But as night began to fall, the sounds of new life coming into the world were drowned out by something frightening and disturbing: London was on fire, and the streets echoed to the wails of police sirens and fire engines.
Since the riots in England, a great deal of soul-searching has taken place as to why they happened and what caused them. Was it predominantly about poverty, unemployment and the deadening effects of consumerism on social morals? Or was it family breakdown, fatherless children and the life on sink estates?
Commentators and politicians have tended to fall into left and right camps on these issues, favouring one explanation over another depending on their existing political convictions. But there was one area of political convergence, which was on the need for targeted state intervention in the lives of children from the most disadvantaged and dysfunctional families.
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