D -> U1 - U3 Flashcards
Soho, city of westminister:
- Old reputation for night life / sex industry
- Has been considerably gentrified
- Highly fashionable offices / media / restaurants
- Also historical point for the birth of epidemiology (John Snow and cholera)
- high density area with heavy imperial focus
What makes up perception?
- lots of pictures
- quality of memory
- imagination
- actual experience
Soho today:
- Remembered for John Snow and epidemiology
- Also remembered for prostitution and poverty (Bohemian)
- Hugely successful gentrified area, based on media, film post-production, and Kitzch shopping (Carnaby Street)
- Sir Paul McCartney and Agent Provocateur are 2 HQs based in Soho
Stimulus for growth
- Tremendous crime / prostitution led to Met Police
- Life expectancy of 37 years / cholera mapping = search for medical sciences
Victorian London:
- Many new builds, affluence
- But also horribly overcrowded slums
- Poor housing / working conditions
- Poor sanitation / urban pollution
Gentrification
process of changing the characteristics of a neighbourhood through influx of more affluent businesses and residents, house prices go up, so poorer are moved out, old poorer quality shops replaced with more expensive brands and upmarket chains.
Management acts that impact Soho
- 1953 clean air act
- westminister city council clean up project
Variation in perception of change
success for Westminster city council, failure for residents as they’ve lost the soul for character
Why different stakeholders have different criteria for measuring rate of success
How has soho changed?
gentrification started 1980’s
Loss of local characteristic and identity+ ‘soul’
Increasing redevelopment increasing noise and congestion
More than 300 air bnb sites advertised in soho
Councils privatisation plan affects market stalls
Increase attractiveness as a tourist attraction
Rent and prices rose by 50%
Snapchat and Twitter have HQ’s in soho
Shifting towards a more commercialised touristic upscale trendy neighbourhood away from the local edgy seedy bohemian that it once was
How has the perception of Soho changed?
Change in use, business name, locality and business ethnicity Too many hotels and coffee shops + lack of independent
Soho is losing its local character
Change of property ownership and management of the market Accelerating change
Difference between objective change and perception
Ground floor uses and frontages are the most significant factor in determining individual character in an area
These generate activity and diversity in an area
How do different people perceive the changes in Soho differently?
Local businesses may be forced out due to higher rents
Locals do not benefit and instead feel a loss of identity as the place they once loved is transformed for the tourists
Decrease in LGBTQ+ venues
Commercial transformation for TNC’s and workers looking purely for wages and tourists purely for entertainment and facilities
Clear evidence of commercial gentrification
Identity and character are embedded in people’s minds
Mile End
Borough of Tower Hamlets Just to the NE of city of London Now next to Canary Wharf One of London’s earliest suburbs 2011 census: 28,000 people Average age 29 58% Born in UK 20.7% born in Bangladesh (24% speak Bengali) 1.6% born Somalia
Cost of living – from
- High housing
- Community expectations
- Essentials, e.g. food
Environmental Quality
- Poor housing
- Poor pollution
- Noise / light
- Anti-social behaviour
Crime
- High in urban areas
- High in some urban zones, e.g. Heathrow / Central London
Either: Ethnic tensions…
- High levels of segregation / poor attitude to integration
- High levels of discrimination
OR: integration
- More self-confidence
- Secure employment
- Increased affluence
- A desire to move beyond culture and be more integrated
Elderly Isolation
- Born in parents home (never moved away)
- Comfortable near services
- But out of step with city, noise/new residents, new attitudes
- Perceived feeling of crime
Political causes
- Blitz devastation and shipping industry collapse
- Mistrust of the state / fear of police / forced displacement from Canary Wharf
Economic causes
- Poor education / few employment opportunities (50% without formal qualifications)
Environmental causes
- Marshland and relatively inaccessible
- Post-war council housing is confusing to navigate and unsafe
Social causes
- In-migration created job competition
- Black-Caribbean now filling behind
- 23% owner-occupied = lack of pride
Technological causes
- Poor infrastructure – e.g. sewage / transport
- But much improved (Jubilee, DLR / Bus)
Change?
- Queen Mary University
- St Katherine’s Dock redevelopment
- Long-term illness growing (cardiovascular)
- Fastest growing population in UK
Economy in Mile End
- very few jobs
- no jobs mean people resort to crime
- need for more apprenticeships for local people for a pathway
Living Environment in Mile End
- peoples families are poor but there is a pressure to act rich and gangster to fit in, surrounded by bad influences and bad behaviour like bunking lessons
- people see drug dealers as a model lifestyle because that life is glorified in poorer communities
People in Mike End
- people don’t have a path after they leave school, with no qualifications and few skills
- religion has helped them as they have something to turn to instead of crime
- have very little role models to look up to
Suburbanisation occurs
as people flee the perceived real problems in inner city areas in search of better living environments and quality of life. Some people may see suburbs as a better location. It occurs as a result of push and pull factors.
Push Factors (Inner city):
High amounts of crime Low environmental quality Poor education Dense housing Higher cost of housing Noisy areas
Pull Factors (Suburbs):
Calmer area
Better services such as education Lower property prices
More open space
Bigger houses
Croydon Exception:
- Rents too higher
- Ethnicity has growth
- 20,000 jobs lost to city centre
- House prices down 9%
- Discount / payday shops
- Riots in 2011
Inner-city (theory)
- Recent graduates
- Moved out of family housing, and need cheap property
- Happy to live in small inner-city (excitement / less transport)
- Don’t want suburban boredom
- Or urban-poor (ethnic minority) who are relatively poorer, and can’t afford to move out
London Exception:
- better policing = drug/ alcohol/ crime reduced
- city centre regeneration, followed by economic investment (e.g. canary wharf/ Shoreditch)
- leaves gentrification
suburbs (theory)
- families have children
- want residential space/ good schools, shops
- move too suburbs, use transport
croydon
- 19200 people
- originally a town in Surrey, now apart of Greater London
- 2nd largest floor space for retail in London
- rail links to London
- 8.5% of London woodlands
croydon is suffering
losing 20k jobs (15%) and house prices becoming 9% lower than 5 years ago
there are also an increasing amount of discount stores and payday lenders
suburbs becoming less desirable
improvements which are occurring in the inner city is making living in suburbs less desirable
- gentrification = improve in all tertiary components
- displaced people from inner city move to suburbs = less desirable
as you move away from CBD
living standards generally improves, as deprived- inner city areas and large villas with mixed neighbourhoods have relatively low qualities of life
outlies = gentrified neighbourhoods near CBD, deprived public housing areas
U1 overall - soho
Perception of urban areas, and how this changes over time with land use change
Soho - gentrification + Westminster city clean up project
U2 overall - Mile End
Some urban locations seen as undesirable/ threatening by residents/ outsiders due to:
- high crime, low env quality, population characteristics, reputation
Mile End: high crime, high delinquency
U3 overall - Croydon + London exceptions + inner city
Suburban + inner city, areas perceived differences in terms of their desirability to live in
- Croydon + London exception
