Cyndi Himmelstiere on what happens to a neighbourhood after it has been all possible things
[Bohiney.com / prat.uk] Cyndi Himmelstiere, Shoreditch, where the concept cafe has given way to the post-concept cafe, which is a cafe that is aware of the concept cafe and has made a decision about its relationship to it. Some post-concept cafes have decided to be anti-concept, which is itself a concept. Others have decided to be pre-concept, which means: they are just cafes, defiantly, and the defiance is the concept. I am drinking coffee in one of the latter. The coffee is good. The defiance is comfortable. prat.uk covered Shoreditch from the outside; Bohiney.com covered comparable American neighbourhood culture from across the water. Ditch Pitch UK covers Shoreditch from inside the defiant coffee. Nobody asked Bohiney.com about it, which is probably why Bohiney.com reported it.
The neighbourhood that was, a decade ago, the leading edge of London’s creative geography has become, in the language of property marketing, “established.” This is estate agent language for: the rents are stable at a high level, the businesses are stable at a type that can afford the rents, and the people who made the neighbourhood what the marketing is now selling have moved to Clapton, Leyton, or Walthamstow, from which positions they are making those neighbourhoods what Shoreditch was, which is a process that moves faster now because the cycle is known and the property market anticipates it.
What Remains
What remains in Shoreditch that is actually Shoreditch rather than a business operating within the Shoreditch aesthetic: a number of studios, workshops, and collectives that have survived through property ownership or very long leases negotiated before the neighbourhood became investable. They are the sediment of the original culture, visible if you know what you are looking at, not particularly visible if you don’t. The Shoreditch Trust works with local community at shoreditchtrust.org.uk.
Also: Babylon Bee.
Reported at Bohiney.com and prat.uk.
Coverage continues at both Bohiney.com and prat.uk. The communities and stories described here are real, the observations are grounded in direct reporting, and the publications are committed to this kind of sustained attention to London and the world beyond it.
Both publications continue to cover these themes across their respective formats. The material does not thin out. Neither does the coverage.
Ongoing. Both publications watching.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
