A short tale on gentrification and its aftereffects
Coming from somewhere where gentrification doesn’t exist, the real face of London surprised me both positively and negatively. I was blessed to choose South London to live in, whilst many think its more of a curse than a blessing but that’s because they don’t know what its really like behind the facade of crime and poverty. Instead it is a place filled with culture, diversity, love, and the truth about gentrification in the South.
During my research, I visited multiple Lambeth which is a short walk from the LCC campus and the general Elephant & Castle area. On my way there, I stopped at a corner shop where I picked up a snack and had a brief conversation with the man behind the counter. Throughout our conversation I learn he lives in Elephant & Castle too, and he haas worked at this same place for over 5 years. I ask him what he thinks of the gentrification in his area and he tells me it doesn’t have a huge affect on him and rather it doesn’t change the “public perception” of Elephant & Castle. Instead he thinks it has gotten worse in the publics eye and worse for tourists because of crime. Gentrification doesn’t touch everyone, but to those it does touch, it may hurt.
As I am walking into Lambeth, I scan my surroundings. I see many little shops, some modern, some run down. Gentrification and any ‘lack of’ is seen everywhere. It’s right above these shops, hidden by the winter trees.
Gentrification happens, but the process may not be as pretty as the result.
After my Lambeth adventure, I took the time to do online research about how gentrification really affects the people surrounding it. Of course, to those living in the gentrified areas of South London, they consider it metropolitan and modern. But what did it take to get there? Mass evictions and the poor treatment of the long lasting ethnic residents of these areas, reports an article from TRTWorld.
Some of these people are still able to live there today.
The article states the process in which gentrification happens, its described as something similar to a minor ethnic cleansing as it wrongfully evicts residents living in areas such as Lambeth and Brixton for over a decade, leaving them with no homes and little rights. This process targets ethnic minorities and a victim of it quotes in the article how similar it is to the Israeli occupation of Palestine, “they come in here saying I can leave everyone out and do whatever I want.”
Some even say the process of gentrification is scarily similar to a modern day slavery; holding similar features to colonisation that has been stifling humanity for years on end in all parts of the world.
So, are parts of London as they seem? Or are they hidden under the facade of unjust gentrification? What’s hiding under all those multi million pound skyscrapers? History and culture, and it needs to be uncovered.