Reclaim Brixton movement - meetings and April 25th protest planned
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friendofdorothy
Solidarity against neoliberalism!
there was a time when Granville Arcade was definitely run down with lots of empty units, it wasn't thriving in the 90s/00s.It's interesting the way you remeber things. In my head I remember it as first avenue always full and except for a few stragglers the rest of the market more or less empty. If I'd been asked, from memory I'd have said the market wasn't 50% occupied.
I also remeber a thread when Mrs Magpie and Intostella raged against the new name of Brixton Village and how they would continue to call it by its proper name. Jesus how long ago was that?
Can't say I'm a fan of the 'Village' now - I don't want to eat in a drafty market with pidgeons flying about and insufficient toilet facililities. But you cant turn back time and it's popular. I just don't want to loose a general market selling veg/fish/fabric/pans/stuff everything - surely there is still room for both, provided the landlord doesn't price them all out.
When it comes to shops/markets/etc the best way to 'reclaim' them is with your custom - vote with your feet and your purse
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Gramsci
Well-Known Member
If I misunderstood your post what was the point you were making?
editor
hiraethified
That's not going to work in the Village because it's no longer interested in catering to its traditional crowd: it's now all about foodies and tourists.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
no, the way this works is you answer the question.
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
So you do not want to clarify what you were getting at. Fair enough.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
you fucking don't want to clarify what you were getting at. you said 'it's easy to sneer' but when asked 'where's the sneer?' you've been unable or unwilling to point to it. where's the fucking sneer?
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
I will not reply to posts using abusive language.
DietCokeGirl
Fishing in the rivers of life
The Village bashing makes me sad, I hate that every business there is tarred with the same brush.There are still traditional traders, maybe not as many, and I won't pretend I know how much they are or aren't adapting to the changes, but they are still there and still serving long-term customers. I'm trying to bite my tongue (er, clench my fingers in this format?) from going on a full-on rant but there's also a good few independent businesses in the village who try and contribute to the local community. I can understand why people dislike it, and dislike going there, but I feel it's got this symbolic status when there are some much bigger villains out there.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
you've not shown yourself willing to meaningfully respond when asked a simple question this morning which you could have answered when you passed through round half eight this morning.
editor
hiraethified
I think it's more about the inevitable trajectory the Village is on, and the way that the new lifestyle-friendly businesses are constantly bring promoted as the face of nu-Brixton in the glossy magazine features and estate agent blurb (aka the "'Brixton Village effect'").
Yes, it's not fair on the existing traditional businesses, but it's the very thing that will lead to them eventually being priced out and replaced by more lifestyle foodie joints and boutiques.
editor
hiraethified
Can you leave it out please.
Buckaroo
Donkey piss and tractors
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Fair enough point.
To make it clear its not Reclaim Brixton who are doing that particular demo. Reclaim Brixton demo is at Windrush sq.
The "Handson Family" who started Reclaim Brixton have a unit in Brixton Village. I think I chatted to one of them a while back. They were there from the Spacemaker time. However they are not happy with how its ended up. The Spacemaker idea was more of making it a creative space that would cater to all.
Market Row is a different case. That was never empty. Its ending up like Brixton Village.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
of course. i simply wondered why i'd been accused of sneering, only to be met by prevarication. but yes, i'll leave it.
editor
hiraethified
A regular Brixton urbanite railed against Spacemakers from the start, by virtue of the way that he felt that they had no interest in any form of exit plan to protect existing traders once the units had been suitably hip-ified,
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Don't use abusive language then
I don’t use the F word in my posts when replying to others. It crosses a line when I get it directed at me.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
simple point, agreeing with a previous post and wondering about the number of urbanites there. one of the people pictured is a colleague of mine who doesn't post here. i hope that's ok with you.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
i'll adopt the same policy wr2 the s word.
Buckaroo
Donkey piss and tractors
Right, sorry, I was being pedantic and trying to be fxnxy but fxxx it, this place is off it's txxx tonight! All the best
So have the revisionists now re-remembered how utterly shit it was?
mao
I'm totally wired
editor
hiraethified
It was 'shite' because a developer intentionally made it that way.
DietCokeGirl
Fishing in the rivers of life
Anyway, to dare to go back to topic, I just had a proper read up on this campaign, good luck to them - I like the idea of making music and sound central to their gathering because one of the really lovely things about stepping out into Brixton is the music and sounds all around (including the CD man in the Arches, long may he remain) . And good to see housing is on their agenda.
editor
hiraethified
I think the way that live music has been progressively pushed out of Granville Arcade - and the growth of bolshy security guards ensuring that things are all kept nicey nicey for the grazers - has proved quite instrumental in altering the overall vibe of the place.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
what you don't seem to have the wit to work out is that gentrification writes off and forced out one population, traditionally the existing working class population, in favour of a new middle class population who remake the area in their image. i don't suppose anyone would say the auld brixton, the auld hoxton or wherever were perfect. but the areas could have been improved with their existing inhabitants in situ instead of communities being dispersed so some rich people can enjoy themselves.
I think that's a 'yes'
The timeline, from what I remember, was:
The problem with Brixton Village / Spacemakers (I'm not referring to the wider issues on this thread) is not that change happened, it was almost certainly always going to. The problem was that it happened in a way that pretended to be community led change, but was actually the opposite of that.
The creation myth about an empty market saved by food is just that, a myth.
The more boring truth is that the fast, unaccountable, change in Brixton Village and Market Row, enabled by Spacemakers and a lack of planning enforcement, stole Brixton's chance to have a say over the change that was coming (even if the broad-brush economics made some change unavoidable).
- That part of the market was empty, but empty because of the plan to knock it down and build flats (it had been brought up by a company that had previous on buying markets, emptying them then building on them)
- The plan was stopped due to residents and councilors campaigning along with the subsequent success in getting the buildings listed
- The (well intentioned) response from the council was to encourage the owners to do something with now empty part of the market (see photographs), now knocking it down was not an option.
- The owners hired Spacemakers and were open about their reasons for doing so - to rebrand, go upmarket and focus on food and fashion rather than retail (I seem to remember the annual report refereed to them as 'specialist marketeers' and success in increasing rents?) Meanwhile, spacemakers were talking up community and sustainable food, which was at best naive.
- After the empty units were filled, the rents went up on the non-empty units. At least half the units on Market Row, and many others in the non-empty part of Brixton Village were replaced (anecdotally evicted due to rent increases, but the facts are not on record). Many of the shops were replaced with bars/restaurants without any planning permission and residents on surrounding roads suffered an increase in antisocial behavior from the new bars without the normal routes of appeal.
The problem with Brixton Village / Spacemakers (I'm not referring to the wider issues on this thread) is not that change happened, it was almost certainly always going to. The problem was that it happened in a way that pretended to be community led change, but was actually the opposite of that.
The creation myth about an empty market saved by food is just that, a myth.
The more boring truth is that the fast, unaccountable, change in Brixton Village and Market Row, enabled by Spacemakers and a lack of planning enforcement, stole Brixton's chance to have a say over the change that was coming (even if the broad-brush economics made some change unavoidable).
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Given this is a response to the extent of occupancy in Granville Arcade at a certain point, I'm not sure if you are saying the transformation of the arcade begat wider gentrification or wider gentrification begat the transformation of the arcade. tbh, I don't have much faith you know what you're talking about generally, and I'm pretty sure you'll bottle an opinon and say it was a bit of both. So, what do you say?
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