Description
Book SynopsisBetween the slum clearances of the early twentieth century and debates about the post-Olympic city, the drive to 'regenerate' London has intensified. Yet today, with a focus on increasing land values, regeneration schemes purporting to foster diverse and creative new neighbourhoods typically displace precisely the qualities, activities and communities they claim to support. In Remaking London Ben Campkin provides a lucid and stimulating historical account of urban regeneration, exploring how decline and renewal have been imagined and realised at different scales. Focussing on present-day regeneration areas that have been key to the capital's modern identity, Campkin explores how these places have been stigmatised through identification with material degradation, and spatial and social disorder. Drawing on diverse sources - including journalism, photography, cinema, theatre, architectural design, advertising and television - he illuminates how ideas of decline drive urban change. Richly illustrated and engagingly written, Remaking London is both a compelling account of contested sites from the capital's recent history and a powerful critique of the contradictions of contemporary regeneration.
Trade Review'An important and much needed corrective, full of fascinating insights, which exposes the myths of regeneration' - Anna Minton, author of Ground Control: Fear and Happiness in the Twenty-First-Century City 'Thoughtful and timely - an invaluable text'-Building Design 'a skillful historical account of the intertwined aesthetic, moral, social, and political projects that have been pursued in the name of regeneration - a crucial intervention into contemporary debates about urbanism' -LSE Review of Books 'Beautifully written, Remaking London provides a powerful critique of the contradictions of contemporary schemes, refreshingly 'un-academic' in tone, yet carefully researched'-Urban Times 'a beautifully crafted book and a jolly good read'-The Geographical
Table of ContentsContents List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgements xi Introduction 1 1. Slum Spectacle 19 2. Life in the Ruins 37 3. Regeneration ad nauseam 57 4. Sink Estate Spectacle 77 5. Crisis and Creativity 105 6. Ornament from Grime 127 7. Burial and Bioremediation 149 Conclusion 163 Notes 169 Bibliography 215 Index 237
