Alex Wheatle on the gentrification of Brixton
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- Опубликовано: 5 авг 2013
- Alex Wheatle on the gentrification of Brixton
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Novelist Alex Wheatle describes how his native Brixton has changed from being an area where many outsiders feared to tread to somewhere where south London's young professionals can now go for an £8 burrito. But has Brixton lost its unique vibe? 'It's very pleasant,' says Wheatle, 'but I do miss that constant pounding of reggae'
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Like everywhere else, low-income housing is disappearing, and the poor are being priced out.
Blame 40 years of governments destroying the state's supply of council housing.
@@finnersmcspeed5646There are no low-income neighborhoods left in London. All the previously working-class areas such as Notting Hill Gate, Camden Town, Brixton, and the East end have been gentrified. Nowadays, London is just one huge rich neighborhood.
@@nativetexanful Why do these communities believe they have a right to live in London over say, ambitious young people from the north? You can't have infinite housing in London, there is a limited supply. And as it's London you have high demand. If you have a limited supply of something, and high demand, then the equilibrium price increases, so that you have an equilibrium between supply and demand. When people complain about low income housing, essentially they're saying they have more of a right to live in London,than ambitious people from Northern cities. No. You don't get to live somewhere that everyone wants to live in just because you've lived there before. If there is more demand than supply of housing, then you need some way of allocating the housing, and that is through an increase in price, and thus less demand. It's basic economics. Everyone who wants to live in London can't live in London, as there is limited housing stock. Why should you have a right to live there over the rest of the country? Just because you've lived there before?
@@nativetexanful what about Peckham? have you been to Rye Lane recently? No gentrification there...it's still a dump...so people like you can still be happy about that.
@@nativetexanful don't exaggerate hackney for example 40% of the housing is council.
As a kid myself and my father sold carpets in Brixton on Saturdays. Back then, we did a brisk trade. The majority of our customers were local, working class and mostly black/Caribbean people. Middle class people never bought our carpets. I was 10-12 years old and I would help to bring carpets to a customer's home, especially if they were a woman or an older person. They always gave me a quid for delivering the carpet. I loved those days. I remember those days and Brixton fondly. There was this Jamaican guy who in the summer months was selling snow cones. He did a brisk trade too. Then there was the bloke who sold sugar cane! Actual pieces of sugar cane. That was the old Brixton that I have fond memories of. As for "don't go to Brixton". That certainly was not mine or my father's attitude. Brixton has had its problems, like the video says. There was a great shock to the people of Brixton when that mad man David Hope, the racist who bombed and tried to terrorize Brixton. Brixtonians charactaristaclly got up and brushed themselves down. I remember Brixton fondly. ❤🇮🇪❤🇮🇪. Love from Ireland.
Now Tooting is being gentrified. 3 vape shops have already opened. And where Tooting lanes used to serve cheap lunches now you need a big wallet to afford to eat there.
It ain’t your country Britain is for the indigenous population you can’t complain about shut you have no ownership of
@@covfefe1787 shut up
@@covfefe1787 most white people in Britain have immigrant ancestors aswell. Britain isn't owned by one race
You should see Tooting Market now, everything changed ...
Tooting was never bad though
Brixton never became all black. In the 1950s it became racially mixed. It was a working class neighborhood, but recently, the low income people have been priced out of the area.
@@lorraine96smith56 the behaviour of those who have moved to THeath/SNorwood/Croydon is not the fault of the middle class.
It always struck me as inevitable, as many of the properties always look decent to me. As house prices arose elsewhere it seemed obvious that Brixton would become part of the rising tide.
Majority of Born and bred left London to Essex.
My parents Brixton grew up on Virginia walk estate in the 70s and 80s, when the area was a no go zone. My dad worked on the fruit and veg market on a teenager. Surprisingly they got priced out and moved to Bromley. The white working class in these areas are literally dead the only white geezas I know that live are a few mates that are professionals or working in banking/middle management and also guardian readers surprisingly
Amazing isn’t it. I would hazard a guess that 80% of the young white families that have moved there in the last 10 years are all Guardian readers.
