Sorry but this is a crock of crap. The people moving into Shoreditch aren't the working class done good. They're possibly not even middle class either. Perhaps a minority are ones who've landed city jobs. But families? It's where single people move to to have fun. Or couples with a decent income.
Fuck Gentrification - Join the Fuck Parade...Part 3!
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Sorry but this is a crock of crap. The people moving into Shoreditch aren't the working class done good. They're possibly not even middle class either. Perhaps a minority are ones who've landed city jobs. But families? It's where single people move to to have fun. Or couples with a decent income.
Lurdan
old wave
Indeed - if they actually are the advance guard of a new wave of gentrification. The 'Camdenization' of the top half of Brick Lane began nearly a quarter of a century ago and is no different today to the way it's been for well over a decade. (The actual process of gentrification in the area began even longer ago at the start of the 70s). Brick Lane hasn't been a 'high street' primarily serving the local community for a very very long time.
Cereal Killers stand out as exceedingly annoying twats who deserve everything they get but they are not the symptom of an influx of 'hipsters' in the strict tribal sense. I can't see any change in the kind of people going to the 'Camdenized' part of the Lane. It's much the same as it's been since the start of the century, although more than one wave of businesses have come and gone since that process began.
For me the most visible change in the sociological composition of the different groups using Brick Lane over the last decade has been the decline in the numbers of city workers using the 'curry mile' part of Brick Lane. Can't say I miss them myself - they were considerably more annoying than fucking hipsters.
bimble
floofy
I grew up in camden back when there was the DM boot shop & people selling pretty good weed for £5 on the canal.
The process by which its become a sort of Madame Tuassauds of stripy socks for tourists is more interesting and complex than just pointing the finger at "hipsters'.
For one thing the stables market in camden was bought by a private developer a few years ago.
Then there's the larger issue of central london housing shortage & prices.. I just think the whole 'I blame people with skinny jeans and overprices cereals" thing is kind of peurile and a failure of perspective.
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
Exactly, and imo that's not even such a terrible thing. It's a place people who don't live anywhere near there go to and has been for as long as I've been in London. It's a market street - that's what that kind of street is, and a fair few people make their living from the fact. It's not as if there isn't a high street for local people just around the corner - there certainly is.
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
Yeah, again, property speculation, rents, etc. My favourite bookshop, Compendium, closed up in the end because the owner got an offer he couldn't refuse. But even then, Camden was a place to go to when you didn't live there for a very long time. Again, it wasn't just there to serve the people of Camden, and nor necessarily should it have been.
bimble
floofy
Agreed. Far as I know Camden used to be (like a long time ago admittedly) an important place in London for woodworking, workshops making everything from violins to staircases , furniture pianos etc.
I think the thing that killed it was that now almost every shop just sells the same stripy socks and novelty Tshirts to tourists?
Throwing things at the stripy sock vendors isn't going to do much to change this though, far as I can see.
I think the thing that killed it was that now almost every shop just sells the same stripy socks and novelty Tshirts to tourists?
Throwing things at the stripy sock vendors isn't going to do much to change this though, far as I can see.
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
Yes, but the thing that turned it into that was the rise in rents. There was a specialist reptile/fish pet shop just opposite Mornington Crescent until recently. A mate of mine worked there. The owner died, and my mate looked into the idea of taking it over. But the owners of the building tripled the rent upon the shop owner's demise. It's now a mobile phone store.
bimble
floofy
I didn't know that had gone. Know the place you're talking about. Good snakes. Wish I'd bought a monkey.
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
The interesting stuff gets priced out. Same has happened in Greenwich, loads of places.
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
Not that.
It was King's Aquatic. Owned by Simon King. Now dead, and shop gone but not because it wasn't a viable business. It was, but just not when you're having 100k per year stolen from you by the building owners. Rents in Camden are insane.
Lurdan
old wave
Absolutely, although it's also true to say that businesses which cater to current fashions and trends have a natural shelf life, something which has been a driver for change in Camden and Brick Lane.
bimble
floofy
Yes.
So throwing things at those hipster cocopops vendors who have agreed to pay the high rents helps how exactly?
