Hello. We’re Deptford High Street. This site is formed around a loose collection of Deptford residents and businesses working together. We’ve not got a specific aim in mind, or a grand plan; we just want to bring people together, and to be resource for news, information and comment about what’s going on in and around Deptford.
We’re not part of the council, part of the government, a charity or even any sort of a formal organisation. We’re just a bunch of like-minded people who think that, actually, Deptford has quite a unique place in modern London. It is a place that has a distinct character, and is still very much formed around its high street – a high street which is increasingly vibrant, and leading the regeneration of the area.
And there’s the thing. A lot of people are saying that Deptford is the “new East London”. Estate agents will tell you that the area is “up and coming”. All too often this is a shorthand for over-priced gentrification, where you can buy a soy latte, but not a bacon butty. While it’s great that there’s more attention being turned to Deptford, we don’t want the area to end up another soullessly over-gentrified area, where residents are priced out, and rents sky-rocket until authentic local businesses can’t thrive or even survive.
Over the coming months we are going to start work to build links with the wider community, to communicate news and events for the area. We’ll be connecting with residents, business owners, community leaders and community resources, and reaching out to bloggers, journalists, news organisations, event organisers, artists, creatives and anyone else who has something interesting or important to say. Just get in touch – we’re always on the look-out for guest bloggers, or one-off contributions.
We’re still getting things going, so bear with us. Feedback is always appreciated if you find something which isn’t working so well. info@deptfordhighstreet.co.uk
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Good luck with the site. I hope that Deptford can regenerate and improve without pricing out existing residents and businesses. But the track record of this in London is not great. Do you have any ideas about how this site can help? It would be great if these issues were brought out into the open and a mutual understanding was reached between old and new residents before it is too late. Anyhow best of luck!
My feelings exactly. I’m open to suggestions as to how this site can help. I’d love for the site to be used to discuss such issues, and to promote local campaigns.
I think it boils down to the two things: encouraging newcomers not to pay ridiculously inflated rents (even if they are affordable to newcomers) by increasing transparency of residential and business rents in the area, and helping ensure that existing businesses get a share of the new money coming into the area – in other words, providing a sort of marketing channel. E.g. working with local non-Western grocers to produce a Deptford High Street cookbook based on ingredients that are readily available locally.
More generally, there just needs to be a proper debate and discussion about what is happening. People tend to think of gentrification as being like an inevitable force of nature, like gravity, when in fact it is made up of thousands and thousands of individual decisions. We need to reflect on those decisions, and perhaps the site can be a focus of that debate.
I’m already working on having such a selection of recipes – so watch this space!
[...] episode focused on Deptford High Street and the families who lived and worked in the area, many of whom lost their homes in the slum [...]