Field Trip 2

We begin in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which is home to many famously-affluent areas such as Notting Hill, Kensington, Chelsea, and Knightsbridge. However, especially following the deadly fire at Grenfell Tower in 2017, during which 72 people died, the stark inequality of the borough has come into focus.

 One Hyde Park  is a luxury development in Knightsbridge where apartments cost up to £140 million. Many of the flats in the building are  not inhabited by individuals but owned by companies based in tax havens . There have been a range of so-called  'Kleptocracy Tours'  that seek to show how dubiously obtained funds from abroad are laundered through London real estate. Watch author Oliver Bullough explain the role of foreign investment in London luxury real estate and how shell companies work.

Bollough mentions mega basements - these have been a common way for developers to circumvent building regulations on historical properties and expand them for the requirements of the super-wealthy market. Such an expansive multi-storey basement might host a bowling alley, a swimming pool and a cinema, for example:

While over 1,000 such basements have been built in Kensington and Chelsea in recent years (see left), the council has now  restricted  this practice, which can lead to problems such as flooding and building  collapses .

Another feature of this trend, where investors who are non-resident for tax purposes buy properties in London, is that entire neighbourhoods are  deserted  for  much of the year . This means not only that parts of the city like Mayfair and Knightsbridge are less lively but also that they become less safe.

During the summer months, on the other hand, the demographics of these areas change notably -- a development that manifests itself in conspicuous displays of wealth. For instance, West London sees a proliferation of expensive 'super-cars', often with license plates from the Arab Gulf and flown in on airplanes.

Advanced: listen to the podcast below about Roland Atkinson's book Alpha City (30 mins).

Q Why do the world's hyper-rich like to invest their money in London real estate? And what is the impact for residents of London, both renters and prospective home-buyers?

The social mixity of London is in large part a result of World War II bombing, which left areas across the city in ruins -- those areas were then filled with social housing for working-class people in the post-war period. This is why, not far from the masons of the ultra-rich in Kensington & Chelsea, there are also homes of less wealthy people and those who live in public housing.

The extreme inequality - especially when it comes to housing - in the borough came into sharp relief in 2017, when a fire spread across 24-storey building known as Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, killing many residents trapped inside.

Grenfell Tower residents' groups had  expressed concerns about fire safety  for years, but these were not addressed by the  Kensington & Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation  responsible for the management of the public housing stock in the council. At the same time as corners were being cut with the safety of public housing residents, the K&C council said it was managing its finances so well it was able to refund council tax to wealthier residents -  some residents saw this as a bribe seeking to buy votes  in local elections.

The building's renovation in 2015-16 had involved covering the facade in aluminium cladding, intended to improve energy efficiency and appearance. As the still-ongoing  inquiry  into the tragedy has revealed, the low-cost cladding used did not adhere to fire safety standards - and in fact, it was so flammable it caused the fire to spread so quickly it could not be controlled by fire brigades. 72 residents lost their lives, making this the worst residential fire in the UK since World War II.

Watch this music video by London rapper Lowkey dedicated to the victims of the fire.

Q What do the names of the victims tell you about the people who lived, and died, in Grenfell Tower? With whom does the song place responsibility for the deaths, and why?

The map on the left illustrates the  extreme inequality  in Kensington and Chelsea. Grenfell's locality (highlighted, dark red) is in the 'most deprived' category while nearby areas are in the 'least deprived' category.

Following the fire, surviving residents were housed in crowded hostels - this want meant to be temporary but some still have  not been rehoused  years later. Four years after the fire, the  inquiry  to determine responsibility is still ongoing.

Beyond the severe impact of the fire on surviving residents and the wider community, the fire has left an urban imprint across the UK. As a result of the fire, aluminium cladding similar to that used at Grenfell must be removed from all buildings across the UK that are taller than 18 meters. There have been delays in implementing this as  home owners have to pay for removal  (rather than the government, which oversees fire standards). This has meant that many affected home owners not only fear they are living in unsafe conditions but have seen their flats lose all of their value. They are thus often unable to leave their homes, since they cannot afford to buy or rent elsewhere.  Up to half a million people in London alone are affected by the so-called Cladding Scandal .

Advanced: Watch this 2018 documentary on Grenfell (90 mins)

The second site on this field trip is south of the river Thames. Elephant and Castle is one of several currently undergoing rapid redevelopment, with numerous high-rises replacing former council housing, as well as a shopping centre near the central roundabout. Compare the two images below (by moving the slider from side to side) to see recent changes. Note in particular the number of new high rises and the transformation of the Heygate Estate - the blocks of flats arranged in parallel formation to the East of the railway tracks in the 'before' image on the left.

