Brixton features in 4 page feature in Qantas flight magazine

[BigMoaner]

If you think the housing crisis is bad now, imagine what it will be like in 2024, when the population of London is set to be 13.7 per cent higher. Today's ES (again)

If brexit means 100s of k less people migrating to uk each year, I'm out. In the midst of a housing crisis, unsure of the logic of 100s of k each year tp add to the chase.

 

[Rushy]

I know this thread is about Quantas Inflight Magazine - but since we got onto the Standard property section I feel morally obliged to point out that the Standard has awarded their Best Regeneration Project award to Stockwell Park Walk (jointly with Portobello Square, Notting Hill)

The paper has a photo which I don't wholly recognise - with the legend "Stockwell Park Walk: left, Netweork Housing is behind a complete makeover for an unloved council estate in SW9.

The text in the web edition (no photo) reads:
Joint winner: Stockwell Park Walk, Stockwell SW9 by Network Housing
Post-war council estates are an endangered species, unloved by today’s politicians and town planners who can’t wait to bulldoze them in favour of shiny new neighbourhoods offering a mix of tenures. Stockwell Park council estate lies next to a coveted conservation area and is being given a complete makeover.

Greening-up work involves fresh landscaping, along with upgraded play areas and a “graffiti pen” for young residents, as well as new community spaces where disused garages once stood.
A new 20-storey high-rise block with 75 private flats has a splendid communal roof garden.

London Evening Standard New Homes Awards special: the winning new-build homes you need to know about

Personally I feel more dubious about the Standard's musings than anythjing said in a Quantas Magazine. Aftrer all the Quantas reader is simply staving off the boredom of a 12 hour flight whereas the Standard Property section is perpetuating urban myths:

"unlovded council estate in SW9" - this needs a detailed meta-analysis. Gramsci?

Qantas.

(Queensland And Northern Territories Air Service, if it helps.)

 

[CH1]

Qantas.
(Queensland And Northern Territories Air Service, if it helps.)

Very interesting. (The acronym that is).

 

[Rushy]

i've blathered on about this before, but i always think the local schools are interesting when it comes to gentrification. there are always a good few exceptions, but the schools in these gentrified areas still are massively working class. it's that sort of "edgy when it suits us, but it's too edgy for my kids thank you very much" that gets on my tits, that division, that inequality, that using an area as a symbol of status and "coolness" but fleeing it just when you could really be part of the community by, ya know, raising a child in the local schools and the area. when schools are truly reflective of the communities they find themselves in, my respect for these wealthy incommers will double. i know people leave an area for a variety of reasons when they have kids, but, trust me, a great deal of these yuppies wouldn't send their dog to the local school, let alone entertain it for their darling off spring.

Not having kids I'm not all that up on schools. But there's not much choice in Brixton at secondary level, is there? Don't most of the kids have to travel out of Brixton? Camberwell, Streatham, Clapham.

I remember when the Evelyn Grace rebuild was complete and getting a lot of attention, (particularly due to Zaha Hadid) the head seemed to regularly remind reporters that Coldharbour ward was at that time the most violent district in Europe (no idea where that statistic came from). Not very helpful for for encouraging people on Brixton Hill to send their children down that way.

 

[Winot]

Not having kids I'm not all that up on schools. But there's not much choice in Brixton at secondary level, is there? Don't most of the kids have to travel out of Brixton? Camberwell, Streatham, Clapham.

That's true if you mean Brixton itself, but none of those places are that far in terms of secondary school travel distances. We are in West Brixton and our eldest is going to Lambeth Academy in September - about a mile away. There were plenty of other schools about 2/3 miles away.

 

[Winot]

Incidentally, the thing that put me off Evelyn Grace school was not any perceived threat of violence, but the fact that the head teacher gave a rambling speech that went way over his timeslot, most of which was about the need for self discipline.

 

[hendo]

Two long term posters have effectively been bullied/co-coerced off these boards in the past two days. I'd like to think that those who played a part in it will now take a long hard look at their behaviour and amend it immediately.

I'm getting really, really tired of meeting people in the street/pub/cafe who say they'd love to get involved here and add their own new/opinions/insights, but they're put off by the toxic atmosphere created by a handful of dominant posters (quite often they'll consistently name the same culprits).

