Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Personally I don?t think there is any such thing as ?regeneration? in the sense that people seem to take it. Places just evolve and change along with the people who live in them. There are peaks and troughs of recession and affluence but the human race and the society it creates is a, fluid ever changing and evolving organism.


I moved here 4 years ago because it was cheaper and nicer than places like Clapham, Balham and Herne Hill.

Agree with what you are saying Brendan, but also what Lozzy is saying. The shops we have today wouldn't have chosen the area to open in if it hadn't been for the estate agents flogging the area to a certain clientele.


In turn, more nice places have opened, making the area more desirable, and leading to even more shops coming, like the new baby place, and the chandelier.

Well I?m always up for pinning anything I can on estate agents. So I propose that estate agents get blamed for all the negative effects of regeneration and local resident?s and community spirit take the credit for the positive effects.

When I came here in 2001, I liked:


Blue Mountain, ED, Chichirara, Mrs Robinson, Dulwich DIY, Le Chardon.


Blue Mountain in particular seemed to sum up the slightly Bohemian vibe of the place.


(and if you subscribe to Naomi Klein's theories in 'No Logo', Starbucks' (and probably Caffe Nero's) business strategy is to find an area with an existing cool coffee shop and open one up in direct competition)

The Palmerston facelift was quite recent. What attracted Mrs LL and I to the area in 2004 (apart from it being grean, leafy and open) was Franklins, The EDT, Cheese Block, ED Deli, Northcross Rd and of course Sainsbury's. We hadn't discovered SMBS foods until we moved in and the Bishop and the Palmerston were nothing special.

It's a tricky one, this.


Clapham High Street, and indeed Clapham's regeneration can be traced back to the moment the Clapham Picture House opened its doors.


There wasn't such a seismic event in ED recent history.


Word of mouth from new residents must've played a big part. That's how we heard it was a great place to come.

Its people / residents who start regeneration


Initially, regeneration is caused by a decent and affordable housing stock plus good transport links. People look for more affordable options when they get priced out of more "established" and expensive areas. Estate agents don't generally tend to encourage people to move to a new area; people tend to seek them out.


Shops and pubs change as a result of the new residents. Makeovers and places like william rose encourage and accelerate a process that has already started


So lets thank the pioneers who first settled in ED. Any of them still left??

When me and Mrs Rob moved here in 1999, Franklins, Chardon and Blue Mountain were all regular haunts. I used to love Chopstics when it was a takeaway, but have never been back in. As keef said, Inside 72 opening was big news - an actual bar! As was The Palmerston makeover (though The Foresters becoming The Bishop was even better). EDT had great comedy that moved to the (bizarrely decorated, pre-sportsbar) Magdala. Mr Liu's Peking Cuisine still had that broken venetian blind in the window.

It started when the residents first had a bit of extra money to spend on superfluous rubbish or on eating out more. Nowhere would have opened if there wasn?t a market for it.


From there it just spiraled with things like estate agents and the fact that it is situated very well having an exponential effect.


But what about the fact that anywhere that is ?regenerated? has to become a homogenised inside-out American shopping mall? Well I blame that on the fact that millions of people have gone to university and studied things like communications, marketing and advertising.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • Why is the name a big of a red flag? Blighty is a common name for the UK whatever people might think.
    • The only election which counts is the General Election.  There is still strong resentment for fourteen year's of Conservative rule. They squeezed the working class's way to hard, then they squeezed the middle class, but somehow the upper class never got touched, funny that.   There is also new resentment for Labour because of the utter balls up they've made of things since coming to power nine months ago. The majority of the population (or at least those with an ounce of common sense) want these clowns out of office ASAP because they see the damage they are doing to UK plc. They squeezed the pensioners, then the farmers and then business. They made and broke promise after promise, or just didn't tell the truth or say what they where going to do, otherwise known as merely lying to get elected. Inflation may be falling but the cost of things in the shops and utility bills keep on rising, the direct opposite of what they promised. They will never be trusted once they are ousted from power in about four and a half years time.   Everything they do and touch causes further harm, led by three stooges, Rayner, Reeves and balls'less Starmer, who couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag. He still thinks he's a solicitor at the DPP. Rather than spending week upon week getting involved in international politics he needs to be sorting out the UK's issues, sadly he's not up to the job and nor are his Cabinet.  Society needs a mix of people with different skills to prosper, not more and more graduates who can't get jobs in what they studied in.   Reform is the current anti establishment party, which will hopefully wither away back to where it came from.  The Liberals and Greens, well what can you say apart from using them as another alternative vote of dissatisfaction, but neither will come to power.  The country seriously needs stability and a Government that stands up for and represents it's people, not what MP's want but what the constituencies want and need.  Government needs to become far more open and transparent, it needs to be seen to be doing its job, doing what MP's are elected to do,  working for the people in the constituencies, getting back to basic principles and rebuilding the trust which has been lost by successive party's immaterial of them being, red, blue, light blue, yellow, green or some other colour.     
    • That’s very insulting! You are basically calling 17 million people that voted to leave the EU ‘thick’.        Brexit happened Sue.  Boring graphs!  Calling Nigel Farage a plastic patriot is also very insulting seeing as he and the Reform Party have had a landslide victory all over England.
    • These charity collectors are often classed as chuggers.  It can be scandalous that the charity/admin may keep a huge percentage of your donations and a tiny percentage is  actually given to the charity.   I can not speak for individual collectors - but it common practice.  
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...