In Elephant and Castle, old promises ring hollow
In Elephant and Castle, old promises ring hollow
Plus: Sadiq Khan meets the Pope, the race to replace Corbyn, and a mad stunt under Tower Bridge
Morning — Elephant and Castle is changing, and fast. Not too long ago the area was a rare oasis of cheap and independent spots in Zone 1, back when a slightly dreary but much-loved shopping centre acted as its hub. Today, it’s all been demolished, amid promises that the community would play a part in a new shiny town centre being built for 2026. But, as revelations this week show, it’s not exactly going to plan. How Elephant and Castle’s old guard have been hung out to dry leads your Sunday round-up below.
Plus: Sadiq Khan meets the Pope, the race to replace Corbyn, and a mad stunt under Tower Bridge.
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🐘 Three years on from the demolition of Elephant and Castle’s old shopping centre — and three years after repeated assurances they’d be looked after — the mall’s relocated traders are now living a nightmare. E&C’s 1960s-era shopping centre, once an icon of working-class and multicultural London, was bulldozed in 2021 to make way for a new development, the Elephant and Castle Town Centre, spearheaded by site owner and developer Delancey. Some locals campaigned against the demolition, fresh from their failed efforts to save the Heygate Estate a few years prior. Of particular concern was the impact on the local Latin American community, for whom the mall had become a major hub in its final years. But when it became clear the wrecking balls couldn’t be stopped, campaigners at least extracted a concession: some of the shopping centre’s traders would be guaranteed spots in the new builds.
But as Southwark News reports this week, the relocation has failed to become the “opportunity to grow and develop their business” that traders were promised. Four of the old guard have now been evicted from Castle Square, their new trading spot, after falling into rent arrears. They include Forever Barbers, Raw Fashion, Games and Gadgets and JZ Mobiles. While their new landlord, Get Living, a Delancey subsidiary, insists it had “no choice” but to kick them out, the traders say it was inevitable they went in the red, due to mismanagement and a lack of footfall to their new digs. They point out that at the old shopping centre, they never went into arrears, and that part of the problem now is that Castle Square is hidden away on a back road with poor signage. They’ve also been consistently raising the alarm on mismanagement since they moved in — such as last year, when a disabled customer had to be carried up the stairs to one of their shops because the lift had broken. One trader sums up his predicament as: “I was really doing great [at the old shopping centre], I had a good location. But where we are now, people hardly see us. Business is dead.”
Isabel Ramírez, the SN reporter who broke the story this week, tells the Spy: “When you’re talking to the traders you feel like the demolition of the shopping centre was just yesterday — it left such a hole in the community that hasn’t been repaired. I think if something doesn’t change soon all of the businesses risk closing for good”. What, then, did Get Living chief exec Nick de Blaby make of it all, in his extensive profile in the Guardian that just so happened to come out this week? Nothing, as far as the old traders were concerned, though he did have this to say: “We have a vision for bringing in far more independent local traders that really bring a character and a definition to the place. Otherwise, it becomes another slightly formulaic shopping centre.”
🚨 Serious questions are now being asked of an east London council, following the death of a 5-year-old boy who fell from one of its tower blocks. At around 6am on Thursday, Aalim Makail fell 150 feet from one of the upper floors of Jacobs House, a 15-storey tower block in Plaistow that’s owned and managed by Newham council. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Aalim’s primary school has been among those paying tribute, describing him as a “beautiful, happy and caring child”, and he was buried at the East London Mosque yesterday afternoon. Newham council has said it’s launching a “full investigation” into the incident, amid potential safety concerns now being publicly raised by members of Aalim’s family and other residents of Jacobs House. Aalim’s aunt claimed to the Sun that his mother had repeatedly complained to the council about the flat’s windows, which can be opened to their full extension by pressing a button on the inside. “She sent five emails about how they open, and said they were not safe for her kids, but no one did anything,” Maryan Hadafow told reporters at the scene on Friday, where locals have been leaving flowers. Meanwhile, an anonymous resident described the windows as “poor quality” when speaking to the BBC, explaining: "The design of the windows on high floors are not good and safe for children. You can actually unlatch the windows in the living room, kitchen and one of the bedrooms wide open which is clearly not meant to be safe”. The Building Safety Regulator has also said it’s “engaging with the appropriate agencies to understand the facts” of the case.
👮 There’s been renewed pressure on police in London to conduct more stop and searches to tackle knife crime. Writing in the Telegraph on Tuesday, the government’s policing minister, Chris Philp, said the tactic “is not used nearly often enough” and that police “must use the powers available to them without fear or favour”. Though he was addressing all UK police forces, two weeks ago Philp had directly blamed the recent uptick in knife crime in London on the Met Police’s decreasing use of stop and search. While the tactic has been rising in the UK, in the capital its use has fallen in the past decade — the Met conducted 140,000 knife searches in London in 2023/24, compared to 800,000 back in 2008/09. Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley is on board, having vowed to increase stop and searches in London earlier this month, though in February he also told community leaders in Brixton that the tactic in its current form “burns through trust”. Black Londoners are three times more likely to be stop and searched than white Londoners, recent figures show. Elsewhere in London policing: Met officer Perry Lathwood has been found guilty of assaulting Jocelyn Agyeman while she was wrongly arrested for bus evasion in front of her son in Croydon last year.