If posters actually want a forum that reflects the diversity of opinions heard in Brixton, then I'd suggest they stop all the personal attacks, cheap potshots and sneering and concentrate on the topics under discussion. That way we all end up with a better forum.

While I wouldn't say I've been 'bullied off the boards' there's a couple of things that have put me off posting here for months; the first is the aggressive, rude and one-sided way people are dealt with if they dare to post a view that doesn't chime with yours, editor. The ad hominem attacks are used by both sides here, often by your squad first. If you doubt that look at the reaction to my posts on this thread.

There's a kind of visceral fury (which I sympathise with) aimed at incomers, people who develop property in the district, people who 'own their own home' lifestyle writers about Brixton, and then it transfers smoothly into anyone who posts off the agreed line getting a kicking from Team Urban. I too have met people who've given up posting here. I was one of them.

There's two sides to this, and people sometimes tell me the way this forum is moderated is at the root of the problem. We've been friends for years but the way you let posters get insulted on here really disappoints me. It's as if having been powerless to prevent the changes we both decry in our area your response is to run - and police -an anti gentrification zone on these boards.

Well, you're free to do that, and Urban 75 is a big positive thing - I'll always believe that. It's saved lives, and enriched mine. But you should acknowledge that the bullying problem is experienced both ways on this forum. And the one-sided modding is an issue. It shuts down debate and encourages both sides to tackle off the ball.

 

[editor]

While I wouldn't say I've been 'bullied off the boards' there's a couple of things that have put me off posting here for months; the first is the aggressive, rude and one-sided way people are dealt with if they dare to post a view that doesn't chime with yours, editor. The ad hominem attacks are used by both sides here, often by your squad first. If you doubt that look at the reaction to my posts on this thread.

There's a kind of visceral fury (which I sympathise with) aimed at incomers, people who develop property in the district, people who 'own their own home' lifestyle writers about Brixton, and then it transfers smoothly into anyone who posts off the agreed line getting a kicking from Team Urban. I too have met people who've given up posting here. I was one of them.

There's two sides to this, and people sometimes tell me the way this forum is moderated is at the root of the problem. We've been friends for years but the way you let posters get insulted on here really disappoints me. It's as if having been powerless to prevent the changes we both decry in our area your response is to run - and police -an anti gentrification zone on these boards.

Well, you're free to do that, and Urban 75 is a big positive thing - I'll always believe that. It's saved lives, and enriched mine. But you should acknowledge that the bullying problem is experienced both ways on this forum. And the one-sided modding is an issue. It shuts down debate and encourages both sides to tackle off the ball.

My "squad"? "Team Urban"? WTF are you on about? The only 'gang'' I see here are the ones who take it in turns to take potshots at me: the ones I've been forced to put on ignore for the sake of the boards. They're the only people in the history of these boards I've ever had to put on ignore so that should tell you something about who's at the root of the problems here.

As for the modding, while I'd be the first to agree that it's not perfect, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a thicker skinned, more tolerant mod anywhere. I regularly have to endure one sided attacks on all aspects of my personal life from posters who throw around criticisms and deliver lectures on my supposed 'hypocrisies' while they all sit comfortably behind a cowardly screen of anonymity.

They're free to point out the damning inconsistencies in my life (and hey, we've all got them) while their own lives remain secret and unprobed. In fact, for much of the time they seem more interested in scoring points against me than than actually discussing the topic.

Take this thread for example: articles I've written elsewhere, my supposed ownership of an expensive phone and street photos of New York have all been brought up, and it happens on other threads all the time.

I may be passionate and I may be angry - I'm not sitting as pretty as many of the posters here neither am I reaping the lovely benefits that a gentrified Brixton is bringing them - but fuck me, I put up with more shit than anyone else in this forum.

On 99% of other forums, I'd wager that the people I've had to put on ignore would have been banned a long, long time ago.

 

[OvalhouseDB]

That's true if you mean Brixton itself, but none of those places are that far in terms of secondary school travel distances. We are in West Brixton and our eldest is going to Lambeth Academy in September - about a mile away. There were plenty of other schools about 2/3 miles away.

