On Saturday night hundreds of protesters gathered in Brick Lane and attacked the recently opened Cereal Killer Cafe. Demonstrators from Class War threw paint at the shop and daubed graffiti on the windows.
One of the protesters, writing after in the Guardian, said the Brick Lane demonstration was response to “the brutality of the gentrification that is destroying the lives and demolishing the homes of some of London’s most vulnerable people”.
We asked shopkeepers in the area, which has changed over centuries as different groups of immigrants have settled and then moved on, about the latest generation of incomers, the protesters and the street’s fluid identity.
Harnett and Pope
Locally designed fashion shop. Open two and a half years
Antony Pope says he is a sitting duck for protesters who flocked to Brick Lane on Saturday. “They could probably come in here, say ‘Why are you selling coats for £600?’.”
He is one of several high end shops on the Shoreditch end of the street, aiming to be an antidote to the high street and exploitation of big fashion labels. “We make everything in Old Street, we design everything locally at home and employ five seamstresses,” he said.
If the protesters targeted him he would be very unhappy. “They could say we are contributing to the gentrification of the area ... That would upset me, it’s misguided. I’m a quaker, doing business ethically is something I am interested in.”
He struggled to fund the shop and got a £10,000 bank loan after he and his partner Katy pretended they were getting married. “We used that as a deposit on the shop,” he admits.
He applauds the Cereal Killer Cafe, describing it as a great addition because it has attracted “the middle classes from Knightsbridge”. But he fears that independent shops will be killed off by property development creep, most recently illustrated by Boris Johnson’s decision to intervene in the plans for seven luxury tower blocks abutting Brick Lane.
Pope knows one business on the street, which is paying £35,000 a year rent for a 1,000 sq ft warehouse further down the street, is being asked for a £100,000 premium for a new lease.
“That’s £100,000 they will never get back. So it will be another Pret or Costa Coffee [who] can afford that.” There are already signs that the big brands are moving in, he notes, with Versace Versus label opening on neighbouring Redchurch Street. “Before we know it we’ll have Victoria Beckham opening,” he said, dolefully.
Beigel Bake
Opened 44 years ago.
Synonymous with Brick Lane and its Jewish heritage, owner Antonio thinks the gentrification is fantastic. “It was a bad area, very rough, now it is marvellous,” he said.
“It used to be a derelict area, there were prostitutes. It’s still very mixed, Jews, Muslims, Christians. It’s a fantastic community here. It started with Jews in the 19th century and then from east Europe after the war, then they left to Golders Green and Pakistanis moved in, then they left and it was Bengalis. The next generation I don’t know where they will come from, we will still be here.”
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Fashion shop. Open nine years
A £600 price tag for a bondage-style halter-neck top might seem offensive to class warriors who took umbrage over a £5 cereal, but owner Fabrizia Baldelli said she understands their anger.
She came to the area because it was edgy, is passionate about cutting-edge fashion and said she has survived 10 years without a website or a PR. She stocks one-off pieces picked from the catwalks from the likes of British designer Gareth Pugh and Japan’s Yohji Yamamoto (who designed the halter neck), and counts Bob Geldof and Steve Tyler as past customers.
“Every piece here has a story,” she said. “If they were protesting against fashion I can see their point. Fashion is big business and so many clothes are poor quality and produced on exploitation. Our product is not. It might be hand crafted in Japan, it is a sartorial work of art.” That said, she’s noticed changing clientele. “We have Argentinians, Japanese, Thais, Chinese.”
The Cereal Killer
Serves cereal. Opened nine months ago
Alan Keely, co-owner, opened up last December – taking over from a cult movie DVD shop. “We are targeted as a hipster cafe, but really we get a huge demographic here,” he said. “We get a huge range of people, families with young children, older people who are looking for cereals they had when they were a kid.”
Beigel Shop
Opened 160 years ago.
Owned by a relative of Antonio’s, the shops are backed with a mixture of locals, hipsters and tourists. “The Beigel Shop is very famous now,” said one shop assistant. “But there’s still poverty, we do get a lot of homeless people hanging around outside, begging.”
Brick Lane Coffee
Opened 16 years ago.
Sitting on the cafe bench outside, Brick Laner Micky Putinus is glugging some wine in the sunshine.
“I think the Cereal Killer shop is cool. It’s old-fashioned, but you can get cereals from the 30s there,” he said. A self-described working class man, he lived in the area for more than 30 years and did not approve of the protest.
“I thought it was disgusting, the protest,” he said. “I thought it was the Ku Klux Klan, they had masks and torches and they were on drugs. They were posh Richmond kids. I was in the shop and they had £20 to pay for wine. No working class person has that. This place has changed, 40 years ago you could buy dogs, cats, pigeons, canaries, jellied eels, whelks, but it’s always been mixed area. It’s the land of opportunity. My grandparents are Lithuanian. I have uncles who are German Jewish and Irish and Italian. I was brought up here, I’m British white.”
Sloane Brothers Frozen Yoghurt
Open three months
Malaga-born Mario Montesin, shop assistant, said: “This area is really expensive, but I think all of London is dear to rent and this area is not very good, it’s not like Chelsea or something. There are a lot of crazy people, a lot of drunks on the street, and it’s very noisy.”
Truth Trading, leather shop
Open 31 years
Barry is the owner of this shop selling biker wear and other leather goods. “Brick Lane used to be a dump,” he said. “It was industrial. It was all clothes factories, leather factories, the hub of manufacturing. I’ve decided to close down. There is not enough trade for leather. People are being pushed out by a new breed of vintage shops. There are only four or five leather shops left here now.”
But he has a warning for the incoming retailers. “Brick Lane is not what it is cracked up to be. You might think it’s very hip, but there isn’t the footfall outside weekends. I’ve seen people misjudge it, come in open shops and then lose everything.”
Salik & Co, estate agents
Open eight years
Sales agent Aziz Ryan said the place is awash with cash buyers, “mostly Chinese, Indians people coming over to buy flats”. He said 70% of buyers in the recently built luxury apartment high rise overshadowing Brick Lane were foreign.
Downstairs, a graphic designer, Rimon Rahman, has recently moved in from down the road where rents went sky high. He used to pay £12,000 a year for a small studio, but said he was forced out when the landlord increased it to £24,000. Fast-changing food fashion is pushing the Bengali community out of business, he said, pointing to builders in a shop five doors down.
It used to be Curry Capital offering choice dishes from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It will shortly re-open as a Vietnamese restaurant. Next door, locally renowned Cobra beers and onion bhajis have disappeared and given way to craft beers, cider and carrot, apple and ginger juice at Full Stop Bar. “In 10 years time there will be no Indian restaurants here, maybe one or two will survive,” said Rahman.
The Vintage Store
Open nine years
Camilla Gilbey, a 26-year-old assistant manager, recognises the conflicts in the area – economic and socio-demographic. “It’s a weird melting pot. You can see the poverty, people with problems with alcohol, but it’s massively gentrified and that’s really jarring,” she says. The store employs bouncers at the weekend because there are so many people wired. “Of all ages,” she adds.
