What is a hipster? Look at this fucking hipster...

If you have to ask then the chances are you've already missed it.

what's that supposed to mean?! my question was more than a bit tongue-in-cheek.
So was my answer...

The concept that a place is cool is fucking stupid. It's the people that make the party and if you have the right people the area doesn't matter for shit.

It's estate agents that harp on about 'cool areas'. I lived the top of Brixton Hill, behind the prison for a couple of years - full of estate kids arsing about, crack'eads, hookers etc. The council cleaned the area up a bit - CCTV, lick of paint on a few lamposts etc, the someone opened a deli on New Park Rd. My mate called out Foxtons to value our flat we were in at the time - he was trying to sell the area as 'Abbeville Village East', cos Abbeville Rd is 5mins down the road - it's Brixton you cunt, always will be!I think the next 'cool & trendy' area over the next few years could well be New Cross, Peckham, Deptford, seriously - especially as the new crossrail is almost finished. You watch all the uni types and city boys all start moving in and the house prices start going up. One gastropub popping up and that'll be it!

http://vimeo.com/4182424

It hurts me to know this is real...

i think you're right about deptford etc btw pistanator.

god, that is bad isn't it!

arrrggghhhhh, dont say stuff like that - really wanna hear it but i've got no speakers.

visually it looks sooo good.

the dude on the right - i love how he looks like he's being forced to do it by his mum.

yeah maybe, until you find out that he's actually beatboxing! incredibly badly mind.

so if hoxton and shoreditch are over, then where is the cutting edge now? hang on, i'll get my pad and pen... ;)

SE18. We even have a ferry.

Yeah, a lot of my mates lived 'round there in the late 90s, loads of thieves, artists and musicians, great place... Same thing happened to Notting Hill in the late 80s, I moved out when TV execs started moving in and Transvision Vamp and their gang of puffa-jacketed mongs took over my local... I used to love W11...

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It isn't about cool, it's about community and energy, innit? I love hustle and bustle and mixing with people from all over the world, it's how I was brought up so where I feel most comfortable... Wandering around Brixton Market getting my shopping on Saturday morning is one of my favourite things to do in the week, one moment you're in Ghana, then in you're in Kingston, then Bogota, then Lisbon... It's fucking awesome... Problem comes when you realise you've stumbled into a pocket of fucking Clapham that's slipped in the back door... I grew up on council estates in Pimlico where there was a huge immigrant community, moving to Chelsea in the early 90s was like going to Hell for me... A very safe, pleasant Hell, but Hell nonetheless...
Hipsters move in, estate agents clock it, area gets gentrified, all the good people get priced out, area ruined... What Graham said really...
@ Graham: Might be up for some drinks if I've finished my antibiotics... :

arrrggghhhhh, dont say stuff like that - really wanna hear it but i've got no speakers.

You really don't.

At one point the beat boxer starts grunting like a constipated Rottweiller and at another the "rapper" is going on about Dolce & Gabana.

Mainstream rappers namechecking their own designer labels pretty much stabbed hiphop to death and renamed the twitching corpse R&B. Namechecking someone elses designer labels is pretty much happy-slapping the corpse in the pursuit of jeuvenile glory. The biggest victim is always the viewer.

^^Did you grow up on The Churchill?

^^Did you grow up on The Churchill?

Ebury Bridge then moved to Page Street... Ebury Bridge was awesome! :]

Hipsters move in, estate agents clock it, area gets gentrified, all the good people get priced out, area ruined.

spot on. but is it cyclical, or will these places remain gentrified indefinitely? sorry to be pushing this so much, it's just that i find the subject really interesting.

Ebury Bridge then moved to Page Street... Ebury Bridge was awesome! :]

Seriously changed round there now - think they cal it Lower Belgravia these days! Still some of the best ol school Italian Delis in Pimlico though

ebury bridge est has just a had a brand new 5 side pitch put in, floodlit sothe kids after dark get coaching and keep em out of trouble. A mate at work lived in the peabody block as his missis is a nurse, he enjoyed his time there.

spot on. but is it cyclical, or will these places remain gentrified indefinitely? sorry to be pushing this so much, it's just that i find the subject really interesting.

Well if something has really changed in the area like a new set of offices near hence changing the skill set of the people able to live in that area (places now connected to C.W such as Deptford and the DLR ticks both these boxes) or a new transport link than yes the area will permanently change in some way. If not it may just be a temporary change unless the area they have moved from has experienced the change in transport / employment area stated in the first sentence. Hackney I would say satisfies this criteria.

I think there can be one degree of separation but two and the link becomes a bit weak.

I was born and raised in Fulham - predominantly and Irish roman catholic area when i were young with a good community spirit - the road i grew up on was great, local booby lived next door who was a proper Dickson of dock green, who turned a blind eye to the odd discretion and knew a slap round the ear was more effective than an asbo, had all sorts living in the street, and anything you needed done, from a new gate mad by the ironmonger 4 doors down, a new kitchen from the chippie on the other side of the road and much more beside on your doorstep. Now its all 30 year old city/law/media with 4.2 children who dont even know thier neigbours and non of my generation who i kicked a ball about with in Bishops park can afford to stay there

Around the turn of the century Munster Road became Munster Village - the irony was that in the eightiesand early nineties munster road had 2 proper green grocers, a butcher, baker etc etc like a proper village, whereas now its got a budgens and some shit wine bars!

Progess ehh

local booby, tee hee...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upvweQDrd5c

I miss the old London too..

Back in my day.. when a whatsit? a pint? used to cost 1 pound? wtf is a pound? you weigh your money?

hippy's on the blob an' all...

My first pint cost 13p.

In those days, you could rob a bank, have a chip supper and still have change for an Evening News.

Most of those pics are in NYC/Brooklyn right? Could easily be Shoreditch and Hoxton.
Actually, saying that I was in Hoxton the other Saturday night and it was full of Northerners that have read about the place 10 years too late

Hahaha. Yes. Shoreditch is really square now. Definitely OVER.

friday night it's full of twunts from chelmsford drinking in the hip and edgy part of town before they get the last vomit comet back from liverpool street.

Saturday night its full of overweight hen night parties from newcastle who've taken a coach trip down to london and stag parties from kent. Mostly they stand on old street asking for directions to hoxton square.

great place sunday - wednesday though.

oh, and hipsters = comedy gold. we should do this in London.

oh, and hipsters = comedy gold. we should do this in London.

+1

I particularly liked the picture of the more mature hipster. Gives hope to us aging wannabes.

vomit comet

i just did a big lol.