But not many of the schools 2/3 miles away will admit from that distance. I'm not sure how far the catchment for the new E-Act Academy on the S Circular stretches now, Elmgreen and Dunraven will be out of reach unless you live at the Tulse Hill end of Tulse Hill. I think everyone will have one school they can get into - but probably not a realistic choice.

I agree with BigMoaners point about what some people look for / avoid in schools. I was looking at the list of primary school admissions following this January's allocations and note that Hillmead remains undersubscribed, despite an ofsted 'Outstanding' status.

 

[Rushy]

So if kids have to travel anyway, rather than go to school immediately locally, it makes sense that you would choose the best one you could, surely?

 

[mauvais]

Take this thread for example: articles I've written elsewhere, my supposed ownership of an expensive phone and street photos of New York have all been brought up, and it happens on other threads all the time.

One, not your supposed ownership of anything, but a prevailing attitude to consumerism - and not only yours by any means - which doesn't even necessarily involve buying anything. It's possible to evangelise and cheerlead this stuff without spending a single penny.

And secondly, modding is distinct - or ought to be - from posting opinion for discussion. So at least in this context, you're not being 'attacked' in any kind of mod capacity, but in exactly the same way as any other thread starter might be. You could complain about it reaching beyond the confines of this thread but that's about it.

 

[editor]

One, not your supposed ownership of anything, but a prevailing attitude to consumerism - and not only yours by any means - which doesn't even necessarily involve buying anything. It's possible to evangelise and cheerlead this stuff without spending a single penny.

And here's proof of what I'm talking about. On a thread about the impact of tourism in Brixton, I'm being given a lecture about my supposed "prevailing attitude to consumerism" based on something that has nothing to do with Brixton or the topic under discussion.

I give up, I really do.

 

[Winot]

But not many of the schools 2/3 miles away will admit from that distance. I'm not sure how far the catchment for the new E-Act Academy on the S Circular stretches now, Elmgreen and Dunraven will be out of reach unless you live at the Tulse Hill end of Tulse Hill. I think everyone will have one school they can get into - but probably not a realistic choice.

I agree with BigMoaners point about what some people look for / avoid in schools. I was looking at the list of primary school admissions following this January's allocations and note that Hillmead remains undersubscribed, despite an ofsted 'Outstanding' status.

Agree that's an issue for some schools (certainly Dunraven), although we could have got into Elm Green or E-Act from where we are.

Interesting about Hillmead. The other side of the coin is St Saviour's in Dulwich, which I understand is very middle class and yet under-performing.

 

[mauvais]

And here's proof of what I'm talking about. On a thread about the impact of tourism in Brixton, I'm being given a lecture about my supposed "prevailing attitude to consumerism" based on something that has nothing to do with Brixton or the topic under discussion.

I give up, I really do.

The whole thread is about consumerism. You can call the thread about some other thing, you can call every reply a lecture, etc, but it starts to look a bit daft.

 

[editor]

The whole thread is about consumerism. You can call the thread about some other thing, you can call every reply a lecture, etc, but it starts to look a bit daft.

But it's not about ME, despite your best efforts to make it that way.

 

[Gramsci]

Without wanting to get into a he said she said spiral, I felt the need to defend the Ritzy as an example of a business that was in the piece and deserves general support because it enriches the area culturally. At any rate, it'll continue to get mine. I don't want to see our local cinema close. I can't imagine many people do. I stand by my original point; that's it's in everyone's interest that people visit it, be they tourists or other Londoners. Obviously if movies are cheaper down the road and loads of people are getting the bus then that's a problem for the Ritzy, I'd suggest.

It used to get my support. The prices they charge now are to much for me.

I no longer regard Ritzy as a local cinema. Its part of a large chain and does not care about locals who supported the Ritzy when Brixton was less fashionable.

No surprise that it is in the lifestyle article.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

I think the Ritzy still does plenty of stuff that the local community benefits from. It still has lots of free events upstairs. I don't feel comfortable just writing it off as part of a chain.

As a independent it was struggling. The maintenance was a disaster with regular screen closures due to HVAC issues and Projection failures. That's not as bad anymore.