I'm glad brixton has changed. I was born in brixton in 1968, as a child, drugs muggings and street robberies were common place. Both my parents were mugged. We are still here, love Brixton and welcome all the changes.
Would the closing of record shops not be more to do with the digital age of music and the decline in popularity of reggae than gentrification? Just a genuine question
Probably so.
Both.
I'd say both.
It's good to see stocking shop is still there was Saturday girl there in 1971! ! Having visited Brixton recently I agree the music ,soul and vibrancy has sadly disappeared.
Anita Ranson I wish that I could've checked out the original Brixton during the 80's
@@MrAntiSellOut Yuppie
Brixton looks much better than it did in 2014.
To be fair, Lambeth used to be gentrified 70 years ago. It was only down to the bombing during the 2nd World War. It goes around in cycles. In the late 80's students starting moving in due to the relative cheap cost of living. I am sure people complain 60 odd years ago complained and the changes going on in Brixton. Places can never stay the same.
It was built for affluent people. It was never built to be a ghetto.
Social cleansing.
Ethnic cleansing these middle class whites dont want to live in a mix multicultural areas of London its now becoming bland.
@@brainsmith3931 hi do you know where most white people live in london? Is it expensive areas like kensington, chelsea mayfair etc? Or poor like dagenham, tottenham
@@kgetorv988 Chelsea Mayfair has alot of foreign rich nationals and Dagenham is full of Africans most of the English live in deep Essex like basildon, chemlsford or Brentwood that is a fact..
@@brainsmith3931 okay, i guess london is a bit of a unique international city, many other white countries rich parts usually have white ppl in it
Ethnic cleansing they won't you out if diverse multicultural London .
is it possible to share this on instagram at all?
01:00 - yeah, record shops have been killed by gentrification. Also, it's a shame that this guy's clothes shop isn't as busy as it used to be, but I think the internet has helped that more than gentrification. There's big high street names that struggle against online purchases.
So this guy successfully makes the case FOR gentrification 🤣
Did someone say Cockneys are as rare as unicorns .
He could be talking about the record shop in his Small Axe episode
Brixton was traditionally a middle class area, by the 70's it was violent and run down. Might be a source of nostalgia for you Alex, but for the rest of civilization, walking down the street with less bad boys and thieves is a good thing.
And by the way, all those previously poor familys are now sitting in houses and flats worth over half a million. Not too bad that.
I'd love to come to London now. I live in the States now, and only got to come to London for like one day last time I was down. Will have to visit for sure when I'm over next.
He seems to contradict himself alot, saying its all middle class now etc then saying oh it was great with all the squats and record shops. Surely squat free locations are positive? And the decline of records shops is due to the increase of downloads, nothing to do with gentrification
You are kind of right but I think the ethic cleansing is what he means. It’s being replaced by white business owners who are selling to a middle class demographic at the expense of the local community. There’s pro and cons to gentrification of course, but the cons are mainly felt unfortunately population that living there and the pros are for the rich and the ones moving in.
I guess the only way to make these areas affordable is to undevelop them & returned them to their original state. It is not logical to expect a redeveloped area to remain the same value. Once somewhere is improved it becomes more desirable & so it's value increases.
Why would u suggest it then
Same thing has happened in Leith/Edinburgh. Leith used to be a vibrant port and during the 70s and 80s the port declined when the World famous Henry Robb shipbuilders closed along with other industries. Now on the site of Henry Robb is the Ocean Terminal shopping centre which caters for the high end market despite Leith always being a working class area. The docks are gradually being closed down and replaced with thousands of expensive flats.House prices and rents have rocketed in Leith and now the area is full of some of the best restaurants in the UK. The area has seen massive improvements but not for the locals who still have to live in some of the small pockets of deprivation surrounded by some of the most expensive property in Scotland.
Sounds like that man is complaining that brixton is getting more multicultural than he'd like it to be.
😂
Please can South Norwood be gentrified next.
Gentrification ,cleaning up the area makes sense , whoe's fault is it if London is over populated ,and all the world wants to come and live there
Gentrification is like rlly bad as it didn’t help anyone and just makes more problwms
Gentrification is a form of racism , segregation and classism the rich don't want changes and ethnics because they are boring and bland and hostile only care for themselves and money.
