Nick Curtis: Pay attention there — do one thing at a time - Comment - Comment - London Evening Standard

Nick Curtis: Pay attention there — do one thing at a time - Comment - Comment - London Evening Standard

Kennington’s en route to cool

Gentrification in London is a fraught issue, as m’colleague Richard Godwin points out in his excellent piece on Brixton market in today’s ES magazine. A measured injection of cash, class or cool can lift an impoverished no-go area: too much can result in it becoming ethnically cleansed and sterile. London ghettos are no fun, whether for the poor or the rich. I’m still amused by a friend who lived for years in Notting Hill before it became “too gentrified” and she moved to … Islington. My manor, South Central (okay, Kennington), is still ethnically and economically mixed but I can see the rich folks’ tower that the helicopter hit when I turn into my road. And there are further signs the place is social-climbing. Our local fried chicken joint has just reopened. With wood panelling on the walls.