We publish here a letter from Nico Baldion, a Socialist Appeal supporter in London, who writes about the proposals to demolition the Cremorne Estate, a one of the few remaining council estates available to working class families in the otherwise extremely wealthy Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
Dear Socialist Appeal,
I live in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in a small island of the working class in a sea of the bourgeoisie. My council estate was built after 1954 to rehouse the families made homeless in the war. Many residents have lived here since.
Thanks to the labour movement who demanded quality housing for the working class instead of slums, we have lived and worked good lives.
However the rich don’t want workers seen or heard, they don’t like that we live side-by-side and want Kensington and Chelsea and all of central London for themselves and their empty mansions.
It turns out the local Tory Councillor Nick Paget-Brown has suggested TFL build a Crossrail station on our estate with two entrances on the Kings Road and to the east of Cremorne Gardens.
This option sets some challenges, as it could only come forward as part of a larger ‘regeneration’ (clearance) program for the estate, due to the size of the surface level work sites required.
In a leaked council document, Councillor Coleridge’s writes:
“social deprivation in Chelsea is most pronounced between World’s End and the West London Line: there are areas that fall within the 20 percent most deprived parts of the country.”
Councillor Coleridge’s solution, it seems, is to displace the deprived working class and immigrant community that has lived in Cremorne and the surrounding estates for decades, and gentrify the whole area.
They want to take our homes! We will defend them.
We are NOT a poverty statistic to be annihilated via displacement.
See the campaign blog and sign the petition
Please also mark NO West Chelsea question 8https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/crossrail/june-2014/consultation/intro/view
