Beyond the three-day checklist: Meet the London preppers that have been stocking up for months
Ministers want us all to prepare for the worst, but survivalists have been doing it for years — here’s what we can learn
A few days ago, the Government sharpened its stock-up-to-survive advice for the nation.
asserted
Government → meet → nation
The centrepiece of Be Ready! is arguably a checklist of essentials — food, water and kit like a wind-up radio — to cope with severe disruption over three days, from a weather emergency to an all-out cyber attack.
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centrepiece → wind → attack
Hours after the advice was published, electronic retailer Maplin recorded a 284 per cent jump in sales of torches, a 100 per cent leap in sales of power banks, while radio sales were up 92 per cent — and Iceland recorded a 40 per cent increase in sales of tinned food over the weekend.
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Iceland → publish → weekend
But London’s prepper community is already stocked and primed.
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community → stock → ?
It is time to watch and learn.
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It → watch → ?
Alex lives in a 1950s house in north London with her husband and a rotating cast of three children, ranging in age from 13 to 24.
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Alex → live → 24
“I just like to be prepared if anybody pops in.”
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anybody → like → ?
Covid provided vindication: “When people were running out of toilet rolls, I never dipped below 36.
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I → provide → 36
Her pull-out larder, cupboards and under-stair storage hold tins bought by the case (usually trays of 12), pasta, rice, eggs and every household essential you could think of.
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you → pull → 12
She also has three freezers.
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She → have → freezers
“I never go below a dozen eggs or half a tank of petrol either, though I suppose I might need an egg substitute,” she says.
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she → go → substitute
Even her jars of dried pasta have “backstage” refill bags.
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jars → dry → bags
Her husband previously worked for a food charity and rotates the stock.
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husband → work → stock
“I do the buy-in, he does the clearing.”
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he → do → clearing
She says she doesn’t write lists but has an uncanny ability to picture a shelf or cupboard instead and know the gaps.
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she → say → gaps
It sounds like the prepper’s form of synaesthesia — when some musicians see colours when they hear certain notes.
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they → sound → notes
“If I dip, then I replace it,” she says.
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she → dip → it
“I could look after my lot for three weeks, pushing four”
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I → look → four
She shuns upscale survivalist kit.
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She → shun → kit
“I couldn’t have expensive stuff not being used.”
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stuff → have → ?
Recently she was “gutted” to miss a £15 Lidl solar charging station, which sold out before she got there.
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she → gutte → station
She currently has 12 litres of water (“not enough”) but has several suitcase-sized containers in the garden ready to fill from the tap.
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She → have → tap
Last month she filled one and drove it over to a relative’s when their mains water failed.
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water → fill → relative
Her camping stove is out on loan, but she reasons they could cook on the fire pit.
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they → reason → pit
All in all, how long could she manage?
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she → manage → ?
“I could look after my lot for three weeks, pushing four.”
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I → look → four
Government advice starts with three days, but a Cabinet Office survey this year found a quarter of Londoners believed they could manage no more than a day without utilities.
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they → start → utilities
Craig* lives on the ninth floor of a block in Lambeth with his partner and young child.
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Craig → live → partner
The Government’s three-day specification doesn’t impress him — he thinks of survival in months and years.
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he → impress → months
He previously lived in Australia, where he found more off-the-shelf “prepper products”, such as tubs of freeze-dried emergency meals.
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he → live → meals
Instead, he uses catering buckets and fills them with heat-sealed Mylar packets of food.
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he → use → food
The bottom row of a large Ikea bookcase against one wall of his living room is full of neatly labelled buckets containing rice, lentils, beans, pasta and oats.
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row → live → rice
The other shelves are stocked with hygiene products, wind-up electronics and torches, many of which he acquired in Covid but tests frequently.
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he → stock → Covid
The top row is now reserved for nappies, formula and Calpol.
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row → reserve → nappies
“Since Covid we’ve had a baby so this is new.”
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this → have → baby
Eight rolls of black bags: “Rubbish collections would stop.”
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collections → stop → bags
He covets Costco’s 940-litre pallet of Kirkland Signature spring water, currently on offer for £299.89, or 32p a litre — as do many preppers.
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preppers → covet → 299.89
But his partner has vetoed it on the grounds that there is too little space for 1,880 bottles.
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partner → veto → bottles
For now, he is making do with a “small” stash of 20 litres of water and a 3.8-litre gravity filter bag, which can be filled with untreated water, drawn through a filter without the need for electricity.
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which → make → electricity
Food researcher Professor Paul Behrens lives in north London with his partner.
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Behrens → live → partner
…and 63 more, not listed.
The Aporia