Oh how I miss the old Brixton :(
I bet you do with your drugs and crime, we will gentrifiy the whole city, we are middle-class professionals,
Landroverboy New I do love how I drive by in my car, near Brixton tube station with my windows lowered playing my "Crime and drugs" music, having you "professionals" looking scared and paranoid. lol, It actually makes me laugh.
Landroverboy New Mercedes Benz actually and no, it's not on lease. My family is pretty successful in property developing. I'm a 21 year old African Caribbean running various businesses in Africa and also in London. I have no problem with white people, just the government.
Alpha Male your a decent person,
otto second No, I don't mean that actually. Ignorance is bliss
Wait, wait... this is bad? Improving an area?
That’s banned now, no more investment allowed 😂
This is a myth about gentrification. Brixton has always been an affluent area since it was built in the 18th Century. It was the influx of immigrants that saw the area become less desirable. It is simply reverting.
My comment is not meant to be a racist comment, but it's worth remembering that before the West Indian and Pakistani and Bangladeshi etc communities moved into Brixton, Stockwell, Peckham etc or Shoreditch, Bethnal Green, Spitalfields etc back in the 50's-60's-70's etc the original white English, Irish, Jewish communities were also upset about the loss of their way of life and their own communities.
It's not something that I applaud or something that I would like to happen to my own childhood area, but progress and changes happen constantly, no matter how unfair it sometimes seems.
Brixton has lost it roots of real hard men and the cockney urban era. I remember when I was 14 I loved going there to get my new era hats and NY hats they was the bollox! Oh and it was my 1st time I had curry goat! Live a bit of curried goat!
Same with NY. Flatbush & Crown Heights high Caribbean neighborhoods in Brooklyn are changing rapidly for the worst in many cases. Small businesses are being pushed out for these franchises.
7th section Don't be so sure in the 70s and 80s White gangsters ruled . Where do you think west Indians got the idea from? On Another note white girls do love a bit of the dark meat is it because it's taboo? I have found living in the ghettos of london whos family were gangsters is that black men on their own are nice people who try to speak the queens English. But put the same black man in a group of black men . And his language takes a dive and his moral code disappears. Would you agree?And don't get cocky online you will be exposed.
@@petervankas1352 ok
sanjay j Manchester, yes, Birmingham, no
Interesting Video
I am from Chicago, same issues.
There are places in Montreal and Paris who fiercely fight gentrification. They riot nd fight to keep developers out. It's possible but it takes unity and commitment
It seems Brixton is turning full circle it used to be an affluent place to live in the 19th century that's why there are many large victorian houses when the rich people and their servants lived.
RIP Brixton
it's not dead it's just getting cleaned up
what i find strange is that when the black community moved into brixton and the white english moved out that was seen as ok the place went downhill became dangerous now some better off whites are moving in the blacks are complaining im missing something
ramsey sixthreethree Lool brixton is still a black area don't get it twisted
Goes back to the 50's when whites had two world wars with their German cousins in an attempt to expand their empires. The British won but needed to rely on the support of their black and brown friends in the colonies, so they were invited and areas like Brixton is where they settled.
exactly, goes back to britains dirty colonial history which we love to avoid talking about
ramsey sixthreethree everyone looks back at nostalgia through rose tinted spectacles. but what is sad is that an area that was abandoned by the whites and had a sense of community, businesses and it's houses rebuilt by West indians after the war. now when the area has become more white ie priced out of Clapham let's be truthful. all the benefit of the house price boom and community has be gladly excepted by the new comers ungratefully and ignorantly.
@@unconvincingrebel you love white people really.
Unfortunately this is happening all across the UK. Cornwall, for example. A lot of the Cornish heritage is being lost when rich English people come in and drive prices up
Maybe, but who sells these houses ?
Are Cornish people not English?
They don't typically consider themselves English, no. English by technicality, perhaps. @@wingaard
@@IllusionistBeatsOfficialI’ve never met a Cornish fella not consider themselves English
400k for a old scrappy terice house YEP THATS LONDON FOR YA how anyone would chose to live there MIND BOGGLES
where do you live
I grew up right there and its changed but can't deny its better.
