A SHOP which has been trading for 36 years is to close after failing to recover from being looted during last year's riots.

A gang smashed their way into designer clothes shop Aristocrat in Chingford Mount Road, Chingford, in the early hours of August 8 last year as violence spread across the country following the fatal shooting by police of Mark Duggen in Tottenham.

Stock worth £100,000 was taken and £20,000 worth of damage caused, while two police officers were hit by the getaway car used by the looters.

Now owner Lawrence Taylor, 59, who moved to Woodbury Way in Chingford at the age of 14, has decided to close the shop and concentrate on running his other business with his sister in Bishops Stortford.

He said: "We tried to continue, but business isn't good. The riots were an absolute travesty, they were the final straw.

"I still have the recordings of the attack saved and watch it if I want to depress myself. It wasn't nice at the time.

"It got to the point where the amount of turnover we were making with the amount of aggravation we were going through just wasn't worth it."

Mr Taylor developed a passion for fashion during his teens and opened the shop in 1976.

And he expressed sadness that he will no longer serve generations of families in Chingford. "I was a young man when I opened up in Chingford.

I was serving families when I was in my early twenties and now I'm serving their grandchildren," he said.

"It wasn't an easy decision to make, but we have had to give up.

"I hope that our customers will travel up the M11 to come and see us.

"We have had a fantastic 36 years."

Aristocrat has launched a closing down sale and will open for the last time on Christmas Eve.