{"id":587225,"date":"2026-05-16T11:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T11:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/587225\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T11:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T11:50:10","slug":"police-surround-huge-liverpool-one-queue-as-shop-forced-to-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/587225\/","title":{"rendered":"Police surround huge Liverpool ONE queue as shop forced to close"},"content":{"rendered":"

Swatch on Paradise Street was forced keep its doors closed on Saturday morning as hundreds waited<\/p>\n

10:24, 16 May 2026Updated 11:08, 16 May 2026<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The front of the queue on Paradise Street.(Image: Liverpool ECHO)<\/p>\n

Police were called in after a huge queue formed outside a Liverpool ONE <\/a>shop this morning. Swatch on Paradise Street was forced keep its doors closed this morning (Saturday, May 16) as hundreds waited outside the doors.<\/p>\n

Hundreds gathered for the highly anticipated release of Swatch’s new Royal Pop collection. The collaboration between Swatch and Audemars Piguet was only available in-store, with a limit of one watch per person per day. The \u00a3335 watch is already being pre-sold on websites such as eBay for quadruple the price.<\/p>\n

A line of security guards formed a barrier across the glass doors to the shop, dividing the store from the thronging queue, which stretched back past John Lewis by 8.30am. First two, then around twenty police officers arrived on the scene, surrounding the front of the queue as the stated 9am opening time came and went.<\/p>\n

At around 9.10am, a member of Swatch staff told the crowd: \u201cWe\u2019re not opening the shop today. We\u2019re not going to be selling anything. We said this two hours ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shouts of \u201cEveryone sit down; let\u2019s protest,\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m protesting\u201d were heard from the crowd before it eventually began to disperse around 15 minutes later.<\/p>\n

Bystander Roger Scruby, 59, told the ECHO: \u201cI\u2019ve seen releases in town before, but nothing on this scale.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

Police on Paradise Street after queues formed. (Image: Liverpool ECHO)<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone at the front was trying to sell their spot for \u00a3750. I work nearby, and I saw people were down here very early.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paula Roberts, 59, from Runcorn, had camped for days to be at the front of the queue. The first 20, who camped right in the middle of Paradise Street, were separated from the rest of the queue by a cordon.<\/p>\n

Paula spoke to the ECHO while waiting at the head of the line: \u201cI was one of the first people here. I\u2019ve been here since Thursday. I\u2019m really excited about it\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The front of the queue on Paradise Street.(Image: Liverpool ECHO)<\/p>\n

Richard Holt, 33, arrived at 1am Saturday (May 16) after travelling from Anglesey with a camping chair to queue for the sought-after watches.<\/p>\n

He told the ECHO: \u201cI\u2019m a baker, I\u2019ve been up working all hours before this, so I\u2019ve been up for 32 hours in total. I\u2019m disappointed. I\u2019ve not met a single person in the line who wanted the watch for themselves, they all want to sell it. I wanted it for me, because I like the watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ECHO approached Merseyside Police for comment. A spokesperson said: “We can confirm we received a report of a disturbance outside a shop on Paradise Street, in Liverpool city centre<\/a>, at around 7.10am this morning.<\/p>\n

“It was reported that a group of males were acting in an aggressive manner and making threats. Officers attended and the crowd dispersed shortly afterwards.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Swatch on Paradise Street was forced keep its doors closed on Saturday morning as hundreds waited 10:24, 16…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,3338,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-587225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-liverpool-one","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}