Cressingham Gardens estate, Brixton Railway Arches and remorseless development

Within London are vast numbers of ordinary people who live from day to day without being touched by the wealth which makes London stand apart from the rest of the UK. True, if they work, some of them may receive wages that directly come from the wealthy and their businesses, and if they run their own small businesses, some of them may even sell goods or services to the well-to-do.

Those touched by the wealth will be very much be the minority and you can be sure that such contact will often be only of the minimum wage variety. I strongly suspect that it is only a minority within that minority who are lifted away from minimal wages and are better off than they would be if these 'wealth creators' had parked their businesses in an alternative location.

Until recently, these ordinary people could usually at least feel safe in their homes. But there is a new phenomenon of housing developers influencing hard pressed local authorities to push long term residents out so that new development can proceed. It may sometimes even be local authorities taking the lead.

A common factor is that the people who live in these homes are being pushed out against their wishes away from the community in which they may have spent a lifetime. Some may be able to come back to the new development, but there is uncertainty of that outcome. While the development proceeds, one thing is certain and that is the gross intrusion of the unwilling dislocation of individuals and families from their homes and community.

The Cressingham Gardens estate, adjacent to the wide open spaces of Brockwell Park, Brixton, is a little different to most of these threatened communities. It is relatively low rise, built in the sixties with a mix of owner occupation and council properties. Ignoring Brockwell Park, it benefits from some green space of its own too. All this makes it a perfect candidate for redevelopment, dramatically increasing the housing density to maximise income for developers and council alike.

There is a pattern of councils failing to invest in repairs, and then declaring that an estate needs regeneration. Councils will argue that responsibility for the largest part of the failure to invest lies with government policy. Austerity cannot afford borrowing for repairs. For councils with the headache of making their ends meet, sell offs of their assets provide a temporary reprieve. The consciences of councillors will be comforted by the thought that the doubling of the housing stock within these few acres helps solve a little of the housing crisis. The reality is that they and the residents of Cressingham Gardens are pawns in the hands of developers and others who relentlessly wish to make London more attractive to the right sort of people.

The residents explain what is going on here:

Option 1 is renovation. Sorry, too simple when a grandiose scheme is in the wings.

It's not just people in their homes. Small businesses are not immune to the pressure to move on, especially when they are the wrong kind of small business - small businesses that look like this:

All a bit scruffy you might think. Why not turf out these businesses, smarten up those arches, hike up the rents and bring in a new class of business?

Indeed. And as you might be able to guess that is what is going to happen. Businesses more fitting to the new gentrified Brixton in this prime area adjacent to the station.

Of course to placate resistance, existing businesses are being told that they can return. But most will probably not be able to deal with the rent hikes because their customers would not be able to afford the higher prices they would have to charge.It is inevitable that rents will be only affordable to businesses that match the aspirations of the new residents of the high rise developments that are to be erected as part of the plans. For a nice glossy presentation of the 'masterplan'...

http://futurebrixton.org/brixton-central/brixton-central-masterplan/

The masterplan does not talk about making Brixton attractive to the right sort of people, but then it would not be called a masterplan if it were not devious!

More links:

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/brixton-traders-stunned-and-outraged-over-plans-to-evict-them-over-railway-arches-redevelopment-10023869.html

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/davehillblog/2015/mar/08/a-time-for-trust-at-the-cressingham-gardens-estate

And finally a youTube video made by the folks at Cressingham Gardens: