Went to London this weekend and wandered around Brixton, another gentrified neighborhood. This will be a short post today as there are a number photos taken as well as notes that need cleaning up and I’m currently battling something that really did not agree with my stomach.
I did a lot of walking, looking at two sections of Brixton as studied in London Calling. One portion was along Dulwich Road (with street names like Shakespeare and Milton)and the other was closest to Brixton Hill Road. Between the both of them was the sizable Brockwell Park. Part of my problem was that, being American there are a few cultural clues I could not pick up on. It’s easy in the US, black, white, rich, middle class, poor, blah, most of the time subtle clues, I can do. London, I’m clueless. Of course nothing says ‘not middle class’ like laundry hanging from the balcony.
Laundry hanging from some buildings gave me a clue. My trouble with modern buildings is the question of ‘is this so cutting edge that it is ugly?’ or ‘is this just crappy public housing?’ The distance between the haves, signaled with the gated community and the nicer looking cars and the have nots (laundry on balcony), is not that far. One such situation existed where Lambeth council housing was just across the street from each other, with the street being a little skinner than New Jersey Avenue.