Place studies, near and far Flashcards
Location of Canning Town
Canning town is a district in East London and forms part of the London borough Newham.
Lived experiences of the past (qualitative data)
Canning town by Guilio S. Gentile (before 1936) This is a painting created showing canning town beach. In the far end of the painting can be seen the famous power stations that existed there. At this time the power stations were the main employer of the area, after these closed down it left the area with high unemployment. The power stations also left a thick black smog to hang over in the area, shown in the painting. This suggests in the past, the economic situation of the area was better as there were more jobs before the stations closed but the health of the area was much worse due to the smog.
Lived experiences of the present (qualitative data)
A song called Canning town beach by the New Deal, insiders to the place, highlights the extreme poverty in canning town and how the original residents of the area feel isolated by “penthouse apartments” that surrounded the area whilst the singer likes in a “council flat”. It can also be implied that the character singing the song owes someone due to the purchasing of drugs or other illegal substances emphasising the high crime rates there, shown be the phrase “better find some work today, there’s people i owe”. The fact the song is about canning town beach, rather than the area itself also suggests a lack of things to do there and that the area is boring. The song does however, give the impression that the people understand the area is perceived as a dump, however they feel a sense of belonging and identity with canning town, highlighted by the phrase “the beautiful people don’t care about you and me, they wont cross the bridge, there’s nothing there to see”
The singer then says “i’m in a prime location” “it is what it is” which suggests that many outsiders see canning town as a dump and poverty stricken area, however, the insiders still love their area.
Lived expereinces of the present (qualitative data)
News article by the docklands and EastEnders advertiser - “street artists lined up for the London mural festival ready to paint the town red and maybe yellow” There was a London mural festival recently in which street artists went around different areas of London painting large murals. This can highlight how the east and canning town is possibly growing into a more trendy and friendly area.
economic change (quantitative data)
Mean age for Newham is 29, 10 years younger than the rest of England, with the highest percentage being just under 25% of people aged 30-44. Only 3.7% of the population are aged 65-74. The average house prices have increased by 1.06% in canning town between 2018 and 2019, according to Foxtons. In January 1995 the average price of a flat was just over £26000, in November 2019, it is now just under £440,000, an increase of 1060% in housing prices, according to a website called home.co.uk. Due to these changes in housing prices, semi detached house sales have seen a drop of 100% and flat sales have risen by 400% as people are only able to afford these. The majority of restaurants and cafes in the local area are independent which suggests the area has a supportive local community and the people prefer independent restaurants to chains. A lot of the restaurants are also high end so the food sold is expensive and restaurants are designed in quirky fancy ways, e.g. a boat.
Social inequalities (quantative data)
Newham Recorder - looking at the first 12 news stories that appear when searching about canning town, 60% of them are stories about crime within Canning town and almost 90% of the stories involve some form of serious crime such as murder and dealing of illegal A class drugs. This has lead to many outsiders seeing canning town from a negative prospective as being a dangerous, crime ridden area. From information from the metropolitan police, Canning town is above the average for crime and anti social behaviours though levels of reporting are lower than average. The main crimes identifies are robbery(handling stolen goods occurred 104 times in April 2010) ,vehicle theft (over 100 times in April 2010), drunken disorder such as fights and aggressive behaviour. violence against a person occurred over 3000 times in April 2010. Elderly residents feel fearful to leave their homes after dark. According to census data from 2011, In Newham 30% of people have a level 4 qualification (degree) however, 20% have no qualifications which may be adding to the unemployment issues of the area.
Insider perspectives - qualitative data
Found from a website called my London - 35 things you’ll only know if you live in canning town
- There are always hundreds of new projects designed to bring new hosing here for rich city boys who need a crash pad near canary wharf
- Whatever new plans are designed for canning town, they never include our people, the real East Londoners.
- Where do the people who use the other exit at the station think they’re going? were suspicious of anyone heading to the posh city island part that was once a margarine factory site
- Historically a labour safe seat, home to the Kier Hardie estate, it would be nice if the party cared bout us once in a while, rather than arguing in Islington again.
- We’re confused by tourists who hang around out side of the cable car. Nobody goes to the crystal, nobody pays a fortune to use the weird shark thing in royal Victoria dock. Just go back to Greenwich like a normal person.
- We get it though - nobody hangs out in canning town when you can get to Stratford in 5 minutes or the city in 20. - suggests the infrastructure of canning town has lead to more people travelling away from canning town than towards it.
Ousider Perspectives
Reviews from Booking.com
“Newham is a great choice for travellers interested in entertainments, sightseeing and tourist attractions.
In January 2016 an outsider made a review, labelling the football pitch they watched a game at as “iconic” and “one of those grounds you had to visit to tick off the list”. The football grounds then were redeveloped into a stadium and shopping centre. Three years later someone reviewed “a truly depressing place”, “i feel sorry for the iron fans having this as a home” “soulless bowl”. Which suggests that as the infrastructure of canning town is developing , it is removing the life and culture of the place and trying to replace is with something its not.
