Attlee Avenue

Attlee Avenue is a street in the unnamed city where Alex and his droogs carry out a robbery and assault at Slouse's shop, a pivotal early event that establishes their modus operandi and the social conditions that enable their violence.

Location and Context

Attlee Avenue is located in a district that Alex and his gang have left alone for nearly three months, allowing the area to become quiet and the police patrols to shift north of the river. The street is home to Slouse's shop, a sweets and cancers shop that remains open in the evening. The relative calm of the district and the absence of armed millicents or rozz patrols make it a target for the gang's planned crasting.

The Robbery and Assault

Alex, Georgie, and Dim, wearing maskies disguised as historical figures—Disraeli, Henry VIII, and Peebee Shelley respectively—enter the shop while Pete keeps watch outside. Slouse, the portwine jelly of a shopkeeper, immediately recognizes the threat and makes for the interior where the telephone and his well-oiled pooshka are kept. Dim intercepts him, and the two become locked in a death struggle behind a curtain, resulting in the smashing of glass and the overturning of goods. Meanwhile, Alex subdues Slouse's wife, who bites his hand and screams for the millicents, forcing Alex to tolchock her with a scale weight and a crowbar, drawing blood. The gang then cleans the till, taking flip horrorshow takings and packs of the best top cancers before departing.

Consequences and Significance

The attack on Slouse's shop is a demonstration of the gang's planning and brutality, as well as the societal breakdown that allows such crimes to go unpunished. The gang quickly returns to the Duke of New York, where they have previously bought drinks for old baboochkas to establish an alibi. The old women confirm that the boys have been in the pub all evening, a ruse that the young millicents who later investigate accept without much resistance. Alex reflects on the ease of their crimes, noting that there is "nothing to fight against really" and that everything is "as easy as kiss-my-sharries." The event underscores the novel's theme of a society where law enforcement is ineffective and where young criminals operate with impunity, setting the stage for the escalating violence that follows.