Better but unaffordable.
The community isn’t as lively as it used to be, especially for those of younger ages. Activities that were available to me aren’t available for children of today due to the gentrification of Brixton.
An area that has been redeveloped is bound to eventually increase in value.
Ay que triste me pone la verdad. Where I live in Madrid we live on the verge of gentrification aswell. I ve lived in London for 2 years and I ve loved my time there
I agree needs more reggae
Who else is watching this as homework?
So...where are all the young working class Londoners living now? Where do they go?
Outside zone 4.
Manchester
Essex most cockneys and Londoners moved to Essex.
well the young working class could NEVER afford Brixton anway ...
Essex most live in .
I think brixton town centre, and the surrounding area has changed for the better. Before it was a feared area, a place to avoid, unattractive. Now its clean, vibrant, had a lot of development. its great seeing people sitting outside on tables chatting, it has a safe feeling now, i love it and we must not go back to the past
I agree Trini. Say hi to Kimberly, Billy, Jason, and Zack for me please.
Shity flats are going for £500 thousand
0:50 legit just round the corner from where I live. Omg
There is no way on earth that I could afford to live in the town I grew up in now in the Cotswolds because of all the posh people moving in driving up the market but also there is no work in the town as all the factories have been turned into more rich people houses
PS. I only got housed due to Brixton fearsome reputation after the riots!
Sad it’s happening in hundreds of neighbourhoods in dozens of city’s
Unlike some of the comments I don’t see how gentrification is bad. If I lived in a shot hole and it started to improve then great! Prices don’t seem any different than anywhere else in the city
welcome to our world
With the very high and rising population, places that ten years ago were shit, that no one but the most unfortunate would consider living in, are now 'desirable'. Two bed flat in Tottenham ? 400k !!
manofweed1 I have no idea why London is so expensive, it's mostly a shit hole.
***** I suppose wherever you go in London, you're never much further than 10 miles from our gracious queen ?
manofweed1 That's why if you have money, buy a flat or a house in these areas. In 10-15 years, it'll be worth many times over
Because there are jobs. In a lot of other places, even in the West, places aren't as developed as places like London. Even in Alabama where I live now, its a nice place, but there is no public transport, not as many jobs as there are in London, and the place doesn't even have sidewalks. This place is nice but cheap to live in, because its rural area that's tough to move around in unless you own and finance a car. London is the opposite, and that's why it costs so much to live there.
It isn't rising population, it's no council houses being built since Thatcher.
Gotta have interactive shops where young people can be creative and chill out instead of posting looking aggy prospecting beef. Put a few noble and responsible adults out there with experience and it could work.
commentator sold out
He got some things right and we drastically need implementation of Rent caps and adopt Vienna model of high quality social housing working for minimum wage your whole life? I mean if you not half witted why would you do this to yourself ?
2:45 - YUKK!
0:50 is Effra parade
I’m not on minimum wage, but bring a lunch with me to work. Simple enough really.
Damn right you're not on minimum wage, Mike Baldwin.
It's happening all over London. Walk into the west end, it's like Tunbridge Wells with neon.
Haha
Things change, Brixton was white until the black invasion of the fifties, it's just changing again
Racist
Historically, since the Windrush generation (1948), in demographic terms Brixton was never more 30% African-Caribbean or 'Black' origin (1981 United Kingdom Census).
Same in East London. Traditional working class whites lived all across Aldgate, Bethnal Green and Whitechapel. Then a largely South Asian presence moved in, now these same Asians are moving out further into Essex as they rent out to richer white Europeans who work in the City.
larf larfer what do you mean invasion lol, like black people just came in kicked out the white people ? lol with force ? hahaha
His wording is off-key mate
When I lived in brixton it was nicknamed the 'frontline'.
The whole of Brixton wasn't called the frontline.... Frontline was Acre Lane where the drug dealers operated!
@@9etherking707 Coldharbour lane, Atlantic rd, Railton rd, Angell town estate..., and many more.
Changes for the better ! Sadly the dregs are now moving out towards Kent .
