Rushcroft Road - is it too posh? Maybe we need another riot?
- Thread starter nick h.
- Start date
Minnie_the_Minx
someinenhhanding menbag and me ah bollox
All well and good if it were only estate agents' windows put in. Unfortunately rioters will happily loot any shop. With the last "mini" riot, there were rioters up Brixton Hill stealing flowers from the flower shop and I think they even nicked some food from Alberts, both quite piddly compared to the damage some of the SW9 shops sustained in the riots in the 80s.
Minnie_the_Minx
someinenhhanding menbag and me ah bollox
Lazy and wealthy with mortgage smaller than the rent on my spare room.
Why have you got such a small mortgage?
Minnie_the_Minx
someinenhhanding menbag and me ah bollox
teuchter
je suis teuchter
Why have you got such a small mortgage?
She hasn't - she just charges extortionate rates for her spare room. I think it's some sort of scam involving exploiting immigrant workers or something like that.
Minnie_the_Minx
someinenhhanding menbag and me ah bollox
It's the height and impracticality of them that makes me too lazy to reject M&S veg and walk over to the market.
I seem to have stumbled across this photo of you. Now I understand how hazardous the market is for you. Silly me.
Very nice shoes, btw. You can stay.
quimcunx
imprimeo, lamino, distribuo
boohoo
No.
well back in day that meant the good shops left Brixton, more tat shops appeared, increased fear in the streets, people scarred from how frightening it was, many house destroyed -good people lost their homes and livelihoods and property. innocent people getting mugged and raped, hey it could be you dragged out of the house and beaten up!
Yes, i remember both riots and they weren't funny. And even when there wasn't rioting, cars were burnt, stabbings muggings and murders happened, houses robbed, etc,etc....
brixtonvilla
should be Oslovilla, really
Haven't had one of these for a while... What do people consider as the symptoms of gentrification? I've been here 9 years now, and I don't really think the neighbourhood has changed that much beyond property prices rising like anywhere else. Most of the "lifestyle" bars like Living, Harlem et al have gone to the wall, and it's the same mix of people & shops it ever was. I think of gentrification as being big name high street stores as a starter (which we don't have), moving onto chi-chi little boutiques, delis, wine merchants, poshee children's shops for young families... I see none of this in Brixton. Herne Hill, maybe, but not Brixton.
Obviously don't remember the 81 or 85 riots, but good post.
OP, I know (hope) this thread was started in semi jest, but think about it ffs.
You might feel quite the badman telling your friends where you live and how low your rent is (or are you squatting a much needed council flat?) but how does keeping Brixton scummy help it's residents?
MIDDLE CLASS PEOPLE: Come! Come and enjoy our good transport links, lovely houses and vibrant community! But while you're here push for decent schools, decent doctors surgeries, police that actually give a shit, and any kind of leisure facilities. Write those well worded letters! People actually listen to you!
OK, that was a very wise post. I just worry about the Granville Arcade plans, the increased rents for market stalls, that sort of thing. Coldharbour Lane is one of my favourite streets in the world and the tarted up bit of Rushcroft Road now reeks of Barnes. If I was a developer I'd be determined to do that to the whole road. And then what? What if the shops on Coldharbour Lane get taken over by mobile phone companies or Gap or something. D Convenience store is having a tough time, Coffee@Max has closed, the Juice bar is always dead, Living has been boarded up for ages.
And my rent may be thought of as low by some, but I struggle to pay it. If Brixton gets a fraction more expensive I'll have to leave and go...where? It's the only bit of London I like.
And my rent may be thought of as low by some, but I struggle to pay it. If Brixton gets a fraction more expensive I'll have to leave and go...where? It's the only bit of London I like.
To be honest my recollection of the riots is very different. I don't recall hearing much of innocent people being 'mugged and raped' at all, in fact there was a fair bit of solidarity on the streets. The mood after the first riot was triumphant, even tor a little one like me - the police had been given the lesson they had deserved, several of the most unpleasant pubs were razed, folks had new ill-gotten clothes and electronics goods for the big celebrations that followed. It was a community fighting back for once and winning to a large extent.
Yes, there was damage to some innocent property and the shops took a battering, some never to return. But the majority of the frustration was taken out on the police. Bear in mind that not one person died in the riots, no mean feat when molotov cocktails were being used and slightly less enlightened police tactics were in operation.
Whilst they were far from entirely positive events change did come as a result of the riots., And we'd be poorer without the legacy of that uprising.
boohoo
No.
