Trouble in Thamesmead

Dear Londoners — our briefing is coming a little later than normal today. The reason? Earlier today we ran a special dispatch from the far right rally that dominated both the city, and the headlines, over the weekend. One of our reporters was there as fights broke out with police. You can check that out here, or click the link below. But first, we have your regularly scheduled Monday briefing, with all the latest news, food and events.

The day the right took London

A special dispatch from this weekend’s Unite the Kingdom rally

The LondonerPeter Carlyon

We also wanted to note that we were floored by your support for our weekend exposé on how Reform’s first councillor in London is a landlord who’s been fined for running illegal crammed bedsits in Camden — which once housed new Green Party leader Zach Polanski (who even took Shooter to court). Commenter Mohammed said: “This is just the kind of investigative journalism that we need in London and a key reason for subscribing”, while Joseph responded: “Excellent reporting, and happy that we get to contribute to such fine work”. 

Big story: The fight for the future of the Clockwork Orange estate

Topline: A major fight is breaking out over the planned redevelopment of an expansive — and iconic — estate in Thamesmead, with tenants refusing to leave their soon-to-be-demolished homes.

The history: The estates of Thamesmead in south east London were first built in the 1960s, part of a plan by architects from the now-abolished Greater London Council (GLC) to create “the town of tomorrow” that could offer alternative housing to replace dilapidated inner-city homes in London. Its concrete, brutalist architecture has been the backdrop for dozens of films and TV shows, from Channel 4’s Misfits to Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. 

The regeneration: A major regeneration project has been announced for the Lesnes Estate in Thamesmead, led by housing association Peabody, which will see nearly 2,000 new homes built to replace the estate’s roughly 600. But some residents are worried it will price them out of the area. While a small number of regenerated homes will still be available for a social rent, others will be “affordable” rents — a more expensive category whose fees are set at 20% less than the average house price in an area, rather than what can actually be afforded by tenants (so if they happen to be built in wealthy or gentrifying areas, these flats are still eye-wateringly expensive).  

The protests: That dispute has been the cause of increasingly agitated protests at the estate. In August, residents occupied the nearby Lakeside Centre (the estate’s arts centre) in protest over the move. Now some of the 80–100 households who have refused to leave the estate spoke to reporters about why they’re still staying put, as well as life on an estate that increasingly feels like a ghost town. As long-term Rose Asenguah put it: “I don't think that Bexley and Peabody have a right to sell my house, to sell the land without my permission.” 

The secret Whitehall connection: This isn’t a regular dispute. OnLondon recently broke the news that Thamesmead is expected to be announced as one of the government’s next generation ‘New Towns’ — basically underdeveloped places that will become hubs for thousands of new homes and the infrastructure to accompany them. At the core of achieving that vision will, presumably, be pushing through these new regeneration projects. The question is how much of a fight are locals willing to put up. 

Your news briefing

🚌 £5mn is being spent on a new Bakerloop bus route following the planned future route of a Bakerloo line extension, with the money sourced from community levies placed on developers. The bus is part of the new City Hall superloop service — fast travelling buses that skip most stops to cover longer distances — but is no doubt being considered a good way to keep pressure on Westminster over their recent refusal to fund the full tube extension. 

🏘️ Labour super donor Lord Waheed Alli — who you may remember as the figure at the centre of last year’s furore over freebies including designer clothes and glasses being bought for the Prime Minister — evicted a young family from one of his London rental homes and then hiked the rent by £1,000 a month. Read the i’s full exposé here. 

🤖 Elon Musk’s Grok AI bot spent the weekend falsely suggesting that the Metropolitan police falsified footage of violence by far-right protestors at Saturday’s Tommy Robinson march by using footage from a 2020 lockdown protest. While the claim was completely untrue, it was uncritically picked up by a swathe of X users, including Daily Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson.

Quick hits: The brutalist Shoreditch Fire Station has been rejected for listing, opening it up for redevelopment and, alongside Thamesmead and the village of Crews Hill in Enfield, is being considered as another government New Town location.

In case you missed it… 

• After weeks of investigation, we revealed on Saturday how Reform’s first councillor in London is a “rogue landlord” who has been fined thousands of pounds for illegally renting out crammed bedsits in Camden. One of his homes is a 33-person HMO. In a strange turn of events, we later found out one of his former tenants was none other than Zack Polanski, the newly elected Green Party leader, who was part of a group that took Shooter to court.
• Labubus, love letters and Brewdog cans: many insane tributes have been left at Karl Marx's Highgate grave. On Thursday, we chronicled how and why things got so weird, and the man who now looks after the messy collection of tributes.
• On Wednesday, we took you inside the secret workshop on an Elephant and Castle backstreet, where rental e-bikes go to be fixed — and met the secret workforce who keep the city cycling.

Wining and dining

With endless offerings and non-stop openings, we all know that deciding where to eat and drink in the capital can be fraught. We want to make it easy — so every week we’ll give you our insider guide to the city’s best spots. This week, it’s staff writer Andrew’s turn to select.

One perfect meal: I have more respect than I can put into words places that are always and absolutely themselves; undeterred by the waves of London’s insane rents, costs and homogenisation. And nowhere embodies that more than Dapur, a Malaysian cafe near Holborn, that opens exclusively from 11am till 3pm and only on weekdays. The lunch menu is an ever-changing mix of fish, meat and vegetarian dishes. When The Londoner used to work from a co-work around the corner, I would spend mornings fantasising about the comfort of each mouthful of Nasi Lemak.

One perfect drink: There’s been a lot of talk lately about London’s plans to become an al fresco dining paradise. But it’s not like we’re going to morph into Barcelona overnight. So in the meantime, maybe spend a little time visualising how things could be at one of the few spots that is already living the street drinking dream. On an unassuming cobbled square in Battersea, there’s the Spanish bar Vinos y Licores, where — sitting on a rattan bistro chair on the car-free street outside, a pint of Estrella Galicia in hand — you can almost feel like you’re in sunnier climes.

Our favourite reads

Boss of degrading sex-trade ring in Dubai's glamour districts unmasked by BBC — Runako Celina, BBC

If you’ve never heard of the BBC Africa Eye unit, you’re seriously missing out. In the past, the digital-native investigation team has exposed the perpetrators of war crimes in Cameroon and exposed the corruption at the core of a deadly explosion in Lagos. This week, they exposed how a former London bus driver is the head of a sex trafficking ring for wealthy foreign clients in Dubai. 

The crumbling seaside palaces at the centre of Britain’s asylum crisis — Jennifer Williams, FT (£)

Many of you may remember the far-right protests last month over plans to house asylum seekers at a hotel in Canary Wharf. Well, the hotel in question is part of a budget chain — Britannia Hotels — that has increasingly profited from the refugee crisis in the UK. The FT investigated the chain and its elusive octogenarian owner Alexander Langsam, who has been dubbed the “asylum king”, in this longread piece that’s well worth your time.

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To Do List

• The Royal Photographic Society is running a free exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery, showcasing some of the world’s best international photographers. Open until 20 September.
• London’s Open House Festival, where some of the city’s most beautiful (and often private) buildings and homes open their doors to the public, is running until 21 September, and is well worth catching before it ends. 

From the archives

If, as a result of today’s big story, you want to know more about the utopian vision that underpinned the original plans for Thamesmead, watch this original video from the GLC.