What did they think would happen? The Bell hotel has stood in the in a leafy village for decades. Dozens of migrants moved in. Then a sex assault charge sparked angry riots
'I hope they burn it down later,' a man driving a BMW shouts towards us from the High Road which leads to Epping's charming high street.
It's Thursday afternoon, and a demonstration, whipped up on local WhatsApp groups, is planned to gather outside the hotel in a matter of hours.
More cars will pass this rundown accommodation, well past its heyday but previously described as 'personality-packed', with drivers beeping and shouting 'come on England', 'f*** the migrants' and 'send them home!'
The two workmen fixing up a temporary barrier to fence off a building site directly next door are not surprised – they have been enduring taunts all day from people who think they are working at the hotel.
Such an offence would be an egregious act of betrayal to many in this leafy and rather affluent corner of the Essex commuter belt – whose nearby residents include Sir Rod Stewart and TV presenter Bradley Walsh – which over the past week has become a tinderbox and microcosm for the outrage felt nationwide about Britain's immigration crisis.
That is because The Bell is one of (at least) 220 hotels housing asylum seekers at taxpayers' expense, including those who have arrived in the UK illegally by small boat or other means.
And this month, one such asylum seeker was charged with sexual offences having allegedly left The Bell, walked onto Epping's high street and assaulted two girls aged 14 and 16 just eight days after arriving in Britain.
One of the protestors jumps up and down on a police van while wrapped in the St George's flag
News spread quickly on social media, and in the past week alone, Epping has endured two violent protests attended by hundreds.
One of the workers told the Mail: 'People have been calling us 'terrorist sympathisers' and 'traitors'. People are so angry.
'We've got nothing to do with it [the hotel]. I actually think you should claim asylum in the first safe country you pass through. But it's down to that idiot Starmer that we are where we are.'
This is the bleak reality of the government's failure to get to grips with immigration.
More than 21,000 migrants have crossed the Channel in small boats since the start of the year – a 56 per cent rise on the same period in 2024.
And in May, the National Audit Office said the government's spending on asylum accommodation is due to cost more than £15billion over ten years – three times what was originally estimated when the contracts were signed by the Conservative administration in 2019.
Last week's violence came just weeks before the first anniversary of anti-immigration riots following the Southport murders, which resulted in attempts to burn down hotels housing asylum seekers.
And on the strength of feeling displayed again this week, unless there is urgent change, it is clear things are only going to escalate.
The 79-room Bell Hotel has been home to around 100 migrants on and off since 2020, when the Home Office booked thousands of hotel rooms across the country to house migrants entering Britain as the Covid pandemic took hold.
The measure, intended to be temporary, initially lasted four years until, in January last year, it was announced that The Bell's asylum seeker contract was being terminated by the Home Office to end in April.
However, migrants began returning there earlier this year, prompting tensions – already simmering in the area – to bubble to the surface.
It is not difficult to see why emotions are running high. Epping is a tight-knit and not particularly ethnically diverse community, somewhat ironically housing many who moved from London's East End to enjoy a more rural setting.
As Tory councillor Chris Whitbread, the leader of Epping Forest District Council, said, the site is 'entirely inappropriate'.
'Placing vulnerable individuals from a wide range of cultural backgrounds into an unsupervised setting in the centre of a small town, without the proper infrastructure, support or services, is both reckless and unacceptable,' he added.
The majority of locals spoken to by the Mail were more vocal. They said they regularly see migrants leave the hotel to drink and smoke in green spaces – claiming they 'leer' at girls and young women, make sexually inappropriate comments and steal from local shops.
However it is difficult to ascertain any truth, as much of the testimony is second and third hand hearsay or spread on social media.
But against this backdrop, anti-migrant demonstrators clashed with counter-protesters outside The Bell in ugly scenes on Sunday, with two hotel security guards assaulted and left bloodied.
Police armed with riot shields form a barrier across the road following a major public order incident in Epping on Thursday
The violence came after it emerged Ethiopian-born Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, had been arrested and charged with three counts of sexual assault shortly after arriving in Britain and being housed at The Bell.
Last Thursday, he appeared at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court, which heard he allegedly walked into Epping, put his hand on a 14-year-old schoolgirl's leg and asked for a kiss.
He allegedly asked her: 'Who wants to have a kiss and make love and have Jamaican babies?'
The following day – July 8 – he approached the same girl and tried to kiss her as well as a 16-year-old girl, the court heard.
Kebatu denies the offences and will stand trial next month.
Social media was ablaze on Wednesday evening with talk of a demonstration at the hotel the following day. At around 5pm on Thursday, crowds started to gather outside The Bell.
Inside, there was little sign of life other than security guards coming and going. A temporary metal fence had been erected since the violence first flared on Sunday evening.
Discarded beer bottles and cigarette packets could be seen on the ground outside while, surprisingly, in one bedroom window at least three bottles of Moet champagne were in view.
