[untitled] an investigation into the gentrification of east London
With a rise in high street galleries that boast abstract art installations, artisan bakeries that charge you well over seven quid for a latte, gastro pubs that serve fancy small plates and empty high end retail hubs. What does the new London look like? And how has the new London come to be? Simply put London is being ravaged by gentrification and the wealthy at a rapid rate.
Gentrification is a term referring to a process of regenerating an area with wealthier individuals in mind and the displacement of the area’s current residents.
London has always been known as the epicentre of international trade. Although it is a booming financial hub, there is a dark cloud that looms over this city covering its huge wealth disparities. Predictably, the poorest individuals in society are on the receiving end of this dark cloud.
Every area I have lived in has either been gentrified or is in the process of gentrification, one area in particular that I discuss a lot is Stratford.
Stratford is an area that was promised advancement and so many exciting prospects due to the 2012 Olympics. But the legacy of the Olympics has left a huge divide between E15 and E20, the former being one of the poorest postcodes in Britain and the latter being a trendy tourist hotspot and shopping district. Stratford was assigned the most aggressive social cleansing I have ever seen and the swiftness of East Village’s development fractured its community – pricing inhabitants out of homes they have lived in for decades. One of the most striking aspects of the divided community in Stratford is the co-existence of the two shopping centres: Stratford shopping centre and Westfield Stratford City. The former is a place where the homeless set up their cardboard beds for the night before being kicked out by police officers, another is a place that business folk in the city walk through to get to their cosmopolitan jobs and people buy luxury items.
Poverty in gentrified areas is visible to those who experience it, but for those who do not it is easy to walk past someone sleeping under a footbridge while going to a brunch date on Hoxton Street. Austerity has crippled families who have to choose between topping up their gas or electric meters or selling their jewellery to pay towards groceries and expensive rent. These are areas where markets are being swapped out for unaffordable delicatessens. The community in Hackney fighting for their local Iceland to stay open and serve them is a contemporary example of this struggle among those affected by regeneration. In the last decade there has been a rapid shift , as predominantly white affluent people from areas outside of London come to the city in hopes of gaining an iota of working-class culture and submerge themselves in areas they would never have thought of living years before gentrification. I wonder if they fully grasp what the cost ‘slumming it’ really is? This influx of hipster middle-class people only raises the property prices to horrendous rates and compromise the livelihoods of locals. Apartments that cost between five hundred thousand and two million pounds are the norm, while the average salary is thirty-six thousand pounds which most locals in areas like Stratford and Homerton do not earn.
Although, my words seem harsh and deep cutting I want to shed light on the effects of gentrification and how harmful and destructive it is.
Property developers are also a vital cog in the detrimental gentrification machine, heavily displacing those in poverty but making room for the middle-class. Politicians and developers see houses as investments and instead of places to live. A common example of this is the practice of property buying, mainly in the 1980s and the current demolition of council housing to create lush complexes. This facade of rejuvenation shows that social housing is possible and that there is space in London. However, if you are not wealthy enough you can kiss that indoor gym and concierge goodbye.
Areas that are being gentrified are places that have a diverse history, reflecting the struggles of those who have lived there since the Windrush era. Including, African and Caribbean communities who reside in the Hackney borough and the British Bengali community in Brick Lane. These are minority groups who were attacked relentlessly by the National Front and faced huge tension from police officers. These are communities that have built this city from scratch only to be faced with the prospect of leaving like most people have already done.
Gentrification is an elaborate scheme that allows those who participate in it a way to shift the blame for societal issues, on those lowest in the hierarchal ladder. It is about understanding the way inequality is further upheld and distributed by gentrification and other structures. Simultaneously, it is about understanding how these communities are heavily policed yet incredibly abandoned. Regeneration projects are carefully manufactured to alienate residents of areas that have always been ignored and neglected, yet suddenly accommodating for the new middle-class that live there.
The demographic change means that the affluent people who now reside in these gentrified areas are afforded the privilege of being “protected by police”, while former and current residents of areas like Peckham and Brixton that have always struggled with violent crime are vilified. The prioritisation of wealthy people in gentrified areas is a bleak reflection of reality. But who protects poor individuals? Who cares about minorities? No one. Gentrified areas are being forcibly relieved of crime in lieu of accommodating for the new residents of former impoverished towns.
During my research on gentrification I watched Zed Nelson’s documentary ‘The Street’ which revealed xenophobic and racist views among white working-class people who feel displaced by immigrant families who live beside them, this revelation adds to how people in the upper classes, the media and politicians create this scapegoat. Instead of working-class unity, gentrification creates social tensions among those who are poor while managing to conveniently forget the architects of austerity and poverty. Gentrification has heightened racism because in a world where there should be class solidarity regardless of race and religion- the most vulnerable in society are susceptible to demonisation. Zed Nelson’s ‘The Street’ also reminds me of the fictional series ‘Top Boy’ by Ronan Bennett. Although, ‘Top Boy’ is a series that focuses on the drugs war in Hackney, it manages to contrast the harsh socioeconomic environment with gentrification. Subtle references about property prices and class issues are woven throughout the narrative.
London is a city filled to the brim with contradictions that the government plays into via regeneration projects including the hatred of the working class while mainly employing them for manual labour, the demolition of social housing that could house the homeless and the most recent creation of hostile architecture.
As the new London further becomes a shell of itself, Peckham and Brixton residents continue to fight for their local grocers to stay open and housing lists increase with more council house tenants declaring themselves homeless. Who will be left? The discussion of moving out of London, if you are a Londoner is no longer justifiable. The displacement of the working-class is a bubble and one day it will explode.
