Renewal or Gentrification? London Borough Grapples With a Revamp
The situation — with uncomfortable parallels to Grenfell Tower, the public housing block
that was consumed by fire last June and that lay close to multimillion-pound homes — offers a window into the challenges facing London, a dynamic city with a strong economy, but one with a housing shortfall and which many residents can no longer afford.
LONDON — Victoria Alvarez is a ball of energy, darting around the Seven Sisters Indoor Market in north London.
“This is why this market is such an important part of the community.”
Now, she says Seven Sisters Indoor Market — the biggest Latin American market in England, by its
estimation — is under threat, caught in one of London’s largest ever redevelopment programs.
It is centered on High Road, a three-mile stretch that is home to shops like halal butchers
and Afro-Caribbean hairdressers, as well as small cafes, restaurants and markets like the one where Ms. Alvarez works.
“The scale of the challenge is very big.”
The market’s traders — largely Colombian, but also from Peru, Ecuador, Brazil
and parts of Africa — will be moved across the street in 2020 while the market is being upgraded.
Tottenham is also one of London’s most deprived districts, and the local council argues that it is in dire need of renewal.
People who live on the west side of Haringey, the council of which Tottenham is a part, live about nine years longer than those in the east.
