Goodbye Elephant and Castle shopping centre

After 55 years of trading, the Elephant and Castle shopping centre, the first of its kind in Europe, has closed its doors forever. A somewhat ugly building, it must be said, it was nevertheless an important community hub for many locals, including white English working class alongside African, Polish and South American folk. Its distinct range of independent shops and cheap eateries reflected this mix, and I have fond memories of a pre-Christmas lunch in its Polish restaurant involving bigos, beer and shots of vodka (then returning to work).

Developers have long been wanting to regenerate this Zone 1 area of Southwark, which started with the 1,200-home Heygate Estate being demolished in 2014 to make way for luxury flats. Mostly working class locals were sold out by their own council, paid a pittance for their homes and rehoused to places like Slough and St Albans, despite residents having long-established ties in the local area. Gentrification is one thing but Southwark, and other councils, have been accused of social cleansing.

As Vice reported in 2017, Every Flat in a New South London Development Has Been Sold to Foreign Investors, despite promises of social housing and a community feel.

Unfortunately, from looking at other parts of London where gentrification has occurred, such as recent developments in Battersea, Brixton and Kings Cross, we know exactly what to expect for the new Elephant and Castle development – over-priced shops, expensive restaurants and bland coffee shops; a soulless environment to kill off any form of “community feel”, where the key word is actually commodity, not community.

Previously on Barnflakes
Top ten London creatures
The Regeneration Game
Battle of the Brutalists
London through its charity shops #23: Walworth
London Libraries #5: John Harvard, Southwark
Modern architecture is rubbish