Gentrification and live venues

Supportact

Read this article this morning. I find it really frustrating that it seems like if there's an area with good venues or something of cultural value then someone will come along and try to 'develop' it. Often in the process wiping out whatever it was that made the area desirable to live in in the first place. I don't know what the answer is but I just feel like we can't have nice things because we break them. 

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jun/27/the-george-tavern-the-london-gig-venue-at-the-heart-of-the-fight-against-gentrification

thecolourbox

On the flipside, I live near a little suburb of Birmingham called Stirchley, which is very hip, up and coming and has been featured quite a few times in newspapers "best places to live". Yet it's managing really well to fight off the usual chains (there was uproar when an Aldi was announced down the road!) and there is soon to be a music venue opening on the site of an old one which closed down years ago. Nearby Kings Heath has always had a bigger music scene (even back to the days when UB40 played their first shows, bands like Ocean Colour Scene and a few others over the years) but that area has all the usual chains and grotty high st that you'd expect - not sure i'd class that area as gentrified though as it's still a sh!thole Thankfully the new Stirchley music venue is kind of off the road next to the cut so it should not be too in danger of the noise complaints that the one linked above suffers, unless they decide to build flats in the middle of a grotty looking industrial estate by the cut

Stirchley is also a bit rough and ready looking (often looks "closed" during the day to be honest!), but is home to loads of awesome micro breweries, bars, excellent food places and the best bakery I've ever known in this country. Lots of tiny terraced houses. The place keeps a nice community vibe and they are really good at clubbing together to protect the place against the Tesco Locals and stuff like that - they are even opening a Co-Op housing development soon where the tenants are the joint owners, really cool stuff.

So it can be done, but I suppose in the end money talks and London attracts the money for this sort of thing more so than a hipster suburb of Brum. 

Supportact

Thanks @thecolourbox that's actually quite encouraging. 

p90fool

@thecolourbox are you anywhere near where the Breedon Bar was? If so it sounds like Stirchley has changed a fair bit in the last 25 years!

thecolourbox

p90fool said:

@thecolourbox are you anywhere near where the Breedon Bar was? If so it sounds like Stirchley has changed a fair bit in the last 25 years!

Ironically having just Googled what that was, it does appear that the Breedon Bar has been replaced by flats to be fair which does fly in the face of what I've said, however - i'm not sure they really class as gentrification as such as they are pretty vile. I think it was early 00's when that happened. The new music venue is actually just over the road from there, down by the cut that the bridge goes over there.

I'm not sure how much it has changed visually to be fair, I'm in some local history groups on Facebook (I live in Bournville so plenty of history interest there, Stirchley occasionally gets mentioned as the kind of rough-edged second cousin being next door) and a lot of the old photos of the Pershore Road from the early 20th century basically look the same as it does now. But I suppose the hip and happening thing has really started over the last 10-15 years. It was starting while I was at uni which was mid 00s I guess

EricTheWeary

Ooh I remember the Breedon Bar. Not quite sure who I saw there but they had carpet with the Breedon Bar logo printed on it which impressed me quite a lot. Yes, knocked down many years ago.
I think I probably last went through Stirchley visiting Sarehol Mill for a Middle Earth day. 

But, yes, moving to live by a pub and complaining that you live by a pub always seems an odd move. 

newi123

We played in Glos on Sat. It was the first gig in a long time where I parked the car and though `I wonder if it`ll have all it`s wheels when I come back`. It did, but suffice to say gentrification has not reached Glos yet.