🔴 The race to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour MP for Islington North has officially started. The party opened nominations on Thursday and is expected to pick someone by June 1. Corbyn’s been sitting as an independent MP since having the Labour whip suspended in 2020, and he’s represented Islington North since 1983. Two contenders have publicly announced so far — former Channel 4 journalist Paul Mason and transport commentator Christian Wolmar. Also rumoured to be in the running are local Islington councillors Praful Nargund and Sheila Chapman as well as London Assembly member Sem Moema. The name of a former advisor to Sir Keir Starmer, Uma Kumaran, is also popping up in some press reports. We’ll know the exact list soon — the nominations close tomorrow (Monday). But there’s perhaps hesitation about taking on the former Labour leader from some quarters, if Labour insiders are to be believed, who’ve been describing the race as a poisoned chalice. “You will have a target painted on your back for the rest of your career,” one party source tells Sky News. Local party members in Islington are also fuming, saying Labour HQ has purposefully shortened the timetable and cut them out of the decision-making process. As for Corbyn himself, he’s still yet to formally declare if he’s going to run as an independent, but local paper Islington Tribune says “there is a wide expectation across Islington’s political circles that he will stand”. More London-related Labour goss: Baroness Casey, the author of last year’s damning report into London’s police force, has been tipped for a ministerial role in a Starmer government.
📣 The London School of Economics is the latest university in the city to see protests over Israel’s war in Gaza, with students now occupying one of its campus buildings in Holborn. A group of students led a protest into the university’s Marshall Building — home to LSE’s finance and accounting departments — on Tuesday, and put up tents inside. They’ve said they’ll stay there until the university meets their demands, which include ending investments worth £48.5 million in 80 companies “involved in crimes against the Palestinian people”. They’ve not barred access to the building though, unlike that student occupation across the pond at Columbia, having reached an agreement with LSE’s security team to let students with ID use the building. Pro-Palestine encampments are still in place at UCL and SOAS, and one was also set up at Queen Mary University of London this week. Indeed administrators at UCL have announced they’re cancelling several events that use the campus’s main quad, including the university’s summer ball, due to the encampment. Meanwhile, Goldsmith students have taken down their encampment, after the university agreed to their demands. The encampment outside Hackney’s town hall is also still in place — and indeed several Labour councillors have now quit to form a pro-Palestine breakaway party — but as far as we can confirm it’s still the only London borough council facing an active protest.
🏳️🌈 Drama over the decision to boycott last Saturday’s Eurovision song contest may have taken a toll on the owners of one London venue, who’ve announced they’re now quitting. The owners of iconic LGBTQ+ pub the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, James Lindsay and John Kerr, announced on Wednesday that they’re stepping away from the venue “with a heavy heart” after 20 years in charge. Though they didn’t explicitly mention Eurovision in their statement posted on X, they and RVT had become embroiled in debate over boycotting the competition due to Israel’s participation, having initially decided to show the grand final, then reversing course at the eleventh hour. Lindsay had drawn particular criticism from some regulars and performers in favour of a boycott by saying that the RVT was “a gay bar, not a political venue” in an interview with the Irish Times. Lindsay and Kerr have already instructed their agents to begin the sale but, amid fears the venue could be potentially lost forever, City Hall’s night czar, Amy Lamé, put out a statement saying she and the London mayor would work to ensure “RVT remains one of London’s best loved LGBTQ+ venues”.
✝️ Speaking of — Sadiq Khan met the Pope. The two came face-to-face Thursday morning, with Khan presenting the Holy Father with a gift book of four teas from the London Tea Exchange. Khan was in town for a climate summit hosted at the Vatican in Rome, where he gave a speech highlighting his green policies and insisting he’d continue to pursue them, despite the resistance he’s faced. He described his expansion of the capital’s ultra-low emissions zone as "one of the most effective environmental interventions anywhere in the world”, but also the “toughest challenge I've faced in the 30 years I've held public office”. Also from the mayor: earlier in the week Khan announced London’s ‘Boris Buses’ — the 2012 Routemasters introduced by his predecessor — are going to be taken off the streets. It’s because Khan has pledged to make the capital’s bus fleet zero emission by 2030, and the Boris Buses are hybrids that use diesel. Other mayoral stuff: the Greens have accused Khan of using “scare tactics” against third party voters during the recent mayoral election, due to the switch to first-past-the-post this year. Meanwhile, defeated Tory candidate Susan Hall has written a piece in the Spectator titled “I’m proud of my mayoral campaign”.
⚽ A major development for women’s football in London — Arsenal have announced that the Emirates stadium in north London will be its women’s team’s main home next season. They’ve previously had to trudge all the way to the small grounds of Meadow Park in Hertfordshire for most home games, only playing at Arsenal’s mega stadium in Holloway on occasion. But for the 2024/25 Women’s Super League season, they’ll be in the Emirates for eight of their 11 home games, following recent growth in attendance. By the way, Chelsea are this season’s WSL champions for the fifth time running after winning their game yesterday. While we’re on football: Millwall is eyeing up potential development plans around its stadium, after Lambeth council approved a new 999-year lease for the club. Millwall had previously suggested they might move away from their home, The Den, in south east London if they didn’t get approval.
🏗️ PLANNING CORNER 🏗️ Three big planning stories in the capital this week. First is the new town centre that’s been proposed by Asda in north west London. The supermarket has submitted plans for a 1,500 home ‘urban village’ in Park Royal, plus a new superstore. Second, the Wall West development near the Barbican has officially got the green light, meaning the old Museum of London building will be demolished. Housing secretary Michael Gove had called in the application after it got approved by City of London planners, but he’s now waved it through. Finally, planned tower blocks in Greenwich are being opposed because they’re too tall. The Enderby Place scheme proposes 564 new homes in blocks that would have up to 35 floors, but it’s already received around 100 objections online.
🏃♂️🏃♀️ Good luck to anyone running the Hackney Half Marathon today. The first runners are setting off at 9am from Hackney Marshes.
🔍 And finally, we leave you with:
Academic paper of the week: “Will you fuck off please”. The use of please by London teenagers
An essay on the battle over Thamesmead