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RIP Denmark St

The historic 48th St row of guitar shops and music stores in NY has also been redeveloped, replaced by glass-covered high-rise buildings.
 
klfrs said:
Around Denmark St? I was thinking of other regeneration projects in London, hence didn't mention Denmark St.
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you confused me - the thread was (is) about Denmark Street.

Where in London is this social cleansing then?
 
gintonic said:
Where in London is this social cleansing then?
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A bit off topic perhaps but we live quite close to where the notorious Ferrier Estate used to be until it was demolished and replaced with a regeneration scheme by Berkeley Homes.

Frankly I'm not sure anyone misses it. But residents who bought under Right To Buy found their homes under valued when subject to compulsory purchase - £65k for a three bed flat. The council leader went on record as saying he didn't expect any residents of the estate to return to the area once regeneration was complete.

Flats there now top out at around a million with concierge service. Lots of Porsche Cayennes parked up. From what I can tell most of the residents are young professionals.

It's quite a nice area now, if a bit soulless. The landscaped park is great for nature spotting. We sometimes go to the huge Youngs pub they built there. It's normally empty - I guess the young professionals are too busy in the office to go for a pint in their local.

As I say, I don't think anyone misses the Ferrier. But the regeneration of the area has included the wholesale removal of the existing working class community.
 
The biggest loss in Denmark St is the 12 Bar Club - had some great nights in there over the years. At least some of the guitar shops are still surviving and Bradley's Spanish Bar is hanging on just north of the street, about the last holdout from the old era.

The architecture of the redevelopment is very poor - I'm a fan of modern architecture when done well - this isn't it.
 
kensalriser said:
And Amsterdam and countless towns and cities in Italy. Britain is a nation of cultural vandals.
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The Dutch have their own vandals....

I lived in Amsterdam in the '80s when they ripped the guts out of the Waterloo Plein area to make way for the Metro and new city council offices.
Also around that time they cleansed most of the canals of houseboats that weren't deemed 'pretty' enough. And demolished substantial working class areas - and the old docklands in the East. There were some preservation efforts and some of the original buildings still stand, albeit in heavily modified form ... but not much of the original character remains. Museums can also be dead places ........

Most of the 'Grachts' in the centre were unmolested but had already been substantially attacked by developers in previous decades - rents there are no doubt astronomical now outside of some protected by rent control (if it still exists)

In other cities there were similar developments taking place - Utrecht was substantially disfigured by a hideous and enormous shopping centre (Hoog Catharijne) bang opposite a pair of stunning Art Deco buildings that were also flattened, despite very loud and active protests by the local population.

It's in the nature of Cities that they evolve or die .... griping over a lost past is an old man's pastime (I know - I do it all the time ;) )
 
Back in 87, filthy Soho was decidedly more diverse and fun than today’s superclean version. Even the whores are now polite, soft-spoken and classy when they approach you :D On the other hand, I seem to remember that some parts of town could easily be called slums, even along the Thames. Those areas are of course gentrified today, but at the time I’m not sure that those ramshackle houses provided decent conditions for the inhabitants. Oligarchs came and some people landed on the street, yes, but others seized the opportunity to improve their life. It’s a city.
 
Cheese said:
I seem to remember that some parts of town could easily be called slums, even along the Thames. Those areas are of course gentrified today
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Don't worry, there's still plenty of poverty in relatively central locations like Whitechapel.

Hopefully there's some middle ground between slums and social cleansing where people who aren't in the market for bullshit £450 hotel rooms with curated graffiti can exist. Though as inequality grows in the UK that middle ground feels smaller and smaller.
 
Like or hate the Astoria, central London now has virtually no venues of that size left for non-mainstream live music. The development also led to the end of the Borderline and the 12 Bar, and central London now has hardly any smaller music venues like that left either.
 
Tony L said:
Very sad, it represents the very soul being ripped out of London. This history is way more important and relevant than monarchy etc IMO. It has been happening for years and millions of us signed various petitions etc, but nothing can stop the vacuous cancer of property speculation. Vile.
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Very well put Tony- what is happening.....:(
 
London over the last ten years has been systematically destroyed more than it ever has before. I live here. I am not a tourist. I couldn't give a damn about some out of town bellend thinking the new gentrified areas are 'joyous'. Gentrification has destroyed the spirit of this city and created this managed social media hyped illusion of urban living that resembles a scene out of a futuristic Sci-Fi movie about order and control.

The city has been stolen by the mega wealthy. Once a place where all could live, is now becoming unattainable by the majority. This isn't just Central London, its all over. This all began after the so-called financial crisis in 2009, development went through the roof, and every London Mayor (Sadiq Kahn being the worst even over that c**t twaddle Boris Johnson) supported it all and let it happen without making enough subsidies for affordable housing. This is a whole topic in itself.

Why these so called 'joyous' changes have to include replacing the existing residents and forcing them out because it becomes infinitely more expensive because it has some new paving stones and shop fronts and a few garden shrubs shows it goes much deeper than what an average person/tourist will ever see.

Social Cleansing it is, very much so.
 
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unclepuncle said:
Perfect description of a certain person on this thread.:D
Hideously ugly to boot as well.:eek:
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I keep returning to this post for some reason. I've looked back through the thread, and can see no comment that might have inspired what looks a lot like personal vitriol very badly disguised as humour. Perhaps I've missed something, because it has brought no comment from the moderators, or indeed the site owner, to whose own post it was a response.

Perhaps you'd like to share what it was you were objecting to, because at the moment it looks to me like a piece of entirely unwarranted and very pure ad hom?
 
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