Out with the Old... Network Rail tell businesses to vacate Atlantic Road arches

[Gramsci]

It's not so much the "how" - that's an established fact: By moving out viable traders.

The important question is why, and I think people need to look to the discussions around the "town plan" for central Brixton, and how the council wanted a "night-time economy" and all the venues and shops that would bring. You can't have a "party zone" when one side of the zone's perimeter is composed of practical, old-skool shops that don't sell expensive coffee and/or cocktails, or chi-chi faux-Caribbean cuisine blandified for Surrey-raised palettes.

You are on right track. I had meeting few weeks ago where Council Officer said that they wanted to do something to improve the "poor" side of Brixton Station Road. That Network Rail will at some point finish the refurbishment of the arches. Leaving the "poor" side opposite the regenerated arches. That the Council wanted to do something about the "poor" side.

At one point in meeting a certain person, who I won't name, said the clientele of the shops on the "poor" side was putting people off coming to the Brixton Rec.

Some of us queried what "poor side" meant. Backtracking by officer.

I actually felt a bit sorry for the officer. What he let slip in an unguarded comment as how Brixton is discussed in higher echelons of the Council.

We all know this. Well some of us here. Some posters have a problem understanding this.

Which is why I relate this anecdote. Ive censored it up to a point. As someone who has some long term involvement in local Brixton issues and engaging with Council I don't feel that present administration in Council and senior officers really want to oppose gentrification if Brixton.

 

[editor]

You are on right track. I had meeting few weeks ago where Council Officer said that they wanted to do something to improve the "poor" side of Brixton Station Road. That Network Rail will at some point finish the refurbishment of the arches. Leaving the "poor" side opposite the regenerated arches. That the Council wanted to do something about the "poor" side.

At one point in meeting a certain person, who I won't name, said the clientele of the shops on the "poor" side was putting people off coming to the Brixton Rec.

Some of us queried what "poor side" meant. Backtracking by officer.

I actually felt a bit sorry for the officer. What he let slip in an unguarded comment as how Brixton is discussed in higher echelons of the Council.

We all know this. Well some of us here. Some posters have a problem understanding this.

Which is why I relate this anecdote. Ive censored it up to a point. As someone who has some long term involvement in local Brixton issues and engaging with Council I don't feel that present administration in Council and senior officers really want to oppose gentrification if Brixton.

Spot on .

 

[SpamMisery]

Is there a point at which the pro-gentrification lobby represents the majority of local residents and does anyone know how close to that point we are?

 

[editor]

Update here: Brixton Arches: Network Rail and Lambeth Council conspire to strip Brixton of its unique character

 

[CH1]

Is there a point at which the pro-gentrification lobby represents the majority of local residents and does anyone know how close to that point we are?

If we were near that tipping point I'm sure Lambeth Regeneration would have done a survey about it.

 

[Lambeth Boy]

Update here: Brixton Arches: Network Rail and Lambeth Council conspire to strip Brixton of its unique character

So the f*ck up continues ! I strongly believe that it's a game plan that NR are playing so that all the Traders who were promised to return will decide they can't wait any longer leaving NR free to offer them to their preferred tenants Garfunkels , five guys etc

 

[Gramsci]

Is there a point at which the pro-gentrification lobby represents the majority of local residents and does anyone know how close to that point we are?

Just fuck off you obnoxious clown.

 

[editor]

Just fuck off you obnoxious clown.

He's banned from the thread.

 

[Lambeth Boy]

Next Month it will be one year that Network Rail forced most of the Traders out to achieve what ? Create a mini Ghost Town for the foreseeable future and then turn it into a building site in 2018 / 2019

 

[Ms T]

We found a letter to residents on the street the other day which said the work was starting next month.

 

[Lambeth Boy]

We found a letter to residents on the street the other day which said the work was starting next month.

That's still a lot of revenue from the rents to loose plus all the lost business rates to a cash strapped Council , why wait a year ? They haven't had their CEMP approved yet nor served party wall notices to the remaining Tenants !

 

[editor]

Brilliant

 

[organicpanda]

Brilliant

View attachment 115314

surely that should be 'despite its decreasing diversity' etc. and what is the intention behind using the word despite? I hear an echo of a dog whistle

 

[friendofdorothy]

Brilliant

View attachment 115314

I've been meaning to get down there and correct that sentence:
delete 'Despite its increasing' and replace with 'Because of it's'

 

[teuchter]

I had a look at the boards the other day. As one might expect, what's presented on this thread is a bit selective. Some of the quotes may indeed be cringeworthy. But when you actually look at the hoardings (instead of a conveniently cropped photo) the quotes are made by owners of the businesses who (used to) operate in the arches. Selected, perhaps, by whoever is in charge of the brixton pillars thing, but not made up by a PR department. Also, the hoardings basically give info about each business, contact details, where they are now trading from, and/or their intention to return. What would folks prefer to see on the hoardings? Maybe they could be less shiny and less colourful so people could complain that they make the street look abandoned?

If I was one of those businesses I might well be pissed off that I'd been booted out. That having happened though, I reckon that I'd probably want the hoardings to display something like what they currently display. I expect someone will tell me that those businesses have probably been signed up to a gagging order, and that's why we don't hear from them on this thread complaining that they have been misquoted and disapprove of the decision to use the hoardings in the way they are being used.

 

[editor]

Look at this nauseous bullshit.

 

[Gramsci]

I had a look at the boards the other day. As one might expect, what's presented on this thread is a bit selective. Some of the quotes may indeed be cringeworthy. But when you actually look at the hoardings (instead of a conveniently cropped photo) the quotes are made by owners of the businesses who (used to) operate in the arches. Selected, perhaps, by whoever is in charge of the brixton pillars thing, but not made up by a PR department. Also, the hoardings basically give info about each business, contact details, where they are now trading from, and/or their intention to return. What would folks prefer to see on the hoardings? Maybe they could be less shiny and less colourful so people could complain that they make the street look abandoned?

If I was one of those businesses I might well be pissed off that I'd been booted out. That having happened though, I reckon that I'd probably want the hoardings to display something like what they currently display. I expect someone will tell me that those businesses have probably been signed up to a gagging order, and that's why we don't hear from them on this thread complaining that they have been misquoted and disapprove of the decision to use the hoardings in the way they are being used.

How do you know this isn't made up by a PR department?

Or that the quotes are accurate?

I'm rather surprised you take the hoardings at face value without asking for categorical proof that all said on the hoardings is 100 % accurate.

 

[madolesance]

How do you know this isn't made up by a PR department?

Or that the quotes are accurate?

I'm rather surprised you take the hoardings at face value without asking for categorical proof that all said on the hoardings is 100 % accurate.

It may not be made up. Who really knows? I made a point of reading all off the PR that was on the hoardings and most of it seemed real.
I guess we have just got to seem what happens when the refurbishment has completed. (Providing Lambeth let that happen).

 

[Gramsci]

As was at a community meeting with Council a couple of days ago re Brixton Station road and surrounding area . Brixton Station road came up. All were critical of Network Rail. All were concerned about Brixton bring gentrified. All opposed the removal of the seating that Small World Urbanism had put in Beehive place.

This is pretty standard views I get when I'm in Brixton.

One could be forgiven here that it's just the views of a few posters on Urban 75. To be dismissed and ridiculed. They aren't in the circles I move in. Which contain a good cross section of people who live or use Brixton.

 

[Gramsci]

It may not be made up. Who really knows? I made a point of reading all off the PR that was on the hoardings and most of it seemed real.
I guess we have just got to seem what happens when the refurbishment has completed. (Providing Lambeth let that happen).

PR always seems real. The first hoardings were a disaster. They learnt from them. Yes we will have to wait.

In the meantime I won't trust anything from NR.

 

[Gramsci]

One thing I learnt from meeting a few days ago is that in effect the Brixton Central Master plan is now dead in the water.

After NR deciding to do its own thing the Council are no longer talking to NR. Instead they will be looking at specific small projects for this area. Also concentrating on developing plans for the land and buildings they own on the Brixton Central Master plan site.

The site being Brixton Station road, the Rec, the Pop site ,the street market and shops they own under Rec.

The idea of the Brixton Central Master plan was that local residents, local business, big landowners ( Council and NR ) would "co produce" a plan for that area.

All well and good. But NR decided not to play.

It looks like the Council , they won't say to publicly, have learnt that trying to work with big business doesn't always work. If ever. It works as long as big landowners get what they want.

I have heard it several times from officers that they are no longer in talks with NR. Looks to me that they aren't. The arches have become a political embarrassment for Council.

 

[teuchter]

How do you know this isn't made up by a PR department?

Or that the quotes are accurate?

I'm rather surprised you take the hoardings at face value without asking for categorical proof that all said on the hoardings is 100 % accurate.

I'm simply reporting what I see when I look at what's actually there instead of the carefully cropped photos that are posted on this thread.

That the quotes are made by the local businesses seems completely plausible because it's the kind of stuff that a small business owner might come up with when asked that kind of question. That it's all a fabrication and conspiracy by Network Rail seems to me a less likely scenario.

