Gentrification in London: I’m losing my childhood

Nisha Arya Ahmed
5 min readMar 23, 2022
Source: guap

As I walk to the gym every morning, my surroundings look different by the day. The bus stand that was once there where me and my family would jump on a bus to get home has turned into a slope with coffee shops and pubs. The skate park where I would think ‘these guys are so talented’ has been scrapped and been replaced by flats.

This is the new living for the middle class at the expense of the working class. Afro-Caribbean hair shops turning into boulangerie cafes. Local fruit and veg markets where you could get a taste of back home, shut down to make new roads.

Gentrification. That’s what’s happening and has been happening for years now.

For those who don’t know what Gentrification is, according to Google Dictionary:

Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a poor urban area is changed by wealthier people moving in, improving housing, and attracting new businesses, often displacing current inhabitants in the process.

In my terms, it’s kicking out the poor and bringing in the rich. Because their lives matter.

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