Man jailed for furniture shop arson A man has been jailed for eleven and a half years for starting a huge fire that destroyed a 140-year-old, family-run furniture shop during last summer's riots. Gordon Thompson, 34, was sentenced at the Old Bailey for arson at House of Reeves in Croydon, south London, and burglary. The blaze was so fierce that buildings on the other side of the street and tram lines in the road caught alight. He was given 11 and a half years for the arson, two years each for two counts of burglary, and three years for a third count of burglary, to run concurrently. Judge Peter Thornton told him: "This day was a bad day for Croydon and the people of Croydon. Perhaps the most shocking event was that the House of Reeves was set alight and burned to the ground, putting lives at risk. He said the shop "had stood on the site for over 140 years, proudly giving its name to its location, Reeves Corner. You were about to bring all that to an end. This was a deliberate, wilful act of shocking, dangerous vandalism. The court heard that the total financial loss to the Reeves family was an estimated three million pounds. In a statement, owner Trevor Reeves said: "The total destruction of the site has been a bereavement to me, I just can't understand what I have done to make someone do this to me."