Brixton features in 4 page feature in Qantas flight magazine

[Winot]

As someone* once said, if it's a choice between Milton Keynes and death - I choose death.

(*Virginia Woolf I think)

 

[Winot]

Although a town jointly founded by Milton Friedman and John Maynard Keynes is bound to have a bit of an identity crisis.

 

[Ol Nick]

You've stolen all the punchlines

 

[Dan U]

Milton Keynes is fine tbh. Lots of right angles

 

[T & P]

Milton Keynes is fine tbh. Lots of right angles

Aberration of a football team that should be forcefully liquidated though.

 

[Dan U]

Aberration of a football team that should be forcefully liquidated though.

Yep definitely

 

[editor]

I am pointing out that Brixton is probably no more heavily 'promoted' than many other areas.

We might think it more hyped because we notice Brixton articles, they are brought to our attention - often here.

If that;s the case, then show me some of the many articles promoting Stockwell or Tooting in the NY newspapers and all the international in-flight mag features. Any streets on Stockwell appearing in Travel & Leisure mag? How about a Conde Nast feature? How many £70 foodie tours are there for Stockwell?

I wish I didn't have to regularly read crap like this:

The Pièce de résistance of Brixton’ metamorphosis from cheap and undesirable to chic and trendy can be found in Brixton Village, an old and dilapidated market that has been transformed into one of the most reputed gastronomic centers in the city.
Brixton - Hipster London at its Finest

 

[Manter]

The FT publishes in the US and London.

And is distributed in every major financial hub around the globe.....I'd venture it is seen by more people than the q(u)antas inflight magazine

 

[Nanker Phelge]

cheap and undesirable

Charming

 

[editor]

cheap and undesirable

Charming

Yeah, we were all scum and everything was shit until the yuppies, gentrifiers and rich kids saved us.

 

[SpamMisery]

We're all agreed then

 

[editor]

And is distributed in every major financial hub around the globe.....I'd venture it is seen by more people than the q(u)antas inflight magazine

Yes, the House & Home section in the UK Property subsection is massively popular right across the globe. Thanks for making this important point. That one mention surely blows all the other arguments out of the water.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

We're all agreed then

That's fucking cheap, man.

 

[Manter]

editor don't you get tired of being so bloody angry all the time?!

 

[editor]

editor don't you get tired of being so bloody angry all the time?!

I'm not even slightly angry but thanks for your concern. And thanks for jumping in with that point about Streatham too. Decisive, it was. Now where do I sign up for the Streatham foodie tour? I've got £70 burning a hole in my pocket here!

 

[Gramsci]

Isn't it a bit rough to single out the Ritzy as somehow worthy of opprobrium because it's unaffordable to many residents? London is one of the most expensive cities in the world. Frankly, a lot of London is inaccessible to the people who live here; one of the curses of living in a capital with massive influxes of global cash. I don't think the Ritzy is a brilliant example. Like any business I would assume it aims its offerings at the local community and other consumers at a price it thinks they can afford and which allows it to operate at a profit.

.

Up here in Loughborough Junction I hear a lot of resentment. One being that the Ritzy is expensive. At a recent consultation for LJ people from the estate said they wanted a non "exclusive" cinema. ie one they can afford. Picturehouse charge what they think punters will pay. The fact that this excludes a swathe of the local population is just tough I suppose. Thats just how the world works.

To my surprise a while back I found that Picturehouse ticket prices vary across London. Stratford is example

 

[editor]

To my surprise a while back I found that Picturehouse ticket prices vary across London. Stratford is example

Fuck me, they're really fleecing Brixtonites. Why the fuck should we be expected to support that kind of rip off pricing?

 

[Gramsci]

The piece focuses on the food scene and that's a fair thing for a lifestyle magazine piece to do. It's not that journalists job to write a gritty piece analysing the social cleansing effects of gentrification, it's not what her employers want. .

But she doesn’t just talk about foodie places she starts her article with an analysis of Brixton. She is making political points in her article. See the start of the article where she sets the scene.

If your point is that a "lifestyle" magazine is not political she certainly hasn’t followed that in her article.

 

[Gramsci]

Fuck me, they're really fleecing Brixtonites. Why the fuck should we be expected to support that kind of rip off pricing?

I was surprised myself. Stratford is comparable to Brixton in distance from centre of London. Picturehouse must have looked at the changing demographic here and realised they can get people to pay the prices at Ritzy.

 

[Manter]

I'm not even slightly angry but thanks for your concern. And thanks for jumping in with that point about Streatham too. Decisive, it was. Now where do I sign up for the Streatham foodie tour? I've got £70 burning a hole in my pocket here!

