A cafe in Hackney's Broadway Market has become the site of a community struggle against gentrification [see campaign website]. A public meeting is announced for 16 Jan.
Update 9 jan:Possible eviction on 10 Jan, 6am
On 5th December, members of the community occupied the cafe in time to prevent demolition. Evicted on 21 December, the cafe was demolished, then reoccupied on boxing day. Papers have been served on the occupiers, who were due in court on Friday 9th December. They are receiving support from local people and welcome visitors. Another eviction is expected any time.
The leaseholder of Francesca's Cafe at no.34 was evicted from his premises in the summer, and the building was sold to Market House Ltd., a property development company owned by Dr. Roger Wratten, who has also acquired other properties in the Market which he intends to turn into flats. Dr. Wratten was able to snap up the properties at bargain prices, despite the fact that leaseholders of several properties, including Francesca's, had been trying to buy the freeholds for years.
The sell-off resulted after sustained financial irregularities by Hackney Council, and the Estate Agents appointed to handle the sale are believed to have sold of £225m worth of properties for a mere £70m, thus increasing the burden on council-tax payers in the Borough who will be forced to pick up the debts created through the council's ineptitude. The people of Hackney have already suffered closure of amenities, privatisation of services and demolition of schools. Property values in the Borough are expected to rocket as developers clamour for sites to accommodate the Olympics in 2012.
5 Jan 06 Still there, asking for people to come down. Public Meeting 16 Jan.
3 Jan 06 Another eviction imminent
1 Jan 06 Broadway Market occupation continues
21 Dec 05 Broadway Market Cafe has been evicted. Instead of a cafe night, a show of protest took place.
7 Dec 05 G2 article: Market Forces
1 Dec 05 Libcom coverage
30 Nov 05Statement from Occupiers of Hackney Cafe
28 Nov 05 Occupation in Hackney Broadway Market | Demolition workers repelled | Photos
21 Jul 05 Blog: Hackney Gets Ripped Off - Again
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get down there
21.12.2005 10:19
they need all the help they can get
antoine
Gentrification is Property-Porn
21.01.2006 20:57
This came out in the Independent and is an illustration of how the gentrification/property racketeeering bollocks is moving around the City. Yuppie overspill? Gay Capitalism ?(se Pink Pauper ). Not a single mention of Francescas. Funny !that! Maybe the journo was hanging aound and spotted another story that could easily be from a "porno-property section".( see channel 4, media home of the speculators, for details )
"Hipper than Hoxton: why Haggerston is the place to be
By Terry Kirby, Chief Reporter
Published: 21 January 2006
The restaurant now said to be the hippest in London has no sign outside to proclaim its presence and, unlike some West End establishments, no gaggle of paparazzi to snap the celebrities. // Squat chic ala The Foundry? ( 'orrible place)
This is the East End, close to Cambridge Heath Road, home to a lap-dancing club and minicab offices, kebab shops and used car lots. But this restaurant, and this corner of London, is no longer destined to languish in obscurity. Haggerston, says the latest edition of the Lonely Planet Guide to London, is one of the "chic new neighbourhoods" that made London a "dynamic and buzzing place". Bistrotheque, the restaurant, is the coolest eating place in the capital.
Inside, Bistrotheque is spartan. The bare lighting could be a leftover from the building's former industrial use, the marble-topped tables unadorned and the glasses café-standard Duralex. The menu includes fish and chips, steaks and crème brulée; brown sauce and ketchup bottles are also available. Downstairs, on Thursdays, in the plush cocktail bar, there is a gay cabaret. The whole enterprise is deeply retro and highly chic, its clientele therefore very fashionable. Well almost. "Actually, we are pretty much on the front line of gentrification," says Kevin Cooper, owner of the Cat and Mutton gastropub in nearby Broadway Market, just the other side of Cambridge Heath Road. "The White Lightning [a brand of bottled cider favoured by drunks and derelicts] brigade have not entirely disappeared." Mr Cooper, 35, took over two years ago. He used to run a headhunting firm in the City. "It's now so much better than Shoreditch," he says.
