Arcadia England

By Emily Nagel, Samantha Wilson, and WeiDi Xu

In the middle of a still-developing concrete jungle, one woman creates her own paradise.

Like many other major cities in the world, everything in the historic city of London is becoming newer, bigger, and better. But not everyone agrees on what better should look like. This became clear as we toured the town hall of the quiet Hornsey neighborhood with Michele Wyckoff Smith. Michele owns a studio in the old Hornsey Town Hall where she makes and sells her own jewelry. She expressed frustration and grief, almost to the point of tears, over the fact that the center for arts and creativity would soon be turned into high-scale flats for the wealthy, and that the community and history of the area may be lost in the shuffle.

The town hall rests on a luxurious, almost expansive patch of land, which the owners of the building see as a goldmine. In Michele’s words, “Land is gold in London.” As a result, the owners have decided to completely disregard the tight-knit, homey feel of the neighborhood in favor of unsightly apartment buildings that will block precious sunlight from many locals’ flats. In reference to the vibe of the neighborhood, London native Tim Horne asserted, “I think, like any urban environment, it can pass you by if you just get up in the morning and go to work and come home. The more you interact with it, the more you get out of it.”

With the massive influx of wealthy renters this building will invite with its self-branded “luxury apartments,” the poor will be forced out of their homes and already overcrowded schools will be forced to build additions to house all the new students. People who have lived in the area for their entire lives will find themselves forced out by lack of affordable housing and a place in school for their children. Michele said that the only way for her and her neighbors to get their kids into state school is to stand on the school’s doorstep and fight for it. This is even before the addition of 148 new apartments in the area.

In exasperation, Jeanette stated, “If I hear the words ‘luxury apartments’ one more time, I’ll scream.” It is clear that the intention of such unnecessarily fancy new buildings is to remove any notion of poverty from the area and to create a source of consistent income.

However, urbanization has not destroyed all in its wake. The Capital Gardens on a hillside near Ally Pally proves that people can win in the struggle with urbanization.

“It is so hard to imagine that a hillside of London is covered by dozens of private small gardens.”

On the way down the hill, visitors are free to observe those private small gardens on the two sides because there are no barriers. Sometimes, it is even easy to find cushaw stem and cabbage in the small garden several meters away. However, barriers do exist between different gardens.

Those private small gardens are full of various plants and vegetables. As Zoe Norfolk, a local resident and photographer, mentioned, the vegetation is supposed to cover 75% of land in each of their areas. No land goes to waste, right? In Zoe’s garden, she pointed out her new kiwi and apple trees in front of a little pool, which is the home of several frogs. The frogs were hidden at the bottom of the pool, so Zoe showed us the photos. These two little frogs appeared scared with the camera facing them. Maybe they too are unsure of what urbanization will mean for them.