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
I don't know. How long is it since you've been there?
bimble
floofy
A while admittedly. I live in a place called Loughborough Junction now, don't know if you've heard of it.I don't know. How long is it since you've been there?
Between Camberwell & Brixton. Very interesting place right now for the fried chicken versus cappuccino conversation, which i think was over years ago up there in the leafy north?
Loughborough Junction public space improvements - consultation begins
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
Not been there in a few years.
But yes, proof that anywhere is open to this process.Thing is, the old LJ, the one that I remember and was, let's face it, not great in some important ways, who exactly is it that mourns its passing, if it is passing? To me, that smacks of the same crap the likes of Brick Lane coffee are (rightly) accused of - revelling in the 'edginess' of down-at-heel London.
bimble
floofy
Me. I mourn it. But it's fair enough what you say maybe I'm just clinging to the embers of industrial London. It's a hard thing to watch though, what's happening here just now, the speed of it and the way its carried out.
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
Well I don't know exactly how it's changed. But that's the evil of the property racket. It makes urban regeneration without gentrification impossible. And that stinks because there are places that really need regeneration, and in a city like London, change and flux are the norm, not the exception - without it the city would be nothing like what it is and way poorer for it.
bimble
floofy
Yes.
The whole conversation (that I'm deep into in my local area) would be much enriched if the word "gentrification" and conversations about the price of cereals served by 2 bearded twits in shoreditch wasn't part if it.
But maybe that's just me being a pedantic bigger picture sociology type twit.
Maybe I don't belong here in the Join The Fuck Parade thread.
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
Threads aren't just for people who agree with their premise.
I like the idea of the Fuck Parade, personally. I just think they have their targets wrong, and that their claims to represent certain people are dubious at best.
I like the idea of the Fuck Parade, personally. I just think they have their targets wrong, and that their claims to represent certain people are dubious at best.
Which targets are wrong?
bimble
floofy
Citizen66
Please can the Fuck Parade 4 wheel drive science fiction armoured truck thing come to Lambeth Town Hall next.
(It's on Brixton Road, opposite the tube station.)
Ask for Councillor Jennifer Braithwait's office.
Wear the pig masks & carry flaming torches.
Throw muesli or whatever.
Thanks.
if not, carry on with the independent retailers with stupid beards.
I mean that's cool too, and much less CCTV, only you will achieve exactly nothing.
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it achieved the most wide ranging discussion about gentrification in the UK media I've seen in years if ever.
I think they're dreadful, sloppy on facts, desperately searching for things that aren't there, verging on a smear and inpenetrable to anyone outside of the intersectionality bubble.
that that line can be published in the worlds oldest anarchist newspaper makes me want to weep
Supine
Newt Member
And zero change
Nice one
Well-Known Member
perhaps, but hipsters have been identified as a problem, a legitimate target, without ever really going into why that is so (it's not really needed is it, everyone hates hipsters). But hipsters are a genuine cultural phenomenon with a specific class content (just like yuppies), and if there was to be a closer examination it would probably unearth some uncomfortable truths.
bimble
floofy
I missed any discussion of the real issues after the fuck parade, just saw lots & lots of pictures of the cereal shop and interviews with the twits inside.
This was good, silent protest here recently. Not saying it changed anything but it did have something to say, something apart from 'we hate those bearded hipsters and their cococpops.
Citizen66
Please can the Fuck Parade 4 wheel drive science fiction armoured truck thing come to Lambeth Town Hall next.
(It's on Brixton Road, opposite the tube station.)
Ask for Councillor Jennifer Braithwait's office.
Wear the pig masks & carry flaming torches.
Throw muesli or whatever.
Thanks.
if not, carry on with the independent retailers with stupid beards.
I mean that's cool too, and much less CCTV, only you will achieve exactly nothing.
Why was this directed at me? You even edited in the tag too as it wasn't there when you originally posted it. I've never been on a Fuck Parade.
Still not made up with them then?
bimble
floofy
I was only directing it at you because of your question 'which targets were wrong'. Never mind, shame though.
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