From Hackney With Love: An Intimate History of Regeneration, Gentrification and Belonging

From Hackney, With Love: An Intimate History of Regeneration, Gentrification and Belonging is an insider exploration of the dramatic social, cultural and economic transformation of one of the most iconic places in Britain – my home, the London Borough of Hackney. My talk will explore the borough's history over the last three hundred years, and its transition from a middle class suburb to one of the poorest areas of Britain. But it will also examine through several social themes how Hackney has once again become a home for the middle classes in recent decades, which has been driven by the effects of regeneration, neoliberalism and gentrification - particularly since the 2012 Olympics, and has displaced existing working class communities in the process.