Broadway Market, pretty much the centre of Haggerston, is the new East End in microcosm. Here, what was a wasteland of an old market street just a few years ago is being transformed - smart estate agents, an art gallery, a deli/coffee bar and new restaurants sit cheek by jowl with ramshackle mini-marts, a resolutely old-fashioned ironmongers shop and one of London's last eel and pie shops. But nothing underlines change more than the arrival of a thriving Saturday farmers' market.
Sandwiched between bar-packed Shoreditch and Hoxton to the south and Islington to the north, Haggerston was always likely to benefit.Predictably, property prices have soared.
There is a downside. When developers move in, local people are priced out, and their pubs and cafes become Ciabattas-R-Us outlets. In Broadway Market, there are battles being fought over two properties, uniting residents. Locals have reconstructed a building knocked down by developers and have resumed the squat from which they were evicted before Christmas. At the other end, one man, Spirit, is involved in a dispute over a former derelict shop he turned into his home and a business selling fruit, vegetables and fresh fish.
Hari Kunzru, the novelist, likes the area's "oddball" character. He says: "Money has come to the East End and there are new shops and businesses aimed at the middle classes. But one person's regeneration is another person being pushed out."
Cooke's eel-and-pie shop is run by Bob Cooke, 57, whose grandfather opened on the site in 1900. Like Bistrotheque, it has sauce bottles on its marble tables, but its customer base is very different. "We rely on the older East End types," said Mr Cooke. "Not many of the newcomers eat here."
Across the road, Julie Alred, 32, a single mother, waits while Nicky, 11, buys a bag of chips from the fish-and-chip shop. She gestures at the art gallery: "That used to be a newsagent. Don't think I've much reason to go there, or these new food shops. I do my shopping in Iceland."
The restaurant now said to be the hippest in London has no sign outside to proclaim its presence and, unlike some West End establishments, no gaggle of paparazzi to snap the celebrities.
This is the East End, close to Cambridge Heath Road, home to a lap-dancing club and minicab offices, kebab shops and used car lots. But this restaurant, and this corner of London, is no longer destined to languish in obscurity. Haggerston, says the latest edition of the Lonely Planet Guide to London, is one of the "chic new neighbourhoods" that made London a "dynamic and buzzing place". Bistrotheque, the restaurant, is the coolest eating place in the capital.
Inside, Bistrotheque is spartan. The bare lighting could be a leftover from the building's former industrial use, the marble-topped tables unadorned and the glasses café-standard Duralex. The menu includes fish and chips, steaks and crème brulée; brown sauce and ketchup bottles are also available. Downstairs, on Thursdays, in the plush cocktail bar, there is a gay cabaret. The whole enterprise is deeply retro and highly chic, its clientele therefore very fashionable. Well almost. "Actually, we are pretty much on the front line of gentrification," says Kevin Cooper, owner of the Cat and Mutton gastropub in nearby Broadway Market, just the other side of Cambridge Heath Road. "The White Lightning [a brand of bottled cider favoured by drunks and derelicts] brigade have not entirely disappeared." Mr Cooper, 35, took over two years ago. He used to run a headhunting firm in the City. "It's now so much better than Shoreditch," he says.
Broadway Market, pretty much the centre of Haggerston, is the new East End in microcosm. Here, what was a wasteland of an old market street just a few years ago is being transformed - smart estate agents, an art gallery, a deli/coffee bar and new restaurants sit cheek by jowl with ramshackle mini-marts, a resolutely old-fashioned ironmongers shop and one of London's last eel and pie shops. But nothing underlines change more than the arrival of a thriving Saturday farmers' market."
So there you have it. Roll out the barrel. Love a Duck. We're Cockneys you know ...
( spoken in posh tones ). Fuck Hackney Council. Fuck the Olympics. and fuck off and die Yuppie scumbags.
kill a yuppie