London city island development
This was a development created out of an old margarine factory which closed in 2006, developed to provide over 1700 homes to the area as well as 20,000 square metres of office space. This was created to provide a high end residential and cultural space to mirror the contemporary success of the neighbouring business district of canary wharf. However, the poorer residents of canning town wont be able to experience any of this as all the prices are aimed towards rich Londoners. Instead of investment being focused on improving the poverty of the area, it is instead trying to replace the poverty by creating a new high end rich area, that will make the poverty disparity even worse. A one bed apartment ranges between £410,000 to £485,000.
Perscpetives written from homeveiws.com, bbc news business and isleofdogs.wordpress.com
Perspectives - insider
“area is very quiet”
“grande views but boring area”
“We live in a cocoon, which makes it very nice and safe for me to stay”
“the community here feels quite young”
Outsider
“it has truly excellent transport links”
“as developments go, this has been incredibly well thought through and deserves ever expectation that it will succeed”
“the location is lovely and you can see some nice views of the canal and shiny towers of canary wharf” - TripAdvisor review
Location of cromer
Cromer is a town located in the North coast of the county of Norfolk, East Anglia.
lived experiences of the past - art/poster
“Cromer gem of the Norfolk coast” railway poster. This is a poster that represents Cromer as a picturesque seaside town and labels it as a gem. This poster was created around the 1950s to advertise the railway that was built in the 1900s. This railway brought thousands of tourists to the area each year, particularly during the 1900s which lead to the main economy of the area growing as it brought in a new industry of tourism, adding to the already existing fishing industry of the town. The influx of tourism lead to the construction of seaside hotels, a new pier and many restaurants and cafes, which can be shown in the railway posters. The posters drawing of the pier, promenade and beach highlight the key aspects of cromer that brought in money to the economy and provided plenty of jobs during that time. The place was successful.
Lived experiences of the present - poem, news articles
There are conflicting views about cromer in the present. From a more elderly perspective, insiders love the area as they enjoy the traditional seaside activites that cromer has to offer. This can be seen with a poem by Mrs Penelope Black. She uses fond language describing her day out where she “tucked into fish and chips” and enjoyed the “smiley sun beaming brightly” she ends the poem with “to live in north norfolk we are so lucky and glad” which expresses her love for the place and everything it has to offer. However, for younger resdients they find that cromer has less opportunities to offer form them. In an article done by North norfolk news, resdients aged around 40 said “ there could be more to do for young families” and “i feel the range of acitvities for my age group are limited to the cinema, pub or occasionally the theatre”. A 26 year old also said “there was nothing here really, “ and that they found a lot of young people moved away to Aylsham or Norwich after finding a lack of career opportunities in cromer. She said she thought it was “a starting off place”, somewhere where you could find a part time job in cafes and hairdressers, however, if you want a bigger career, you do end up moving.
economic change
The number of people in employment is relatively low at 62% compared to areas such as London at 75%. This is because a large amount of the population is elderly and so are retired. Unemployment rate is fairly low at 2.7% lower than the national average at 3.8%. This was a slight increase from 58% active in 2001. However, there has not been much development occurring in cromer creating new jobs, which suggests, without cromer attracting new industries, the ones they currently rely on such as crab catching could die out as younger people want jobs in different areas. In North Norfolk 22% of residents had level 4 education, where as 27.5% had no qualifications, 16% had level 2 (GCSE) education. These low numbers could contribute to higher unemployment levels in the future. According to zoopla, the average house price in Cromer stands at £278,000 which is slightly above the UK average of £233,000. According to home.com, a semi detached house in cromer cost £79,500 in January 1995, and has risen to £179,000 in march 2020, an increase of 125%. Despite this relatively low rise in house prices, all sales of properties near cromer have creased by 100%, apart from semi detached houses which decreased by 50% between January 1995 and march 2020. Cromer is well known for its crabs, however this industry in cormer could be dying out as younger residents want to pursue bigger careers. An interview by the telegraph with a crab fisherman found that when the fisherman originally started crabbing at 15, there were 50 cromer crab fishermen, now there are no more than 10. There have also been increasing regulations particularly on on shore fisheries like cromer where fleets become more limited on particular species and so fisherman cant catch as much.
social inequalities
Crime statistics occurring in Cromer have ranged between 71-44 occurrences over the months between November 2019 and April 202. In April 2020 there were 49 occurrences, the highest being antisocial behaviour at 18 incidents. violent crime at 9 incidents and other theft at 4 incidents. A website called i live here compared these occurrences with locations near by and found that cromer had some of the highest crime incidents in April 202, with the second highest being Beeston Regis at 34 with the lowest being 1 in Sidestrand. According to North Norfolk news there have also been protests occurring at Cromer pier due to the lack of mental health services being provided in Cromer after a number of suicides occurred in north Norfolk and suicide rates increased in North Norfolk from 5.8 between 2009-11 to 11.3 in 2015-17. There was also a £2.3 billion funding gap for adult social care by 2020 which means that elderly care for resident living in cromer, where the most prominent age group is elderly will be reduced. The average age for people in cromer being 49 which is 9 years older than the national average. The increasing amount of second homes has also been causing problems in cromer. A family in an interview with north norfolk news said they had been on the waiting list for a three bedroom council house in cromer for two years and has been driving up housing costs to the point where people trying to live there cant afford the prices. A questionnaire was also used to see how bad concerns were about second homes, out of around 100 people asked, 35 of them were very concerned and 16 were quite concerned.