The whole living wage thing was a sad chapter, but I still support the Ritzy and we would be a lesser Brixton without it.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Well, if it's potshots and attacks we're interested in, I'm still bemused as to what this is about:I mean, the first bit appears to be the board argument version of an out-of-office reply, which is fine, you've got to have days off, but the last bit is actually the more confusing, like I had some hotly anticipated second album but then tragically lost my way thanks to heroin/glue/artisan cheese tasting evenings. I don't think I even had a debut single tbh, but perhaps it was all perdu au fromage.

No matter

How true. The above was all hot air.

 

[editor]

I think the Ritzy still does plenty of stuff that the local community benefits from. It still has lots of free events upstairs. I don't feel comfortable just writing it off as part of a chain.

As a independent it was struggling. The maintenance was a disaster with regular screen closures due to HVAC issues and Projection failures. That's not as bad anymore.

The whole living wage thing was a sad chapter, but I still support the Ritzy and we would be a lesser Brixton without it.

I'm glad there's a cinema in Brixton too, but its owners' greed has ensured that a large chunk of the community can no longer afford to use it.

There was a time when almost all of the events upstairs were free but there's loads of paid ones now, with some ticket prices going up to £12.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Here's some fresh tourist-luring bullshit from a posh travel mag:
Thank heavens for the 'city’s young, creative community' creating a 'vivid music scene.' Hurrah!

Out of their own mouths, just about everything that's been said regarding selling a sanitised version of local culture to tourists.

 

[ViolentPanda]

it's getting crazy to think where this will all end. Everyone is talking about housing, in London anyway. something's going to go pop, somehwere along line.

Not just in London, but throughout the southeast and southwest of Britain, too. I've got a brother in Folkestone whose household income is about £45,000pa, but who can't afford to buy a 2-bed, and can barely afford to rent one (about £1000 a month), and cousins in Norfolk and Devon who are still living with their parents in their 30s and 40s because what little housing supply there is, is constantly eroded by 2nd-homers and BtL landlords.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Here's some fresh tourist-luring bullshit from a posh travel mag:
Thank heavens for the 'city’s young, creative community' creating a 'vivid music scene.' Hurrah!

lurid past?

They can fuck right off....

Especially this cuntoid....

Sebastian Bland - Creative Director
Sebastian’s flair for design is what gives SUITCASE its inimitable appearance. Seb became one of the first members to join the team, designing our print edition, apps and website. A countryman through and through, he often escapes the city for the Cornish coast and the Shropshire countryside where he grew up. Forever in search of the ultimate burger, Seb is the inventor of Five Guys Fridays and knows his way around the steakhouses of Buenos Aires like the back of his hand.

 

[ViolentPanda]

A friend of mine works double, sometimes triple, shifts around Brixton for a minimum of five days a week, and pays over half of her income on rent. Many of my friends are in a similar position. Some have to squat just to make ends meet, or live in really shitty flatshares. It's obscene.

There are about half a dozen one-bed flats on Cressingham with private renters in them. Not one is paying less than £260 per week for the flat, so most of them are shared.

We're basically back to what my parents and foster-parents experienced in the '50s and '60s - even the smallest separate properties shared between people - sometimes between 2 families! It's nothing short of a scandal.

 

[hendo]

I'll always remember a thread on U75 from years back. Someone was naive enough to come on here and ask if there was a personal trainer anyone could recommend. As I recall, she was promptly set on. She'd broken all the rules. She'd posted about an aspirational lifestyle on the Brixton boards. God help her. That was her last post on urban. And who led the charge? Take a look back, editor. To me that thread was the culmination of a host of problems and one of the reasons I took a step back from U75.

In a way the polarisation on here reflects the social dysfunction in Brixton generally. The disparities are just getting wider all the time. You can see why an innocuous lifestyle piece on a Qantas mag attracts the ire of some posters here - and crucially the editor himself.

But the fact you moderate here means the argument pitch is slanted. You've got a dog in the fight. I get that, it's my dog too to a degree. But it's not healthy for newcomers to step into this environment; only posters with a tough chin last long here. You should take a step back from modding in the Brixton forum if you want to be full throated in the argument. It's impossible to escape the thought that you want to play for one of the sides while refereeing a game which is increasing in importance all the time.

 

[ViolentPanda]

lurid past?

