The East End – a joyous, trendy place to live. The spectrum of East London’s ‘locals’ ranges from traditional Cockneys to bearded fashionistas. Where else would you find a 24-hour luxury chicken and chip shop except next to the home of the Hammers, who are in any case about to move to their second home (third, if you know your club history) in the stadium that was previously home to the Olympics.
One important legacy of London 2012 is the high number of people now flocking here to stay, work and play. But social conditions in East London remain far from uniformly positive. Despite the area’s new found kudos, the East End skyline is still a silhouette of inequality and injustice, mapped out in the contrast between the high rise buildings of Canary Wharf and the tower blocks of the surrounding districts.
Please note the terminological distinction – ‘high rise’ versus ‘tower block’: it reflects the contrast between where the corporates are and where the working class continues to live.
Tower blocks were originally designed as a relatively cheap solution to the housing crisis after the Second World War, and now they are associated with car crime and having your wallet stolen so the thief can feed his drug habit. Whereas ‘high rise’ is more in line with ideas of aspiration and lofty ambition – the kind of unshakeable self-belief shared by Masters of the Universe until they are eventually brought low by the occasional financial crash.
East London is changing, for the better, and, speaking as an East Londoner for most of my life, I want to see that transition continue. But the same innovation which successive mayors and governments have brought to Stratford and Hackney, has got to be consistently applied all across East London.
In my estimation, the opening of the Royal Wharf and the new housing project which is set to open in Shoreditch has us heading in the wrong direction. There’s more than a whiff social cleansing in much of the planned investment in housing and transport. Whereas what’s needed is the kind of input which can take the distinction between tower block and high rise, and consign it to everlasting oblivion.