Renewal or Gentrification? London Borough Grapples With a Revamp<br />The situation — with uncomfortable parallels to Grenfell Tower, the public housing block<br />that was consumed by fire last June and that lay close to multimillion-pound homes — offers a window into the challenges facing London, a dynamic city with a strong economy, but one with a housing shortfall and which many residents can no longer afford.<br />LONDON — Victoria Alvarez is a ball of energy, darting around the Seven Sisters Indoor Market in north London.<br />“This is why this market is such an important part of the community.”<br />Now, she says Seven Sisters Indoor Market — the biggest Latin American market in England, by its<br />estimation — is under threat, caught in one of London’s largest ever redevelopment programs.<br />It is centered on High Road, a three-mile stretch that is home to shops like halal butchers<br />and Afro-Caribbean hairdressers, as well as small cafes, restaurants and markets like the one where Ms. Alvarez works.<br />“The scale of the challenge is very big.”<br />The market’s traders — largely Colombian, but also from Peru, Ecuador, Brazil<br />and parts of Africa — will be moved across the street in 2020 while the market is being upgraded.<br />Tottenham is also one of London’s most deprived districts, and the local council argues that it is in dire need of renewal.<br />People who live on the west side of Haringey, the council of which Tottenham is a part, live about nine years longer than those in the east.