They can fuck right off....

Especially this cuntoid....

Sebastian Bland - Creative Director
Sebastian’s flair for design is what gives SUITCASE its inimitable appearance. Seb became one of the first members to join the team, designing our print edition, apps and website. A countryman through and through, he often escapes the city for the Cornish coast and the Shropshire countryside where he grew up. Forever in search of the ultimate burger, Seb is the inventor of Five Guys Fridays and knows his way around the steakhouses of Buenos Aires like the back of his hand.

Bland by name, self-regarding goat's ringpiece by nature.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

I'll always remember a thread on U75 from years back. Someone was naive enough to come on here and ask if there was a personal trainer anyone could recommend. As I recall, she was promptly set on. She'd broken all the rules. She'd posted about an aspirational lifestyle on the Brixton boards. God help her.

Never ask about a cleaner!

 

[ViolentPanda]

I'll always remember a thread on U75 from years back. Someone was naive enough to come on here and ask if there was a personal trainer anyone could recommend. As I recall, she was promptly set on. She'd broken all the rules. She'd posted about an aspirational lifestyle on the Brixton boards. God help her. That was her last post on urban. And who led the charge? Take a look back, editor. To me that thread was the culmination of a host of problems and one of the reasons I took a step back from U75.

In a way the polarisation on here reflects the social dysfunction in Brixton generally. The disparities are just getting wider all the time. You can see why an innocuous lifestyle piece on a Qantas mag attracts the ire of some posters here - and crucially the editor himself.

But the fact you moderate here means the argument pitch is slanted. You've got a dog in the fight. I get that, it's my dog too to a degree. But it's not healthy for newcomers to step into this environment; only posters with a tough chin last long here. You should take a step back from modding in the Brixton forum if you want to be full throated in the argument. It's impossible to escape the thought that you want to play for one of the sides while refereeing a game which is increasing in importance all the time.

It's lovely to know that you spent time trawling for a stick with which to beat someone who disagrees with you.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

I suspect posts about 'aspirational lifestyles' would meet with a lot less animosity these day...

 

[editor]

I'll always remember a thread on U75 from years back. Someone was naive enough to come on here and ask if there was a personal trainer anyone could recommend. As I recall, she was promptly set on. She'd broken all the rules. She'd posted about an aspirational lifestyle on the Brixton boards. God help her. That was her last post on urban. And who led the charge? Take a look back, editor. To me that thread was the culmination of a host of problems and one of the reasons I took a step back from U75.

I've just looked that thread up - from four years ago, ffs - and you've quite shamefully misrepresented what went on.

I wasn't the first to 'lead the charge' and I immediately apologised to the poster when she explained her situation. And she liked my post in response. Later on in that thread, I summed up what I thought were helpful alternatives for her and posted some app suggestions.

And far from being "her last post on urban," she carried on contributing to the boards for over two years. So why are you posting up such disingenuous bollocks?

What is worth noting is how the same faces did their very best to keep stirring the shit in that thread long after the apology had been posted. That's where the problem is here, because the new poster was clearly happy to carry on posting.

 

[ViolentPanda]

it's a problem of housing, of a monopoly money like housing market, with people just using it as an invesment. even the banker twat with a 600k pad in brixton is really just a pawn, and he'll even be priced out eventually. what needs to be worked out is why prices are travelling upward so relentlessly, and so quickly all across london and try to change the mechanism that allows it. if you buy a place in london you should either rent it out or live in it yourself, would help for a start. if developers want to build flats, rules should be in place for a higher amount of social housing provided by said development, not a tiny percentage. protect rents. etc, etc. anything that is in place now CLEARLY is not working, so the structure of the beast needs further changing - all pretty obvious. hipster bars and wealthy creatives are just a symptom. it needs political change, not less beards.

I don't think you can separate what you call "symptoms" from the rise in prices - the two are mutually-sustaining. An area gets called the "next big thing" by one bunch of monied people, to attract other monied people, which in turn attracts people who want to be "in on the next big thing", so you have this incestuous snake-eating-its-own-tail feedback loop, and it's a loop directly participated in by about 30% of our political representatives in the House of Commons. Political change will not happen through the current avenues of political discourse.