The far-right demonstrators that the British police were expecting on Wednesday in dozens of locations across the country turned out not to turn up, unlike peaceful anti-racists, who turned out in force.
The police had been preparing for another night of violence in 100 parts of the UK, after a week of violence and disorder fueled by lies about the stabbing of three children (one of them Portuguese) by a young British migrant son in Southport (north-west England).
Many shops with windows overlooking the street protected them and closed their doors for fear of what might happen.
Meanwhile, several anti-racist groups planned counter-demonstrations in response, but in many places they were left alone on the streets.
In London, Bristol, Oxford, Liverpool and Birmingham, large, peaceful crowds gathered around agencies and law firms specializing in migration that had been placed on lists of possible attacks by far-right groups.
Overwhelmingly, they asked "Whose streets are they?" only to be immediately told "They're our streets!".
A significant change from the chaos that has erupted on the streets of England and Northern Ireland since 30 July.
Cities and towns were rocked by riots and assaults last week, with angry mobs, encouraged by right-wing extremists, clashing with police and counter-demonstrators.
The riots began after lies were spread on social media about the stabbing deaths of three girls in the coastal community of Southport, which were falsely attributed to a suspect identified as an immigrant and a Muslim.
Demonstrators shouting anti-immigrant slogans attacked mosques and hotels that were welcoming asylum seekers, creating fear in Muslim and immigrant communities.
In recent days, there have been reports of violent counter-attacks in some places.
In the early evening, there were generally no reports of violence.
A group of immigrant supporters, who quickly numbered in the hundreds in the London neighborhood of North Finchley, found that they were only accompanied by several dozen police officers.
The crowd chanted "refugees welcome" and "London against racism". Some held placards with phrases such as "Stop the far right", "Migration is a crime" and "Finchley against fascism".
Outside an immigration centre in the Walthamstow area of east London, a demonstrator shouted "Fascist scum", to which the protesters replied "Get off our streets".
The Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, described the riots as "far-right thuggery" and rejected any reading of the government's immigration policy as the cause of the riots.
The police have already made more than 400 arrests and are considering using anti-terror laws to charge some of the detainees.
Among the first sentenced is Derek Drummond, 58, who was sentenced to three years in prison for violent disorder and assaulting a police officer on 30 July in Southport.
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