On London Extra: Bakery streets
The absurd furore over Brixton getting a Gail's. Plus the Soho Society strikes back, the latest output from On London, flagging and Reforming and much more
This is my twice-weekly, paid-for newsletter. I also republish for free stuff I’ve written elsewhere. For £5 a month or £50 a year, paying subscribers fund my no ads, no AI, multi-contributor journalism website OnLondon.co.uk. Free trial available. Thanks.
Campaigns against gentrification are nothing if not predictable, especially if they involve Brixton or a new branch of Gail’s. The hullabaloo about a branch of Gail’s coming to Brixton is, therefore, predictability as spectacle.
All the usual sorts of suspects have been railing against it, raising furious petitions, making videos of themselves being appalled, and variously alleging that the presence of a popular chain bakery will lead directly to the “displacement” of black residents, destroy “the community” in general and, this being a chain with Jewish origins, worsen the plight of Gaza.
It is best not to linger long among the online tirades, with their customary blends of catastrophism, sanctimony, presumption and rose-tinted lamentations for a Golden Age when Brixton was riot-torn, more of its people were poor, the toilets in the market were unpleasant and everything was so much better. And, of course, because “Zionist” Gail’s is involved, the stench of antisemitism soon intrudes.
