Save Ridley Road!

Environmental policy change may be best explained through 'a norm lifecycle', but what about societal change in other contexts? Save Ridley Road (SRR) is a grassroots anti-gentrification campaign in Dalston, Hackney, who are fighting against plans to redevelop and privatise Ridley Road Market. The community of Dalston is under threat. 

I joined SRR as part of my dissertation on traditional retail market gentrification last year. After studying the role of ideas in International Relations, it occurred to me that gentrification and resistance to it, may be processes of change best explained through a historical materialist lens that foregrounds class struggle and capitalism.

Ridley Road Market has been the victim of continued disinvestment which has been used as a justification for its redevelopment. Although through the lens of neoliberal urban policy this may be seen as a positive, for the community of Dalston, it threatens their livelihoods. The market acts as a socio-economic support system for traders and customers, as well as sustaining a sense of community and cultural identity in the area. The pictures I took below are of the market and me making a SRR banner.

The process of gentrification can be viewed as an expression of capitalism which has an inherent dynamic for larger profits and so here, Ridley Road Market has been identified as a profitable investment opportunity. Class power in the capitalist economy has transmitted through the built environment in the form of redevelopment. Capitalism penetrates our everyday lives and we rarely stop to think twice about it. But can we resist it? 

SRR have been opposing privatisation plans since 2016 and have had multiple successes from cancelling initial evictions to negotiating alternative community plans with the council. The campaign is ongoing - SRR are still fighting to protect the market from becoming unaffordable flats and offices. Ridley Road Market has become a site of conflict between social classes. 

It seems SRR's success may lie in the 'organic intellectuals' within the campaign. Organic intellectuals represent social groups because they have a close proximity to powerful actors in society. Within SRR, a local solicitor translates planning applications to the group and often speaks to the council on the groups behalf. Additionally, SRR founder, has a strong relationship with the two local Labour representatives in Dalston. Understanding the system gives SRR a chance of success. We can help SRR save their community by writing a planning objection here. 

The following trailer for the film 'Ridley Road 2020: A street market under threat', encapsulates what the campaign is about.