What is the future for Harringay’s warehouse district?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by ingo pless on July 6, 2015 at 10:32

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Richard Hulbert on July 10, 2015 at 8:54

Great article. Let's hope the council read it. 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on July 10, 2015 at 12:25

The former factory district in Seven Sisters ward could be treated as many other sites in London and other cities abroad. As the population of large cities increases - and in some cases explodes - the opportunities for profit are seized upon by developers, large corporations and their political allies to grab land previously used for commercial and industrial purposes.

Where there have been planning/zoning controls which prevented or slowed this process, a useful intermediate stage has been to convert former factory or other commercial premises into lower rent arts/creative industry units. Preferably with live/work arrangements to establish use rights so that the landowners/ landlords can later cash in on the vastly enhanced land values of residential land - in contrast to the existing commercial or (usually) light-industrial uses. Here's a quotation from Grayson Perry's fourth Reith Lecture in 2013.

"... And this idea, you know the currency of bohemian-ness, lefty, arty-fartiness - that has a high currency, especially in the urban ecology. And if you think of artists, they’re like the shock troops of gentrification. We march in. We’re the first people to go we like this old warehouse, yeah we need a cheap studio. You know so that’s what happens - artists move into the cheap housing and the cheap spaces and they make them … you know they do their work and they’re quite cool and a little bit of a buzz starts up. And then maybe a little café opens up and people start saying, “Ooh, that’s kind of interesting, that area where those artists hang out. I think I’m going to go down there.” (LAUGHTER) And people start noticing, you know, and maybe some designers open up and a little boutique. You know and suddenly, before you know it, the dead hand of the developer is noticing it. And before you know it, the designers move in and that’s it. - bang goes the area. (LAUGHTER)
And I’ve watched you know this fairy dust of cool, marketised bohemia drift down over various boroughs of London. I should think there’s a couple of dozen of them I’ve seen it happen to over the thirty years. And of course now, it’s happening to Derry. (LAUGHTER) Be careful what you wish for.
I think developers should pay artists to live somewhere for ten years, free - pay them - because we are these amazing … because we have this very precious commodity. I mean I’m just moving studios from Walthamstow in East London, and now Walthamstow is becoming Awesomestow!

(LAUGHTER) And you always know when the gentrification process is going into its death spiral when flats with wood on the outside start cropping up (LAUGHTER) because wood is one of the symbols of authenticity. And men have beards. That’s the other one. Beards are authentic. (LAUGHTER)

Plainly not every "cultural quarter" or new arts/creative industry area is successful. Especially if mandated top-down by a mediocre local council like Haringey they are probably less likely to succeed. However, the underlying drivers - profit, gentrification, intensification of land - make this a fairly safe bet.  Especially where more desirable areas can be exploited. For example, near existing fashionable areas; and/or near parks, rivers or other bodies of water; and commuter "transport hubs".  Also if developers/landowners are prepared to play the medium or long game. In other words, to hang-in and to ride-out a possible property down-turn.

Of course, some of the people who now live in these more desirable areas will have to be evicted/displaced and - in cases of largescale development - socially cleansed. Some of this will happen when people on lower incomes fail to pay their mortgages or rents. So loans are foreclosed and people are evicted. Possibly with landowners, snapping-up "bargains".

Sometimes it will need the active collusion of local Tory or quasi-Tory councils bribed with a few crumbs from the developers' table.  Or the prospect of "solving" poverty by ridding themselves of the poor and sending them or squeezing them out to another area. 

Sometimes the process is initiated by an event such as a flood which temporarily forces people to leave. (The best person to read on this is Naomi Klein.)  In High Road Tottenham we had a riot which gave the perfect excuse for the developers to blame social housing and propose its destruction and expropriation.

Now George Osborne seems to be licking his lips at the prospect of cutting out all the "red-tape" on many "Brownfield" sites -no doubt including these old factory and commercial premises. We don't yet know the detail. But it will be very attractive for the property developers to skip over all the intervening stages. No need for artists. Go straight to demolishing large swathes of city and building luxury towerblocks for quick sale, off-plan, to foreign investors and other richer people.

I expect they'll dress it up with a few "affordable" homes - i.e. unaffordable for most people. Probably with a "poor door" so rich investors never have to meet the locals.

• ▶ Reply