You might have to eat quite a bit to spend your £70 on the foodie tour Streatham Food Tour - Streatham Food Festival but you could just go to the latest pop up supper club Pushpa's Kitchen (which to be fair looks fantastic)

Point is Brixton is today's fashion, not unique, or particularly special. Media and fashion are moving on....

 

[editor]

You might have to eat quite a bit to spend your £70 on the foodie tour Streatham Food Tour - Streatham Food Festival)

That special yearly event is not even slightly comparable and you know it, so why post it up?

 

[Gramsci]

The piece focuses on the food scene and that's a fair thing for a lifestyle magazine piece to do. It's not that journalists job to write a gritty piece analysing the social cleansing effects of gentrification, it's not what her employers want.

And I wouldn’t dignify what she writes as journalism. Its advertising.

 

[SpamMisery]

The FT publishes in the US and London.

More people read the ft outside the UK than inside.

2.2 million daily readership according to the website. I reckon about 2.2 people read the Qantas in flight magazine daily.

 

[T & P]

And I wouldn’t dignify what she writes as journalism. Its advertising.

It's on a par with what one would expect to find in any in-flight magazine. Travellers are likely to be interested in reading about the city they're about to visit. Such write-ups are the bread and butter of in-flight mags.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

As far as it goes it seems to me that the article is more symptom than cause tbh - in-flight magazines tend to focus on exotic or glamorous places to try and add a bit of that when you're actually stuffed into a cramped seat working up your next thrombosis. I don't think many people actually go anywhere due to having read them. It's a symptom of significant change though, it's Brixton for a good reason and people certainly aren't writing those sort of articles about Streatham or wherever. There's not going to be a 'Qantas guide to Penge' any time soon.

 

[editor]

It's on a par with what one would expect to find in any in-flight magazine. Travellers are likely to be interested in reading about the city they're about to visit. Such write-ups are the bread and butter of in-flight mags.

The point is that the foodie-luring joints of Brixton never used to appear in such mags, and now they're subject to four page main features and true international coverage. At best, the place might have got a line or two about its music venues or Caribbean heritage but now it's all upmarket foodie stuff and Pop Brixton/Village.

And the Qantas isn't some throwaway read - it's a high end premium mag with a captive audience of about 2.3 million passengers a month, and a domestic readership of 589,000.

But of course, they're only one of many international magazines/websites to have joined in with the enthusiastic coverage of Brixton as the new, must-see foodie/trendy hang out, and anyone who thinks that nearby places like Streatham and Tooting are enjoying such mass foodie-tastic coverage really doesn't know what they're talking about.

 

[Twattor]

I was surprised myself. Stratford is comparable to Brixton in distance from centre of London. Picturehouse must have looked at the changing demographic here and realised they can get people to pay the prices at Ritzy.

Oddly Stratford isn't considered part of London in the eyes of Picturehouse - it comes under provincial membership and is not included in London membership.

 

[SpamMisery]

I must have thumbed through a thousand in flight magazines. I can't recall a single article from any of them. It's forgetable guff whilst you ignore the safety demonstration.

 

[Gramsci]

The problem with aiming this kind of all embracing opprobrium at harmless articles about restaurants is that it runs the risk of extending to a kind of joyless take on all forms of enjoyment experienced in Brixton, incase they somehow contribute towards more social exclusion or homogenisation. It starts with a disapproval of airline tickets and prosecco in the park, then progresses to a ban on ball games and dancing round the maypole on a Sunday. It lends credence to the idea that the left is obsessed with the destruction of pleasure, or at least the promotion of a list of types of pleasure that can be judged ideologically sound, the premises that may be frequented, and the denigration of the rest.

The destruction of pleasure by the left. This is a generalisation.

The left is not just one thing.

Take the Brixton Rec. I am in the Brixton Rec Users Group. The Rec was designed and built as part of the post war optimism that pleasure should be accessible to all. A "Peoples Palace". The design of the Rec encourages people to mix (the atrium). It was build on a grand scale. Its why so many Brixtonians opposed the threat to it a few years ago. The pleasure that the Rec represents is outside the the consumerist marketplace.

The Rec is one example of an alternative vision of what a pleasureable society could be. One that since Thatcher has been denigrated.

Its not that the left is against pleasure. Its that an alternative vision of it is almost lost.

Lifestyle journalism is not harmless in the sense of being neutral. To put it another way Lifestyle journalism is not the direct cause of the inequality that Capitalism ( of the kind that London now has) causes but has an ideological function to validate it.

 

[leanderman]

If that;s the case, then show me some of the many articles promoting Stockwell or Tooting in the NY newspapers and all the international in-flight mag features. Any streets on Stockwell appearing in Travel & Leisure mag? How about a Conde Nast feature? How many £70 foodie tours are there for Stockwell?

I wish I didn't have to regularly read crap like this:

Stockwell, again?! Are you arguing for the sake of it?