The Battle for Broadway Market (Nov 2005 – Feb 2006)

I went to a screening last night as part of the Reveal Kings Cross festival. Programmed and presented in collaboration with Birkbeck Film Society, the Building Cultures Film screening and discussion reflect and question the relationship between art, activism, urban regeneration and gentrification.

The highlight of the screening was the Battle for Broadway Market, a film produced and directed by Emily James.  The film recounts events that took place between November 2005 and February 2006 on Broadway Market in Hackney.  Broadway Market is a street lined with shops, cafés, pubs, and flats above the shops.  Many of these buildings used to be owned by Hackney Council and were let to local residents and shop owners.  The market street was suffering from decline in the 1990s, but in 2004, volunteers from the Broadway Market Traders’ and Residents’ Association revived the Saturday market.  The street started to show signs of gentrification and attracted property developers.  Many of the council-owned properties were sold to developers rather than to the business owners that had invested significant amounts of time, energy, and spirit into providing goods and services to the local community.  The Battle for Broadway Market details the ousting of one such business owner, Tony Platia and the Francesca’s Café at 34 Broadway Market.

Comprehensive history and updates on libcom.org:  Articles and Forum (28 November 2005)

Hackney Gets Ripped Off Again, last updated July 2005, by Arthur Shuter

The Re-Occupation on Mute, 5 January 2006

Paul Kingsnorth, for the Ecologist, March 2006

The Eelzine, Issue 3

East London Local: Tony’s Juice Stall, 10 July 2009

Unfortunately the protest website http://34broadwaymarket.omweb.org/ is no longer operating.

Please share your stories about gentrification in your neighbourhood.  I’d like to hear about the successes and learn from the mistakes.  I have some ideas about how to prevent or reverse this trend.  What are your suggestions?

Odhams Walk

I’m participating in a free online place-making course offered by the Homes & Communities Agency.  One of the case studies we looked at is Odhams Walk (have a look at this video).  I’ve walked past it several times, but hadn’t looked up nor looked around the development.

Images from Academy for Sustainable Communities

Odhams Walk is a development of housing situated over retail premises in the heart of Central London, in Covent Garden. It features an unusual design for its time which allowed for a variety of types of flats, some with outdoor patios and gardens. Housing is connected by walkways and the arrangement of flats permits interaction with other residents, but also sufficient levels of privacy. The design also enables natural surveillance of the estate. Security was further improved with additional lighting in the corridors and CCTV was installed.

The estate is managed by an ALMO, an arm’s length management organisation, with a Tenant Management Organisation (TMO) on-site. Having direct management on-site helps ensure that residents needs are met and the estate is well maintained. The TMO also helps manage any issues that may arise in the relationship amongst the shop-owners on the ground floor and the residents (for example, due to hours kept by the shops, noise, buskers in the neighbourhood).

Fifty percent of the original development became home to people from the local area with a housing need. After right-to-buy was introduced, many residents purchased their homes and some are now sublet. A careful mix of residents is needed because not all sub-tenants may have the same connection to and interest in the local community.

Good design, effective management, and consistent community help make Odhams Walk a sustainable community. Its creation was community-led from the start, generations are able to live and sustain there, residents feel safe, and they take an interest in their neighbours and their own neighbourhood. These aspects of good practice should be remembered and built upon when considering the future sustainable communities.

Redefinition: the Pub

I’m starting a new series of posts – REDEFINITION.  Everyday our environments are changing and how we live, work, and play is changing.  And so the way we use space is changing too.

This first post of the series considers how the pub is changing.  Pub is short for public house and historically, it was a gathering place in a community, where patrons could buy and drink alcohol, meet and share news.  Pubs have been evolving over the years – with many closures (demolished or converted into flats or other commercial premises) or conversions into gastropubs with a greater focus on food rather than drink.  Pubs have to compete with cocktail bars, speciality bars, and themed bars, which had become more prominent since the late 1990s.  The smoking ban has also led to the pub losing some of its appeal.  But we still like to have places in the community where we can meet and socialise.  What might a new pub look like?  How might we redefine the pub?  Is it no longer a drink and alcohol-centric place?  Is it a large, open place or something smaller, cosier, more intimate?  Do you sit, do you stand?  Who do you meet in the new pub?  Who do you talk to?  What do you do in the new public house?

No holds barred, please.  I’m interested in creative, innovative ideas as to what a public house of the future, a community gathering place might be.  Please add your comments here.