The plan the change Brixton was set in place after the riots, this was formulated from the 80s and a systematic dismantlement of black culture was also set in place, rate increases, closing down of youth facilities, curtailing in home entertainment like house parties and "blues dance" heavy policing of the youth ridiculous prison sentences for minor crimes, I could write a book on the tactics. When the rave scene took off they shut that down to once the notice cues of "well to do" white girl lining up around the blocks to get into "black clubs" to late tho mixed race baby boom went through the roof & now the old racists have little brown faces at the dinner tables lol oh what to do with that inheritance lmao
You Caribbeans are obsessed with parties, sex and white women this is the reason gentrification is happening to you people. How is it possible that you people lived in Brixton for over 60 years and you don't own the buildings?
Respect the old school please
what goes around comes around so suck it up!
The Poor Have to stop being Poor . The world MUST move on
Hardy much born and bred in London be it white , black or Asian or foreigners most have left to Essex and cannot even think of moving back to London the gentrifiers are the ones destroying London and the city is so expensive although London is a great city with opportunities but the living life takes it toll on you , Gentrification = segregation and racism and classism.
More commonly known as, Social Cleansing.
The rich racist Elite don't foreigners in London hence why London councils pushing people out of London to other parts of the UK.
Gentrification is happening in every major city, I think.
/ Unfortunately yes
UN Agenda 21 sustainable development
London areas have always changed, moved on, evolved. That’s what cities do! The problem in the last few years with London is that land prices are so expensive that the little man is squeezed out and middle class homeowners, priced out of other areas like Clapham, buy or rent in Brixton. Hopefully, as London property prices start to slide or if there is a recession they might just about become affordable again.
@sanjay j True well said it's called divide and rule.
social cleansing mate north of the croydon borough is the new brixton I all so call it the black essex
If you want to live in the area you were brought up in, work hard and buy there, simple.
If you think it's that easy mate you don't live on the same planet as the rest of us. When you don't have professional qualifications and your earning potential is limited? I'm sick of not feeling wanted in London. Why should we all be forced to move out to commuter towns and crowd onto trains to work in London every day!
Indeed, you could buy something smaller and live there. If families and communities cannot come together to buy their own homes then of course they will be forced out.
Irishtradchannel exactly, how come, people will come from Asia, Africa with no paper or status and make it? Yet those raised here lament about lack of everything?
Brixton Guns : The Clash
Nice to see benny hill in this
I get that yh the poor are the problem and a reason for crime, but don’t kick us out, just give us more money and opportunities and lower the house prices
"GIBS ME MO MONEY!! GIBS ME DAT JOB"!! Who are the entitled ones, again?
Brixtonsopa. Welcome home.
Gentrification is a form of racism and segregation, segregating areas for certain people regarding race snd class its simple, no real londoner in london most Londoners moved out to Essex and Kent. London is becoming boring and bland the people are not the same. no community or care.
whyte 'hipsters' and 'yuppies' should NOT be allowed to move into immigrant and multicultural areas to gentrify and colonise the area.
@@PodcastCentral333 But we are so deal with it
@@PodcastCentral333 But their parents and grandparents got 'displaced' in the beginning. They're simply moving back to their 'roots'.
@@manofweed1 it's actually fine I dont mind now
Brixton has gone down the drain ... don't get was the all the fuss about
Gentrification has improved a lot of things about the Brixton community, I definitely agree with that, but the racists replying to these comments talking about there being no such thing as being Black British and 'black whining behavior' is disgusting. While gentrification has certainly helped make the area safe and more developed, it has raised the housing prices and washed out a lot of the rich culture that used to be centered in Brixton, so of course people are going to be frustrated about some of the consequences that it has brought to the area
Now these blacks and immigrants know how the natives felt when they first arrived en masse.
your "natives" came first to destroy and plunder their lands and force them to move somewhere else and now your "natives" come to them again to do the same
eNdleS, aka witless; what you're saying makes no sense at all: Black people from Africa and the West Indies weren't forced to come to Britain. They were immigrants and came of their own free will. How long have blacks been in Brixton? Since about 1950. Native people have been there 4500 years. And yet you want to cry about England returning to its native people; typical whining black behaviour. How do you think native whites felt when 10s of 1000s of blacks began pouring into Brixton, taking over and driving out the natives?
