When gentrifiers fall flat on their face
When gentrifiers fall flat on their face
A luxury fashion village in Hackney has flopped, hard
Morning — here’s what we’ve spied in the capital on Thursday, March 2, 2023:
👜 Hackney’s fate as a gentrified borough appeared sealed in 2017, when a luxury fashion village opened selling £600 suits. Six years later, the high-end outlet is a ghost town, with all but one shop shut.
Both the Sun and the BBC report this week on the failure of Hackney Walk – a £100m site on Morning Lane billed as London’s first luxury shopping outlet, featuring a Gieves and Hawkes and a Nike Factory. The project was first announced in the wake of the London riots in 2010, which had hit Hackney Central hard – rioters smashed up shopfronts and burnt vehicles along the main drag. When London mayor Boris Johnson announced £70m of funding for regeneration projects across the city in the aftermath, Hackney Council snapped up £1.5m of taxpayer cash to help developers fund the Hackney Walk project. Network Rail, which managed the nearby railway arches used for the strip of shops, fronted another £4m.
The pitch was that the project would attract visitors and create jobs in the area, rivalling the Bicester Shopping Village. "It's part of a strategy based on our belief that the changing demographics of east London mean there is a big market for luxury in this part of the city,” said chairman Jack Basrawy. But plenty of locals voiced their opposition at the time, saying it would be the final nail in the coffin of the gentrification of Hackney. In their minds the £1.5m could have been better spent directly on the community, through youth clubs or on the businesses damaged in the rioting. A petition against the scheme claimed it aimed ‘only to cosmetically restore Hackney’s post-rioting image rather than invest and serve the community.’
Flash forward to 2023 and it’s clear who had more foresight. Under the railway arches 13 shops now lie vacant, some boarded and graffitied. The Nike Factory shut its doors at the end of last year and today just a battered Stone Island remains. Its leaseholder is in liquidation and Hackney council is looking to take the flop back into community ownership (again, using taxpayer cash).
The saga might not quite be over on Morning Lane, however. Some of those involved in the Hackney Walk project have now embarked on a plan to redevelop a Tescos just up the road. They at least sound slightly humbler this time…
🚺 Women should be charged less rent to account for London’s gender pay gap, a report has recommended. A cross-party housing committee in City Hall says that Sadiq Khan should consider making some public housing available to women based on women’s median incomes rather than general median incomes. Women on the typical wage in London need to spend 63% of their earnings to afford private rent, versus 49% for men, their research found.
🍬 The crackdown on Oxford Street’s American candy stores continues, with another police raid on two shops on Wednesday. Officers founds “thousands of pounds” worth of fake Gucci and Apple products, as well as illegal vapes, and charging cables sold at “extortionate” prices. Westminster council is currently swooping down on the candy stores, amid claims they’re avoiding paying tax and selling counterfeit goods.
🚆 More dangerous overcrowding at London Bridge station on Tuesday has led to calls for TfL to take over rail services. The station has seen chaotic scenes since January, to the point where some passengers say they fear being trampled. Services are currently managed by Southeastern Railway, but a petition has now been launched to transfer the metro services to TfL.
😎 Cool new displays are being trialed on a London bus route, before a potential rollout to the rest of the city. Stops along the 63, which runs between King’s Cross and Honor Oak, will feature real-time bus information on giant Kindle-style displays that can also talk to passengers with visual impairments.