at your house, there was one account in which somebody said that their young daughter thought it was blood that had been splashed around.

6:54You know, so you can see how concerning it is. It might seem like not very much from the outside, but if you're affected by it, it's obviously quite disturbing. Let's go to a break. Coming up in part two, flora, fauna and top tips to transform your urban outside space. We'll see you back here in just a moment.

7:33Welcome back. Green fingers at the ready? The cottage garden look is a hot horticultural trend this year. Imagine roses around doorways and deep borders humming with bees. You can bring a little of this romantic, rambling and whimsy look to your outside space, no matter the size. Joining us now is journalist Lucy Pavia to tell us more. Lucy, how would you describe the cottagecore look? The cottage garden look is this quintessentially British gardening style. It was most famously pioneered by a horticulturist called Gertrude Jekyll. Great name. The look of a cottage garden, it's informal, it's rambling.

8:13It often mixes edibles like strawberries and herbs with flowers. Think of a Beatrix Potter garden and you're basically there. It's always been popular, but it's particularly popular at the moment. partly I think because there is this sort of homespun cottagecore movement going on across social media with trad wives at the most extreme end. But I also think because there is this big vogue for English maximalism in the interiors world and it feels as if the cottage garden look is the outdoors answer to this trend. It's definitely more is more. How can someone channel this look in a small urban patch?

8:46Yeah, so a lot of London gardens could be a slightly uninspiring layout. You've got the sort of small square lawn if you're lucky or a little patio with a tiny border around the outside. Strictly speaking with a cottage garden you really want to have generous borders to get the layering and different heights of planting. So if you can at least a meter of space allows or more one and a half meters one garden designer suggested but obviously that's not always practical because you know with a small London garden you don't want to sacrifice space. So instead you could look at breaking up a smaller garden with pockets of cottage garden style planting and then it's really making the most of that vertical space.

9:25Often with a London garden you're looking out at a lot of boundary fence or wall so it's all about getting those climbers in to really soften things up like your jasmine, roses, clematis, climbing hydrangea. The other thing with a cottage garden look is for structure. You can also think about introducing lovely willow wigwams or obelisks that you can grow sweet peas up or climbing roses. So it's really about taking that quite boring square London garden and giving it more of a sort of soft romantic feel. And I was interested to read how it boosts biodiversity too. Tell me more. So cottage gardens are amazing for biodiversity actually because they typically feature lots of pollinator-friendly plants.

10:06So wild geraniums, catmint, echinacea, salvia. Grass is like, I'm going to pronounce this wrong, but it's Verbena bonariensis is one of my favourites and it's amazing for butterflies. Also having a cottage-style garden that's more rambling and less manicured, it means there's more little corners for insects to live in. I'd say avoid using any harsh sprays or insecticides. Slugs are often an issue in a little London garden so you can deter them with natural repellents like crushed up eggshells or wool pellets. I live in London, I have a very small garden. I've got one of those tiny little bee houses which fills up every year with leafcutter bees which is really lovely.

10:44Just this morning I was looking at my roses and I found a rose chafer beetle which has this beautiful iridescent green back. So I suppose what I'm saying is it's kind of amazing what will turn up when you create just a little bit of space for it. Finally you've mentioned lots of plants already but which ones are best for cottagecore in London? Loads but I think for London in particular. Roses I mean they're the classic cottage garden plant and they tend to do really well in London because it's a clay soil which roses love. My favourite is the Gertrude Jekyll which is a David Austin rose and it's named after the main woman herself and it's glorious and it makes a really lovely cut flower.

11:21My other absolute fail-safes which are really hard to kill are wild geraniums like geranium roseanne, lovely purple flowers, alchemyllum mollus or ladies mantle. It gives a gorgeous sort of lime green spray. Mexican daisies are amazing for a little London garden because they'll grow pretty much anywhere even between gaps in paving and they'll flower from like early spring until the autumn which is amazing for a little london garden when you really want those longer flowering perennials herbs like rosemary that's great for some evergreen structure in the winter because obviously remember you're looking out in a little garden that in the winter you want it to have something going on too i've grown wild strawberries in mine which is lovely which and work in pots climbers like clematis or armandai which is evergreen montana is also popular jasmine is lovely upper brick garden wall which heats up in the sun and gives up a beautiful scent.

12:11A garden designer called Butter Wakefield also recommended a crabapple tree which is great because it's quite compact and even if it's a little one in a pot is so lovely it's great for pollinators you can get a really nice little compact one like a Rudolph so it's really good for a small space. I think those are my favourites you know it does require work you can't just kind of plant things and let them ramble and hope for the best there is some structure underpinning it. ideally keep it simple I would say go for those fail safes if you're you know if you're starting out but I think it just it really it's very very rewarding and it's lovely having a soft romantic garden to enjoy all summer

12:52and that's the standard for all the latest news head to standard.co.uk if you'd like to get in touch please do at podcasts at standard.co.uk. We'll be back here on Monday at 4pm. Have a lovely weekend.