Geography Fieldwork looking at the Gentrification of Brighton.

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Geography Fieldwork looking at the Gentrification of Brighton

Introduction:

Maps:

National Location:

General map of the whole of Brighton and Hove:

Seven Dials Road Map:

 

Brighton began as a small fishing village. The town changed from a small fishing and farming village when it was claimed by Dr Richard Russell to have an amazing sea-water cure. Almost overnight it became the fashionable weekend and holiday resort of London’s high society. When George, Prince of Wales at that time, decided to make his home there, Brighton's popularity soared. The town underwent an amazing transformation and many local people capitalised on this and made money. Therefore, the majority of development of the area was in Regency times, which explains the majority of housing having Victorian and Edwardian architecture (Victorian and Edwardian terraces). This was in the early 19th and late 18th century. Brighton’s current population is about 260,000. After its boom in the early 19th century, the area declined significantly and until recently (30 years ago) it was in need of much development and renovation. The study area is around OS grid reference 530735,104797.

Aims:

  • The overall aim is to investigate the process of gentrification and to look at its impact on Brighton and especially Seven Dials.
  • To see whether building and environmental quality changes on different roads of Seven Dials and to subsequently explain why any differences occur.
  • To look at a good example of gentrification as it is going on at one period of time.
  • To see whether the shops and services have changed since 1947.
  • To see what the most important factors were that led to people moving into this area of Brighton.

Hypotheses:

  • The level of gentrification will be directly proportional to the distance from the station.
  • Services and shops will change as the type of people who live there change.
  • Gentrification, although quite progressed in Seven Dials will still not be complete.
  • The most expensive rental rates will be near to the station, and the most expensive house prices will be further away from the station up to a certain point.

Before you can look at gentrification, you must know what the process of gentrification is and how it occurs.

The Process:

Definition: the process by which some run-down areas of cities become transformed when middle and high-class professionals move in. It is another way of describing a way of improving the inner city, but cannot be planned. It occurs when market forces and changing fashions affect people.

It occurs in several important stages everywhere:

  1. A ‘pioneer group’ moves in first. These people are low income professionals and they move into an area for cheap house prices. As in Seven Dials, house renovation was also needed which these people could afford. They tend to be young and although they have no children, want to be near the city centre for improved access to their jobs.
  2. This group will start to improve the environmental and building quality because they want to live in an attractive area. Group specific services started to flourish in Seven Dials (e.g. wine bars, delicatessens) because there was a threshold population for business to be profitable in a once ailing and depopulating area.
  3. The area subsequently becomes fashionable and now attracts the higher socio-economic groups and the high income bracket professionals, like executives and their families. Large plots of derelict land are also bought by developers and blocks of flats. This increases the chances of population increase because there is free housing and more shops and services can grow. The rate at which housing is bought and improved also increases.
  4. The higher socio-economic group who are well educated and are powerful, create a pressure group which pressurises the local authorities to improve council services. Better policing, street cleaning and better upkeep are the most frequently requested things.  
  5. Now the area has been completely transformed from a low-income area, to one which is trendy, with good services, and above all expensive.
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Now we have seen how it occurs, it is necessary to know why it occurs so that it is possible to understand why Seven Dials has gentrified to a greater extent than other areas of Brighton with higher multiple deprivation score:

Why gentrification is more likely to occur in an area:

1)  Proximity to high status area. This is because when people move to an area, they want to live in a nice attractive area. However, since most people are moving to the area to escape high housing prices in other areas, it ...

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