London ran out of eclipse glasses. Then everything descended into chaos

Only a few minutes after the WhatsApp message comes through, hundreds of people begin to pour into the Spitalfields Market concourse. “To my day ones,” it reads from the mysterious puppet-master known only as Z. “Please come quick. Old Spitalfields Market.”

The reason for the scrum? Solar eclipse glasses, ready for the first such astronomical event in London in 27 years. And those queuing up aren’t about to leave without them. Amidst the throng, a bearded man dashes anxiously to the back of the queue, having already missed out on a secretive 2am drop yesterday morning. A teenager secures himself 25 glasses for £5 each when he reaches the front of the line, before promptly marching to the back of to sell them for £10.

A five minute walk down the road to neighbouring Whitechapel, similar scenes are at play outside AM2PM, a nondescript corner shop. There, hordes of glasses hunters have been descending on the store since their last restock at 2am. At one point early on Wednesday morning, the queue of hundreds was stretching around the block.

By the time I arrive on Tuesday afternoon, they’ve long since sold out. But that hasn’t stopped punters continuing to descend on the store to try and find a pair, some travelling for hours. I witness at least two men try to bribe shop worker Ali into securing them when the next shipment arrives (it’s predicted to come in late that evening). One woman, who left work early to try and buy a pair, bursts into quiet tears when she’s told the shop has run out. It is, for want of a better word, feral.

All across London, enterprising businesspeople have been unboxing tens of thousands of eclipse glasses and making their fortunes. “They’re like gold dust,” beams one man in the Spitalfields queue. 

But how did cheap goggles become the city’s most in-demand commodity, propped up by a thriving black-market? And why did this give rise to a WhatsApp ecosystem offering minute-by-minute updates, sending people running en masse to London’s most unlikely spots?