The police have published an update and guidance for business owners (which is also useful for residents). This can be read on their website.

To summarise, they had 16,000 police on duty last night, compared to 6,000 the night before and 3,500 on a typical night. This is why you saw officers in the Town Centre last night. I know that people are scared, but the rioting in Lewisham was carried out by approximately 150-200 people, compared to a Borough population (in 2001) of 248,922. The majority of people are not involved. We have also been informed that the break in at Maplins was carried out by one car load of opportunistic individuals, rather than a rioting mob.

Please take care, but also keep things in perspective.