With London's Affordability Crisis, a New Breed of Activism

Unaffordable, unequal, unsustainable—the problems that London’s economic success has brought in its wake have been receiving ample international coverage recently. Behind the headlines, however, there’s another story that’s been getting far less attention. London has also been swept over the past year by a wave of grassroots activism, the intensity of which is unprecedented. A sort of mosaic version of the Occupy movement, this activist wave has left few areas of the city untouched. Comprising building occupations, demonstrations, petitions and intensive lobbying, it has touched on anything from huge housing projects to historic structures and local pubs. And it shows no sign of cresting yet.

Among the many issues the movement touches on, the most hotly contested is displacement. At time of writing, a local council in South London is effectively besieging protestors occupying the threatened Aylesbury Estate housing project. In the city’s far north, low-income public housing residents at the Sweets Way project—forced from their homes to make space for luxury housing—are occupying the now vacated site in a protest they’re calling a sleepover. Meanwhile, there are the passionate, locally led ongoing campaigns to stop displacement of public housing tenants at the Cressingham Gardens and West Hendon Estate housing projects, following on the heels of campaigns at East London’s Carpenters and New Era Estates.