Starting too look in to researching my essay i have started to write about the gentrification and rebranding of elephant and castle which is happening right now this a start to my essay writing.
The Elephant is also well known for its diversely cultured residence. With a relatively large supply of social housing provided by Southwark Council, including that of the Heygate Estate first built in the 1970’s just under 50 years ago. The elephant and castle shopping centre was also built just 5 years before Heygate. The shopping centre was somewhat revolutionary being “the first covered shopping complex in Europe.” – (View from the Mirror, 2017). However the shopping centre may have been revolutionary but it was not particularly successful, with only 29 stores out of 120 being occupied in its first year, with mains stream retailers avoiding the centre. This did however provided a great resource for the local community with supplying them low cost shop rental space, allowing small and local businesses to flourish within the centre. To this day the shopping centre is still standing and still allowing local diverse business to thrive, but not for much longer. The centre was brought for 80 million in 2013 by property developers, with plans to extend LCC, create a new commercial shopping centre and of course high price luxury apartments, with 3 billion pounds invested into gentrifying the area. These developments can be seen from two sides with one being money is being put into the area bring new people, New shops, New cafes, New restaurants etc a relatively positive outlook at first. However when you look deeper into this how this could actually have a negative effect on many of the local communities and residence as the capitalist developments start to invade people’s homes.
View from the Mirror. (2017). A History of the Elephant & Castle (Part Two). [online] Available at: https://blackcablondon.net/2012/10/26/a-history-of-the-elephant-castle-part-two/ [Accessed 14 Jan. 2017].
harriet lucy gray 