brian kid: 4500 years? oh come on, islands where the UK is now always have been settled by people of various and diverse ethnic origins - picts, celts, romans, saxons, normans, etc...same now...how can you say, who is native and who is not? west indians and asians are same as native as white brits are, moreover, most of them are originaly from commonwealth countries...open your mind please
Just check the DNA, and that tells you all you need to know. All the peoples you mentioned, except the Romans were northern European tribes: no one knows much about the Picts; the Celts were another small Northern European war-like tribe; Romans, a Southern European conquering army, who left virtually no genetic footprint after they left; Saxons, according to Francis Pryor, didn't get far past past East Anglia, though some dispute this. What is not in dispute is that they were a war-like Northern European tribe, who took over governing areas of Britain. Then there were the Normans, who murdered the Saxon hierarchy, devastated the English, but left no genetic link with 99.9% of people here; their footprint is purely aristocratic. But again a Northern European war-like tribe. Diversity did not become a buzz word or was even put forward as a historical point of reference until very recently, when politicians from America said, in the face of massive Asian and Latino immigration, as a political expedient, and in the face of logic, that it was always diversity that had made them strong. Africans and Asians do not have roots here, are not as British as the natives, are not of Northern Europe. They can never assimilate. Please know YOUR history.
even the "native" brits and europeans have african, north african and asian admixture in their DNA, nobody is pure northern european or pure south european, your claiming is pure racism and tribal-based populism, sorry
Buck off Frixton.
You can get burritos in London? 😂
2:19 I got my stuff from this gentleman and the shoo right in front of him aswell
Brixton is a cool area and pretty safe through the day but I still wouldn't be walking about on my own at 3am. Nah wot am sayin!
Ironic
gentricification. oh the irony of multiculturalism!
+Darren Herbert gentrification has zero link to multiculturialism culture has nothing to do with middle class moving into an area jack ass
+tom shut up yankee
M JOLNIR dumb ass
+tom the blacks forced out by whites is funny. usually the other way round. the whiter Brixton the better!
Darren Herbert okease go away american, this has nothing to do with colour unlike your dirty american country this is to do with the lack of enough houses, students are the ones moving people out of brixton, please shut up and stick to your own country
Wsh les gens d anglais euro
So the market now sells nice food instead of stolen radios and jerk chick... what's the problem ?
No one complained when Brixton was Carribeanised.
Yeah, cos the flavoursome chicken, dumplings and patties were hardly reason for complaint
Except the local met police i suspect?
time to move on
burger wings....wot a plonker
Diversity man puts the price up
2nd generation black british
there's no such thing as a black british person. you're just a black person that lives in britain until you can be sent home.
+otto second charming
@@ottosecond3818 If ccwalla cross was born in Britan, ccwalla cross IS home. Fool.
candy girl If a dog is born in a barn, that doesn't make it a horse. The same goes for a foreigner born in Europe. He's not British and he never will be.
@@ottosecond3818 I must admit that you sound stupid as hell, so this really makes this hard for me to tell you. Otto second, buddy, all those black, brown and yellow person born in Britain are home pal. They are home... now, run along!
That's called civilisation. Reclaiming inner city slums for the educated and the civilised.
Who put the high rise blocks for council dwellers in the first place - the Conservatives
@@susansherlock7474 Pretty sure is was Labour.
Waaah, house prices are going up and we can’t afford it. Gentrification is a good thing, more people with high paying jobs want to live as close to central London as possible which means they’ll move to poorer areas. People selling houses want to get as much money as they can, obviously, so the highest bidder wins. This is basic market capitalism.
@@uhuru1713 go to a black country then.
I love gentrification, it's a good thing. Long may it continue.
so he misses the fact that brixton was filled with crime and people feared it? makes sense mate.
Allen Smith I betcha you love the fact that the less fortunate are being redeveloped out of existence
More gentrification I pray. Get the people with money in and the thugs out
Haruspex Lool the white people who live here are still scared
cb king scared of what?
Yes scared of what! Leave white people alone. They are always getting a bashing!!!