Gentrification and the Everyday

By Edward Sanderson

Part 1

After commenting on his original post about his visit to South Korea’s Heyri village, Michael Eddy asked me to contribute further on the subject of gentrification as part of the “Gentrification Disco” series. I was happy to oblige as I think gentrification is an interesting subject, touching on our roles in the development of psycho-geographical areas and how we can relate that to broader (psycho-?)political changes.

I’m writing this in two parts, as I got a bit carried away and the piece is getting way too long to sustain attention in a single post. Firstly, I’ll talk about my hometown of New Malden, on the outskirts of London, which has seen its own forms of gentrification.

I’ll talk about two stages of gentrification in the life of New Malden (there have undoubtedly been many others). To begin with I’ll quickly touch on its original development in the 1850s and its more recent social changes in the 1990s onward.

The second part will move its focus back to Beijing, and deal with HomeShop’s own situation and the potential effects it might have on the area, and how this can be seen to relate to its own programme.

New Malden

I grew up in New Malden, in the South-West of London. New Malden is an entirely created town, the area being largely farms and small clusters of houses beforehand. It was developed mainly due to the construction of the majorsuburban railway line from the centre of London out to the South Coast of England – New Malden becoming an important commuter town for workers in London. The Town has now been absorbed into the mass of the City such that no physical division occurs between New Malden and its neighbouring towns with names evocative of the suburban idyll: Raynes Park, Motspur Park, Berrylands.

The wholesale development of New Malden, and its abrupt change in circumstances, chimes with Michael’s description of the gentrification apparent in Heyri as: “the liquidation of existing communities into higher capital-intensive zones.”

New Malden has another parallel with South Korea, as it is now known for what is said to be “the largest expatriate community of South Koreans in Europe, and … one of the most densely populated area of Koreans outside South Korea.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Malden).

This concentration of South Koreans has a number of causes but (as in the town’s original development) the railway station and main line giving ease of access to central London has played a major role. This new population has regenerated what was becoming something of a commercial ghost town about 15 years ago. In the UK at that time the traditional high street, with its rows of small shops, was in terminal decline. The development of large, peripheral shopping estates took over as the dominant form of consumer destination. Along New Malden High Street, in the sites left vacant because of this shift in shopping patterns by the local population, new cafes, restaurants and supermarkets serving the Korean community have served to regenerate the town and its surrounding area.

This adjustment has not come without its “frictions” (as Michael suggests). As much as the UK takes some pride in its mix of cultures, seeing “diversity” as a positive attribute, at the same time there is an ongoing debate about the need for “integration.” Politicians like to promote the “integration” of non-indigenous cultures, encouraging the population to meet a certain standard of Englishness, enforced by an extensive multiple-choice test for applications for long-term visas to the UK. Any move towards self-ghettoisation of a particular group is seen as socially divisive and unsettling.

The changes in New Malden may be welcomed or resisted by the original members of a community for more or less rational reasons. On the plus side, this concentration of South Koreans has the knock-on effect of New Malden having one of the best Korean cafes in London, as well as being home to a huge Korean Superstore serving many of the Korean restaurants in that part of London. This is one of the more obvious ways in which the town benefits from the presence of this new community. However, the change in the social mix has alienated some of the long-term residents who find it difficult to accept the changes on “their” High Street as an inevitable reflection of global social and economic changes.

Looked at historically, these two developments: the initial development of New Malden from rural area to commuter town, and its current state as desirable destination for foreign workers, are both forms of gentrification and as such demonstrate the variety of forms gentrification can take. If one could characterise the original development of New Malden as “vertical” gentrification (i.e. one based on rising economic status of the inhabitants), the recent influx of South Koreans might be considered “horizontal” gentrification, in that the groups involved are perhaps at similar socio-economic levels to the original inhabitants (but represent radically different culturo-economic groups).

Gentrification

The strict, dictionary definition of gentrification is the displacement of low-income groups by middle- to high-income groups through a process of purchase and renovation of property in deteriorated urban neighbourhoods. However, with the above example of New Malden I’ve broadened the scope of that definition to include cultural displacement as well and economic causes.

In the second part I’d also like to take another tack on gentrification, beginning with its physical manifestations but then thinking about it affectively, which will lead to a consideration of HomeShop’s own situation. tune in for parts 2 and 3 coming soon!