The Gentrification of London

I normally avoid writing controversial topics but I had to wade in on this one.

I am a north London girl through and through and spent most of my time hanging around in Hackney, Tottenham or Brixton, areas that as a young
black female I felt I belonged in. The faces in the area were familiar. The shops were not fancy yet were ours, and you knew the people who ran them. People may scream that these were areas of poverty, but they were more than that, they were home to pockets of the community that did not always have their voices heard.

So roll on last week when I went to Dalston to meet a friend, I am not going to lie I have not been to Dalston in years and I had heard it had become a ‘hipster hangout’. I am still trying to figure out what that means, as the hipsters I knew of in the past weren’t so, dare I say it, middle class. I was shocked to find that the Dalston I knew no longer existed. Even ‘Peppers and Spice’ had been deleted and in its place stood a beauty salon. To make things worse the giant cheapo Chinese shop on the corner of Dalston Lane had been replaced by a Diner…

I was saddened to find that the young boys that I was used to seeing hooded up in East London, now looked out of place amongst the trendy apart blocks. It was not one of those things I had ever thought I would be heartbroken by. Don’t get me wrong London is in need of gentrifying in some areas, but to push out the communities that once lived there to make space for wealthier ones is anti-London.

London is about being diverse, and about allowing the communities that dwell within it to make their mark and to change the face of where they live. To be fair it reminded me of the dim wit politician who was badgering on about £2,000 per month being okay for renting in London, clearly he wasn’t not talking about the families where the parents have to work two or three jobs to make ends meat, or the families where the young people are acting as carers for their parents or siblings. He clearly was not talking about the low income families who can no longer afford to live in London and being pushed out to the outskirts… Obviously he was talking about people like him who do not care how the “poor or poorer live”.

Does no one miss the reality of walking through Brixton and not passing a chain restaurant? I love a good chain restaurant now and then, but when
you see a number of them each a few minutes walk from one another, which to me defeats the purpose of Brixton. Yes I said it out loud, Brixton is a place with a lot of history especially black history attached to it. Trying to change the community in Brixton is like erasing Brixton.

What about the gangs and the crime I hear some of you whisper… Most of that is not as prolific as you would think. Media has hyped urban crime so much, and we think every young black male is a gang member and everyone in a hoodie is going to steal your mobile phone.

It is more about the loss of identity, where has it gone?

I can talk about gentrification for ages, as I think the London we have all known will soon be lost. Filled with beautiful apartments that no one can afford to live in, and high streets no one can afford to buy anything from. Good thing Essex is only a short train journey away.

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Sad to see London change