Mick Hartley

My regular Sunday morning trip through Shoreditch…

to Spitalfields market. Not quite back yet to full functioning after its recent renovation, but it's clear already that most of its vitality's been lost in the process of gentrification. The stalls aren't so different – though there are less food stalls (thankfully still the Flour Power City Bakery with their wonderful Hoxton Rye Levain) – but they've got rid of all the cheap eats places where you could get a Thai or Indian or Mexican for £4 or so and scoff it at the fairly basic sets of tables spread around the place. Now it's all upmarket tapas bars and creperies where you're going to pay about three or four times as much, and outside of Giraffe, which always seems to be doing well, I can't see many of them surviving in this economic climate. Still, the view down Brushfield Street to Christ Church, Spitalfields is the same:

No sign of gentrification across Commercial Street by Brick Lane, though:

"Come on now, let's see yer cash. Silly prices 'ere today. It's all got to go. Oy, you takin' the photos – come over 'ere and spend some money. It's not a free show y'know. There's a recession on if you 'adn't 'eard."