Photographer Zed Nelson’s four-year study of Hoxton Street in east London dissects the anatomy of Brexit and gives voice to those affected by the relentless forces of gentrification. It’s wry and engaging stuff; Nelson’s playful lens captures the mercurial personality of an area that transforms before our eyes as the film progresses. There’s a sense of mounting melancholy as one after another the old businesses shut, to be replaced by “buzz bars” and insurance company headquarters. Rents in the area are rocketing.
Meanwhile, under the bridge, a homeless Russian man loses his possessions to arson, and in her council flat an elderly woman regrets her one lost chance at love. On her wall a clock stutters, but the hands stopped moving long ago when the batteries died. It’s a particularly poignant detail in a film that makes a persuasive case against the headlong acceleration of change.
