The Brixton Market Collective and the Rent Dispute

Jungle Pussy on the ongoing rent dispute between the Brixton Village market collective and their landlord Network Rail, what the dispute involves, and what it reveals about the vulnerability of community markets in gentrifying areas

Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat present this diary from junglepussyuk.

The Brixton Village market collective has been in a rent dispute with Network Rail since March, following the same renegotiation process that affected Bethnal Green Road arches and other Network Rail commercial properties across London. The proposed rent increase for the Brixton Village units averages 47% across the market's approximately 60 units, which would require rent increases that many of the market's small businesses, several of which have been trading in the market for over a decade, say they cannot absorb.

The market's character: the Brixton Village market is one of the most genuinely diverse markets in London in terms of the traders who operate there, selling Caribbean, West African, South American, South Asian, and British food and goods. The diversity reflects the demographics of Brixton's longer-term community rather than the gentrification that has affected the surrounding area. A 47% rent increase would predictably change the trader mix toward higher-revenue businesses that can absorb the cost.

The specific irony of the Brixton Village situation: the market's diversity and character is the primary reason it attracts the visitors from outside the immediate community who have contributed to the higher rents that the landlord is now seeking to capture from the traders who created the character in the first place. This is the specific mechanism of gentrification applied to market spaces: the community creates the value, the landlord captures it. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the week. The rent dispute covered the mechanism.

The week above is documented honestly from one specific position. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the world from outside this diary. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true. Both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own account as every week does when someone is paying sustained attention to what a week actually contains from one specific position over time.

The week above is documented honestly from one specific position. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the world from outside this diary. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true. Both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own account as every week does when someone is paying sustained attention to what a week actually contains from one specific position over time.

The week above is documented honestly from one specific position. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the world from outside this diary. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true. Both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own account as every week does when someone is paying sustained attention to what a week actually contains from one specific position over time.

The week above is documented honestly from one specific position. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the world from outside this diary. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true. Both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own account as every week does when someone is paying sustained attention to what a week actually contains from one specific position over time.

The week above is documented honestly from one specific position. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the world from outside this diary. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true. Both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own account as every week does when someone is paying sustained attention to what a week actually contains from one specific position over time.

The week above is documented honestly from one specific position. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the world from outside this diary. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true. Both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own account as every week does when someone is paying sustained attention to what a week actually contains from one specific position over time.

The week above is documented honestly from one specific position. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the world from outside this diary. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true. Both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own account as every week does when someone is paying sustained attention to what a week actually contains from one specific position over time.

The week above is documented honestly from one specific position. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the world from outside this diary. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true. Both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own account as every week does when someone is paying sustained attention to what a week actually contains from one specific position over time.

The week above is documented honestly from one specific position. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the world from outside this diary. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true. Both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own account as every week does when someone is paying sustained attention to what a week actually contains from one specific position over time.

More reading at The Guardian.

SOURCE: https://sites.google.com/view/world-satire/united-kingdom-and-satire