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@spindrift
Twenty years ago Upper Street in Islington was a complete toilet. You have to be brave to be the first person to open a deli of coffee bar or wine bar in down-at-heel areas. It's definitely changing, The City is creeping north and east down Bethnal Green Road. Shoreditch is passe now, you get Essex hen nights down there now. Take The Sun Inn on Bethnal Green Road. Used to be grim and full of mayhem and violence, I got accused of being a copper by a chap snorting in the toilets. It was taken over, refurbished, and now does a great trade with east London trendies, plinky plonky jazz playing, the day's papers on the bar. They banned over thirty people the first month then it settled down. Happened in Leytonstone when the Red Lion was taken over and completely redeveloped by Antic, a chain who specialise in up-and-coming area:
http://eastlondondrinker.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/red-lion-leytonstone/
I'm not saying there isn't a long way to go, any foreign visitor who comes out of Stratford station and turns left instead of right is in for a shock, but I can see the whole E15, E10 and E11 areas changing radically post-games.
The ongoing plans are enormous, the largest project within the M25:
http://www.newham.gov.uk/informationforbusinesses/regenerationprojects/stratfordcity.htm