The protest began peacefully enough. Among the 300 or so in attendance were women and children. However the vast majority, it must be said, were burly tattooed men. A minority wore masks or balaclavas and some brought their large bull mastiff or Dobermann dogs.
Orla Minihane, a finance worker and a Reform candidate for the local council, said she was there as a mother who wants to 'protect our kids'. 'It is not about Left and Right [wing],' she said. 'The fact is that we have these men who are coming here, are not screened and we don't know who they are.
'It's not about politics, it's about local people and children that have to be kept safe. It's a parent's fundamental duty to do so.'
A retired black cab driver watching as the crowd grew larger – by now featuring young men waving Union Jack flags and a van bearing a sign saying 'protect our kids' – said he was there because 'immigration is getting worse'.
The grandfather-of-eight, 78, who declined to give his name, added: 'You have a young girl here who was allegedly accosted. We want to know what the government is going to do about its immigration policy. It's all out of order. We're not even deporting immigrants who are breaking the law. How can that be right?'
As the crowd swelled, it became clear is that – despite claims the anger is because of local issues – more overtly political factions were looking to hijack the event for their own purposes.
There were the YouTubers such as 'Brexit' Brian Stovell, who regularly protests at migrant hotels and had travelled from his home in Croydon, south London, to keep his 7,000 subscribers updated.
There was also a live YouTube broadcast from a man representing Urban Scoop, a 'news organisation' set up by football hooligan-turned-campaigner Tommy Robinson, recently released from prison after being jailed for contempt of court.
Shortly after 6pm, word began making its way through the crowd that the 'lefties' were en route – a group of anti-racism campaigners led by Stand Up To Racism (SUTR), which had arranged to meet at Epping Tube station.
Immediately, the mood changed, and it was clear many were expecting violence. As dozens of people headed in the direction of the counter-protesters, I witnessed one man wrapping his hands like a boxer.
Others wore masks and latex gloves. It felt like being catapulted into a football hooligan film as an extra.
Soon, fireworks, bottles and eggs were being thrown as dozens of police officers in riot gear were forced to surround the counter-demonstrators who were grossly outnumbered.
Weyman Bennett, a member of SUTR who attended, said: 'Britain is a peaceful country in which people should be allowed to go about their business without being attacked.'
Then attention turned on the officers themselves, with one police van having its windscreen smashed while another was stopped by the crowd as a man draped in a St George's flag clambered onto its roof.
Later, a police van was filmed driving into a demonstrator who was trying stop it from leaving the area.
Tonight, Essex Police confirmed that eight officers were assaulted in the melee and suffered a range of minor injuries. Two men were arrested on public order offences.
Assistant chief constable Stuart Hooper, drawing a distinction between the initially 'peaceful' protest and a group intent on violence, said: 'All these criminals are doing is taking away the voice of local people who want to protest legitimately and peacefully.
'With the selfish criminal behaviour we saw last night, all that happens is the voice of the community is lost, their lives are disrupted and their police officers are pulled away from the things that matter to them – investigating and preventing other crime – to deal with a mindless minority who don't give a damn about the hard working, good people of Epping.'
Council leader Mr Whitbread also hit out at the ugly scenes. 'I am deeply disappointed… some individuals chose to engage in violent and disruptive behaviour. I condemn their actions,' he said.
Feelings are now running so strong, that it seems any attempt to offer a hand of friendship to The Bell's residents is immediately shut down.
On a Facebook community page for Epping, when a woman complained about the hotel's residents being 'intimidated' and said she would 'rather live in an area where asylum seekers are welcomed and helped, than an area where people feel it's OK to threaten others who are seeking a better life', the vast majority of those who responded attempted to castigate her.
Indeed, back on Epping's high street, with its independent cafes, boutique hotel and pretty pubs, it's hard to find anyone who doesn't have concerns about The Bell Hotel and its residents.
Retired plumber Maxine, 59, said: 'It's changed the community. If that makes me racist then so be it. If people want to label me, they are being narrow-minded. I'm a decent, fair person.'
But perhaps intriguingly, away from the hearsay and venom of social media, one of the people most affected by The Bell's housing of asylum seekers – its immediate neighbour – last week said he had encountered no issues.
'I had more issues when it was a hotel,' he told the Mail. 'I've never had a problem with them. They give me no trouble at all.'
But yesterday, Neil Hudson, Conservative MP for Epping Forest, said the hotel was becoming a magnet for anti-asylum protesters across the country and called on Home Secretary Yvette Copper to shut it down 'immediately'.
Mr Hudson told BBC the situation had become 'very, very tense'.
He paid tribute to the police for attempting to keep order, but said the hotel should be shut to prevent further violence.
'The hotel needs to close immediately,' he said. 'The scenes we saw in Epping were deeply troubling and upsetting for the local community.
'We respect the right to peaceful protest, and many people were there to peacefully protest... but we had hundreds of people descending on our town, people wanting to raise violence.
'That is completely unacceptable and that is why we are calling on the Home Secretary to act now and close this hotel.'
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