A week after making national headlines because of its reaction to a planned racist riot, Walthamstow is in the news again, this time because some locals don’t want a Gail’s Bakery to set up shop here – so much so that they’ve set up a petition.
And honestly? This is one of the reasons that I love living in Walthamstow. While many other areas would be desperately happy to have a Gail’s – tantamount to getting a Waitrose – some locals here are desperate to protect the small businesses that have had a huge impact on why Walthamstow is now such a sought-after area to live in. An area that has been gentrified.
House prices in the borough of Waltham Forest have increased by more than 101 per cent in the past decade, the biggest spike out of any London borough.
I started looking for a flat to buy here around 16 years ago. My first experience of ‘The Stow’ was when I spent three months flat-sitting for a work colleague the year before that.
Walthamstow resident Michaela Twite moved to the area 16 years ago. The neighbourhood has been in the news this week in a gentrification row after locals revolted against a Gail’s opening on Orford Road
Michaela said that she loves the community spirit in E17, but admits that the area still has problems with drugs and violence
Before that I only knew its postcode – E17 – because of the boyband East 17. And because lead singer, Brian Harvey, ran himself over with his own car after stuffing himself with jacket potatoes before falling out of his Mercedes to be sick. Such a glowing endorsement.
So, when I chose to look in Walthamstow for my first property, it wasn’t because it was up and coming, ripe for gentrification or full of sausage dogs (it wasn’t; it is now).
It was because I could afford it, and because it was at the end of the Victoria line – but still in zone 3 – and that meant I’d be able to get a seat every morning on my way to work. We all have our priorities.
By sheer luck, not judgement, I bought a ground floor garden flat that was smack bang in ‘the Village’.
I didn’t know it was in the Village when I viewed it. It was a dirty hole – rented for years, unloved – but I fell in love. Which was lucky because it was about all I could afford.
Over the years I renovated each room, as and when finances would allow, and took on the 75ft garden jungle, which is now a sanctuary I’m very proud of. And as I gentrified my flat, Walthamstow gentrified itself. Well, the residents did.
It started in the Village, of course, but has spread as far as neighbouring areas: Wood Street, St James Street, Blackhorse Road.
The petition which has been set up to stop Gail’s bakery opening a new store in Walthamstow Village
Eat 17 on Orford Road has been dubbed the ‘poshest Spar in the country’. The deli, which was taken over by the restaurant next door, is on the same street where Gail’s wanted to open a new branch
Banksy’s fifth painting of two pelicans eating fish appeared in Walthamstow last week
If you bought in Blackhorse Road 16 years ago, you’d be quids in now as well. It just took a little longer to happen there.
The one nod to things looking up when I moved here was a restaurant on Orford Road – the main street in the Village – called Eat 17 (yes, we will take full advantage of our postcode; deal with it).
They then took over the Spar next door, turning it into a deli Spar that’s often described as ‘The poshest Spar in the country’.
Over time, other shops on the road had makeovers, becoming gift shops, cocktail bars, a trendy estate agent’s. Wildcard Brewery set up on Ravenswood Industrial Estate, alongside the famous God’s Own Junkyard neon collection. Other businesses followed suit. And that then spread to central Walthamstow.
The community has been trying for many, many years to have a derelict EMD cinema returned to its former glory as a working venue.
After years of toing and froing with the religious group that had bought it, endless campaigning and fundraising, it was eventually taken over by Waltham Forest Council and the group that runs Soho Theatre in central London. It’s being fully renovated and is due to open next year.
These improvements lead to both small businesses and big investors bringing their money and entrepreneurialism to Walthamstow.
Remember when loads of people started leaving the corporate world to become something with the word ‘artisan’ in the job title? Artisan brewer. Artisan baker. Artisan yoga instructor. Artisan barber. Artisan dog walker?
They all came to the Stow, and they’re all still here. Much loved and much frequented by locals and those further afield.
Large Tower Blocks being built in Walthamstow where house prices have risen by more than 101 per cent in a decade
Today Bread is a popular local spot selling posh sourdough – one of the reasons some local residents have insisted there’s no need for Gail’s
And although no one can deny that Walthamstow has its fair share of gentrification clichés – man buns, Italian whippets and sausage dogs, expensive heirloom tomatoes – it seems that the locals are generally happy our little corner of east London is finally on the map, recognised for more than a boyband and unfortunate potato-related car accident. And I think that’s because we have a real community here.
That’s why thousands of people turned up last week to drown out any would-be racists starting a riot. Apparently, a couple of them came out of the tube station, saw the crowd and ran straight back inside. Bye!
We were rewarded for that awesome outpouring of solidarity with a Banksy painting of pelicans on the wall of Bonners Fish Bar, an unassuming shop in a residential corner. Not the Village.
And this community is why some of those same people don’t want a Gail’s Bakery. Today Bread on Hoe Street was one of those artisan businesses. And now it’s a staple in the town centre.
Our posh Spar also has its own breads and baked goods from the adjoining Eat 17. We have independent coffee shops and cafes. We don’t need Gail’s.
Today Bread, which Michaela Twite says is better than any proposed branch of Gail’s
We don’t need a chain store to come and swoop in after all the hard work has been done and declare, ‘Lucky you, Walthamstow, we’ve decided you’re now worthy of our shop; the ultimate sign of gentrification! Come buy our expensive sourdough!’
Thanks, Gail’s, but we already have expensive sourdough. From local small businesses. Who were here first.
Don’t get me wrong, there are many areas of Walthamstow that are not gentrified. Far from it. We have gangs. We have stabbings. Murders.
I was walking with my neighbour before work a few weeks ago, along our daily 45-minute walk in the neighbourhood.
Walking up a residential street, busy with school kids and people on their way to work, a young man was merrily taking a baseball bat to a parked car, smashing off the wing mirrors, caving in the bonnet.
He finished the job and was off. The owner of the car had clearly pissed him off. We’re not so community that we intervene with that stuff.
My friend Rosie sold her gorgeous flat in the Village to relocate to the seaside. Yes, the coast – and owning a whole house – were the main draws, but the daily drug dealing outside the front of her building was another reason. As was finding a woman pleasuring a man by the communal bins.
Numerous cars are being broken in to – another one this morning on my street – shops in the Village and the high street have been burgled or vandalised.
All of the shiny, expensive apartment blocks going up aren’t solving the housing crisis, the lack of doctor and dentist surgeries, the school places.
The tube station is not fit for purpose half the time – old escalators and a lift that are regularly broken make it inaccessible and overcrowded. We’re close to the North Circular, so we have terrible air pollution.
We’re far from perfect.
And here’s the thing – to get Walthamstow to where it is today has taken a lot of slog, hard work, money, faith and time. A lot of time.
For me, I lived in house shares in rubbish parts of London for years to save up for my deposit. I lived with cockroaches in the kitchen. Dead things decomposing in overgrown gardens. Mattresses that were like sleeping on Ryvita. I didn’t have expensive holidays. I took packed lunches to work. I drank Nescafé, not Nero.
I have paid my dues. I don’t feel guilty that my property has tripled in value because of gentrification, but I do think we need to do so much more to create affordable housing.
Walthamstow is a community like no other I’ve lived in. And everyone should be able to afford to live here. And businesses should thrive. As long as they don’t drive out the independent small businesses who took a punt on our neighbourhood.
We have form – we’ll take to the streets to protect our own.