Hipster media company Vice recently ran a piece on the new "Artworks Elephant" pop-up installation being created on the former site of the 1,200-home council housing site, the Heygate estate in Elephant & Castle. The piece immediately stirred-up horrible thoughts of the gentrification currently occurring within London, and especially within it's more central boroughs. The issue was brought to the attention of a wider urban audience through two characters in 2013's "Top Boy", a drama series on Channel 4, being priced out of the area due not to being able to afford the rent on their shops any longer.
This led to some twitter debate, with many praising the fact that mainstream media was commenting on an issue which was worrying many people, though seemed to be outside of the spectrum of major issues currently discussed.
Gentrification is real. #TopBoy - glad they've dropped this in!!
— Jeanette Kwakye (@JNETTEKWAKYE) August 20, 2013
These two instances of gentrification being highlighted are very interesting, as the first is on the opposite end of the spectrum from the second. Top Boy was examining and making obvious an issue which all ordinary citizens (that is, not the uber-rich) should be aware. The "Artworks Elephant" installation on the other hand, while not inherently ill-natured is masking a far more serious development; Featuring "Around 60 different occupiers" it will simply be a place for businesses to enter and offer quirky and limited products which are the spirit of the pop-up shop. However it's what's going on behind Artwork Elephant which is worrying.
The redevelopment of Heysgate is replacing the 1,200 council flats which used to be there, with merely 71 amongst the 3,000 homes which will be part of the new development. This is a story which is repeated throughout London, especially in the lesser developed South. This hits a very sour note with me, especially the reports in several media outlets about councils talking behind closed doors about where to re-house the now-homeless former occupants, with locations normally being outside of London (Derby, Hastings etc.).
This would appear to be gentrification by design, rather then through pure economics. Before looking seriously at gentrification in it's current form in London, I was of the opinion that it was neither a negative nor positive process, merely the result of simple economics. Gentrification should occur completely independently of the council or government, and be a result of many people of higher incomes desiring properties in the area and ergo driving up property prices, rent etc. However, what I'm reading in this Artworks Elephant situation is gentrification by design. The council moving poorer people out of an area and into areas further out of London, then demolishing their old council houses to replace them with luxury properties for the wealthy to purchase and move in sounds like a deliberate effort by local councils to alter the type of residents in the area. A sort of logistical reverse-robin-hood, but set in Cameron's Britain.
Also, it would appear that this decision is down to money. Build luxury properties in an area like Elephant & Castle, just a couple Bakerloo line or London overground stops from the very centre of London, and the wealthy will flock. High earning young professionals have taken to more run-down areas in recent years, and councils will know that they will flock to an area like Elephant & Castle once a £1.5bn development is completed. Additionally, this is far from a one-off, with other developments across the capital mirroring this approach. Last year the former site of Catford Greyhound Stadium was announced for redevelopment and under a fifth (113) of the 585 proposed homes in the development would be for "affordable rent" according to Boris Johnson. A vague description to say the very least.
With council's clearly not helping to stymie the exodus of the poor from truly central London, and central areas of greater London, people will surely start to question what exactly the motives for London councils are. With large swathes of the capital being gentrified and changing completely from the aesthetics and communities which defined them, and more news stories popping up year on year from residents complaining about the negative effects of this gentrification on their livelihoods and lives, the question surely has to be asked about when councils, the Mayor, or indeed Parliament are going to make any serious moves to try and counteract the social purge currently occurring within our city.
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| Map: The Areas in blue show the move of poorer people away from the centre of London |
