THE advent of supergentrification is a setback for new Labour hopes of breaking down class barriers.
Gentrification, the arrival of the middle classes in an area where urban decay has set in, is seen as having the potential to blur class distinctions.
Loretta Lees, of King’s College London, who has researched super-gentrification, said that policymakers had hoped to see the middle classes mixing with the working classes, encouraging them to share their aspirations.
At Barnsbury in Islington, North London, however, the super-gentrifiers have no interest in mixing.
Gentrification has reached the area in three waves, Dr Lees told the Royal Geographical Society’s conference. The first began in the 1950s, as teachers, police and social workers moved in, and lasted until the 1970s. The second wave began in the early 1980s, with a range of professionals, and lasted until the mid-1990s when the third wave, super-gentrification, with its super-wealthy City workers, started.
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The first two waves conformed with geographers’ definition of classic gentrification in that there was an element of altruism. While the gentrifiers, especially the second wave, wanted a property as both a home and an investment, they also hoped to benefit from having different social classes on their doorstep.
Dr Lees added: “Supergentrification goes against how gentrification is seen. It was thought that it was the end point of a process. Nobody ever thought supergentrification would happen.”