Story goes on the street I lived on that someone was dragged out of their house at the time and there was a rape. I am not entirely clear on the facts as this is more about the 1985 riots. I live next to the posh part of stockwell so there would be a lot less community between the posh houses and the next door estates.
There's a good programme on you tube about the riots with some great footage.
I do agree that positive stuff came out of the riots but I would not like to see another one - we have moved on loads since the 1980s.
I do sympathise, but it's galling when all you hear is wankers (no one here of course) banging on about how we should endeavour to keep Brixton real. Really? Try growing up with only shitty schools on offer, on an estate police won't patrol, with nothing for young people to do, where it takes six weeks to get a doctors appointment.
Sorry if I'm coming across as an I've-faced-more-hardship-than-thou twat, but there are bonuses to so called gentrification.
Hmm, sounds like a vote for a riot. Maybe a poll is called for?
To be fair, there's nothing to justify a riot. I can't imagine another one. You need to enrage quite a large group of people. Hardly anyone protested about the death in custody of Sean Rigg last August. Naomi Benjamin under the Serco van caused an angry crowd to gather but I don't think a riot was ever on the cards. The police were very sensible and didn't do anything remotely confrontational. The driver's murder trial is coming up in April and I suspect it will pass without incident whatever the verdict.
Ach, as I said earlier the most vicious anti-gentrification types always tended to be well-bred incomers as well. There's a balance somewhere inbetween ever increasing chain stores/luxury apartments and the desire to raising anything new to the ground to defend 'propah' Brixton
The schools issue I sympathise with well. I escaped the shit schools early on, via scholarships an then 11-plus out of borough. I honestly don't think I'd have anywhere near the same qualifications had I not had a mother so willing to fight for a place miles away, nor believe that I'd have been a strong enough a character to succeed in spite of the poor resources.
On reflection that post does make me sound like a bit of a twat, BUT IT'S TRUE.
I'm not sure if realistically and long term a happy middle ground can be reached, but the pros of "bringing up the standard" (sorry) of an area outweigh the cons I think.
The general environment of my primary school (Loughborough) was great, but it had really poor SATs results. My secondary school (Stockwell Park) was a sink school and fucking awful in all areas.
I think 'bringing up the standard' is a little bit of an oversimplistic way to look at things. To be fair, I'm far from the most vigorous of the anti-anything new brigade, but there is a case for making developments more inclusive to all. I don't share your optimism that the market, if left to itself, would benefit the community on the whole. A larger out of town style supermarket may well destroy some of the town centre stores and market for example, leaving car free folks with even less choice and higher prices. Would an endless strip of Battersea style restaurants and style bars offer much to the average Brixtonian, or more to folks elsewhere in search of another late drinking zone. And so on.
There's a middle ground somewhere, although I'm not going to pretend that it's simple and consistent.
There's a middle ground somewhere, although I'm not going to pretend that it's simple and consistent.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
The thing is though, that trying to make, say, schools better by encouraging wealthier/middle class families to move into their catchment areas is kind of a perverse way to do things, because surely those middle class families who are good at writing letters to their councillor and so forth must be displacing the poorer families, as there's only so much housing to go around. So they might make the schools and crime rates and what have you "better" but what's the good in that for the people who have to move elsewhere, presumably to a different "bad" area with equally crappy schools.
Which is true as well. When my parents did get enough together to buy their first house out of Brixton, living their dream buying a 2up 2down with garden, they made that move like many others to Norbury, Mitcham and beyond. Where the schools were just as bad to be fair - Merton may well have better schools, but they tended to be towards the more Wimbledon side of property prices.
I don't know many poor people who own their houses, or many wealthy people who live in social housing though. I know a lot of ex-council places get bought and sold on, which I don't approve of, but at the same time that means that the original tenants can move somewhere they actually want to live. If I had to put up with pissy stairwells and crackheads for thirty years, I'd be jumping for joy at the prospect of my flat being worth the same amount as a place in a nice area out of town.
It's all really messy and complicated, and I haven't got any answers, I just says what I sees.
boohoo
No.
There are plenty of wealthy middle class people in stockwell who send their kids to the private schools - the occasional one will send their kid to local primary but then move them to private for the more important schooling. They won't be displacing the poorer families who are living in RSL housing or council housing have limited choice about moving away from the area. My parents didn't choose to bring me up in Brixton - people waving knifes around at 4 in the afternoon on the way home from school wasn't something they thought was great for their kids however they didn't have another choice.
Mrs Magpie
On a bit of break...
There are plenty of poor families who send their kids to private schools. I know of at least two struggling families on this estate doing just that....I'm sure there are more...
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