Anyway, I don't know if the quotes really matter. It's what everyone here's focusing on, and as it turns out sneering at the guff that the small business owners have come out with, no doubt prompted by leading questions from whoever directs the campaign. Nobody seems to be interested in the main bits of the hoardings which are giving details about the businesses, and like I said above, isn't that a reasonably sensible use of that hoarding space?

 

[Gramsci]

I'm simply reporting what I see when I look at what's actually there instead of the carefully cropped photos that are posted on this thread.

That the quotes are made by the local businesses seems completely plausible because it's the kind of stuff that a small business owner might come up with when asked that kind of question. That it's all a fabrication and conspiracy by Network Rail seems to me a less likely scenario.

Anyway, I don't know if the quotes really matter. It's what everyone here's focusing on, and as it turns out sneering at the guff that the small business owners have come out with, no doubt prompted by leading questions from whoever directs the campaign. Nobody seems to be interested in the main bits of the hoardings which are giving details about the businesses, and like I said above, isn't that a reasonably sensible use of that hoarding space?

As I've said above a highly critical view of NR and the arches evictions is standard in the circles I move in. None of the people I know are prompted by a leader of campaign. You might not like it but all of the cross section of Brixton I know see it that way. The views posted here on the arches you don't like are mainstream. Shared by people who don't post here.

I'm simply reporting what I hear when Im in Brixton. From small business owners, residents and at the consultation meetings I attend. I think I meet awide
enough cross section to think I'm right.

 

[teuchter]

As I've said above a highly critical view of NR and the arches evictions is standard in the circles I move in. None of the people I know are prompted by a leader of campaign. You might not like it but all of the cross section of Brixton I know see it that way. The views posted here on the arches you don't like are mainstream. Shared by people who don't post here.

I'm simply reporting what I hear when Im in Brixton. From small business owners, residents and at the consultation meetings I attend. I think I meet awide
enough cross section to think I'm right.

I'm talking about the hoardings and what's on them. I've made no attempt to comment on what people in the "circles you move in" think. I also don't know what views about the arches you think I "don't like". What I don't like is inaccurate or ill-informed reporting and selective presentation of information.

What would you like to see on the hoardings?

 

[Gramsci]

I'm talking about the hoardings and what's on them. I've made no attempt to comment on what people in the "circles you move in" think. I also don't know what views about the arches you think I "don't like". What I don't like is inaccurate or ill-informed reporting and selective presentation of information.

What would you like to see on the hoardings?

If you are stating what is written on the hoardings for the benefit of all here that's one thing.

You are also commenting as well. Not just stating.

Go back and have a read of your posts.

 

[teuchter]

I've reread your post Gramsci and I think you have misunderstood.

People on here have been sneering at the quotes on the hoardings because they have assumed they've been written by some kind of PR person.

However, it is fairly clear to me that these quotes are presented on the hoardings as having been made by the owners of the small businesses represented there.

Whoever leads or organises the "brixton pillars" campaign may have prompted the business owners to make those kinds of quotes by asking leading questions - I don't know. But as far as I can see, it's the business owners who made the quotes that people reading this thread have been made to think have been made up by some Network Rail marketing department. At least, those people who don't take what they read on here with a pinch of salt. Personally, I decided to go and have a look at the hoardings myself.

Still no-one seems to be willing to make some suggestions as to what they would like to see on the hoardings, instead of what's there now.

 

[bimble]

Why is it taking so long? When can we expect the all-new brixton station road to be revealed does anyone know ?
(if i've missed the memo forgive me please).

Its very likely that the toe-curling quotes were coaxed from local business owners, that makes the hoardings no less cringe-worthy but imo that's a silly diversion.

 

[editor]

Why is it taking so long? When can we expect the all-new brixton station road to be revealed does anyone know ?
(if i've missed the memo forgive me please).

Its very likely that the toe-curling quotes were coaxed from local business owners, that makes the hoardings no less cringe-worthy but imo that's a silly diversion.

I think some of the really shit ones aren't actually attributed to any businesses so it's just bullshit PR from the backfiring Brixton Pillars campaign (with a website that takes nearly a year to appear).

 

[editor]

I got sent a pic of the shuttered up passage to the train station with this message from a trader. Anyone know more:

Here's a photo of all the fake shops opened up in the alleyway leading to network rail was entrance to Brixton train station. All close now since the cameras left. Just another PR stunt by network rail. Helping the community what a joke.

 

[Gramsci]

I got sent a pic of the shuttered up passage to the train station with this message from a trader. Anyone know more:

I think it's part of the Brixton Design trail. I saw it on Saturday. I must say I was somewhat queasy about seeing the evicted units being used for pop up shops.