To learn more about the community that lived in the Heygate Estate and surrounding areas, explore the  Home from Home  project. This is a collaboration between artist Eva Sajovic and writer Sarah Butler presenting photographs and stories of people who visit, live or work in the Elephant & Castle and their relationship to home. The project documents a community at a time (2007 - 2010) of a large-scale change at the Elephant due to the biggest regeneration in Europe.

Q Who are the people portrayed in this project? What is their background, and how do they relate to E&C and each other? How does the structure of the website reflect social structures?

Look at the  images of the Heygate Estate  produced by architect Felipe Lanuza Rilling. (Advanced: read more about this project in his related  article .)

Q What does the process of 'decanting' a housing estate slowly, over several years, mean for the community life for those who remain in place? Where do those forced out go (see map below)?

As part of the regeneration of the area, the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre closed  amid protests  from local groups in September 2020 and was demolished in early 2021. Watch this 2017 film about the community who used it until recently.

Q What kind of place was the E&C shopping centre? Who used it, and why did they deem it worth preserving? What kind of physical and social structures could, or should, replace it?

Advanced: Listen to this audio walk from Dr Niall Geraghty's Getting Started in Latin American London Podcast to learn about the importance of the shopping centre for the Latin American community of South London.

New developments replacing council housing estates around London are required to include a certain proportion of 'affordable' homes. This is  defined as 80% of market value, still unaffordable for most in the city . However, developers frequently reduce this number as far as possible (see Anna Minton's 'Capital City' for how this works). Furthermore, when new buildings are in place, they frequently distinguish between 'regular' and 'affordable' ownership residents through architectural features and differential access to amenities.

So-called 'poor doors' separate entrances for residents living in the affordable flats. In one case in Fitzrovia's Cleveland Street, a poor door has ironically been built into the plans for the  redevelopment of a former workhouse . The segregated planning often means that communal green spaces and  playgrounds  are not accessible to residents living in affordable flats. In other global cities with significant inequality such as New York, poor doors have been  banned .

Q How could social mixity be ensured in new housing developments - that is, how can councils prevent gentrification and segregation? What are the practical obstacles from the perspective of for-profit housing developers?

•  Atkinson R., Burrows R., Glucksberg L., Ho H.K., Knowles C., Rhodes D. (2017) Minimum City? The Deeper Impacts of the ‘Super-Rich’ on Urban Life. In: Forrest R., Koh S., Wissink B. (eds) Cities and the Super-Rich. The Contemporary City. Palgrave Macmillan .
• Atkinson, Rowland. " Necrotecture: Lifeless Dwellings and London's Super‐Rich."  International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 43.1 (2019): 2-13.
• Baldwin, S., Holroyd, E., & Burrows, R. (2019).  Luxified Troglodytism? Mapping the subterranean geographies of plutocratic London.  Architectural Research Quarterly, 23(3), 267-282.
• Bychawski, A. & Rowley, T. 2021.  Oligarchs and officials from corrupt states own £2bn of UK luxury property . OpenDemocracy.
•  Caesar, E. (2015) House of Secrets: Who owns London’s most expensive mansion? The New Yorker. 
• Campkin, B., Roberts, D., Ross, R. (2013)  Urban Pamphleteer # 2: Regeneration Realities . London: UCL Urban Lab.
• Danewid I. (2020)  The fire this time: Grenfell, racial capitalism and the urbanisation of empire.  European Journal of International Relations 26(1): 289-313.
• El-Enany, N. (2017)  The Colonial Logic of Grenfell.  Verso Blog.
•  Lanuza, F. (2020). The layered absences of the Heygate Estate, South London (1974–2014). Architectural Research Quarterly, 24(1), 49-65. 
• Lees, L. (2014)  Staying Put: An Anti-Gentrification Handbook for Council Estates in London .
• Lees, L., Ferreri, M. (2016)  Resisting gentrification on its final frontiers: Learning from the Heygate Estate in London (1974–2013) , Cities 57: 14-24.
• London Tenants Federation, Just Space and Loretta Lees (2020)  Estate Watch London & beyond,  Radical Housing Journal 2(2): 229-234.
• O'Hagan, A. (2019)  The Tower.  London Review of Books.
• Rozena, S. (2022)  Displacement on the Lancaster West Estate in London before, during, and after the Grenfell fire , City, 26:1, 6-27,