With the nervous dawn of shows show as ‘The Only Way Is Dalston’, splinter celling its way onto screens across the country, one wonders when the constant parody of Dalston, Hoxton, Shoreditch and the rest of its East London counterparts will begin to lose its funny and just become another part of the already crowded synergy of stereotypical archetypes such as Chav, Hoody, Skinhead and Islamic extremist, to name but a few.
I moved to London in 2007 and spent three years living in Kingston in Zone 6. Affectionately known as “the leafy undergrowth of London”, Kingston can be found in the southwest, next to Surbiton, Norbiton and New Malden – yep, those places. You’ve heard of them right? What, wait, you haven’t? That’s because they’re relatively normal and modest in their appearance. They have shops, supermarkets, a Topshop and so on, but they do not possess a plethora of boutique shops that specialise in niche-de-la-niche offerings, such as free range, organic spot cream.
I moved closer to the centre of London in 2010, living on Ladbroke Grove, followed by moving to Brick Lane more recently. Ladbroke Grove didn’t particularly fester with ostentatious exteriors but I’m pretty certain it still harboured creative types. The East London scene on the other hand is lauded with baggy jumpers, fat hats and skinnier than thou denim. I admittedly fit somewhere into that mix and yet I still sometimes cringe if I see someone dressed in a way that is so outrageous, that Lady Gaga would probably have to gogo to the bathroomroom and do a Lady Vomvom. Nevertheless, odd fashion doesn’t really frustrate me to the upper echelons. I don’t claim to own this territory purely based on the fact that I utilise some sort of creative capacity in my brain. And yet I don’t flounder myself or think that I am more original than the person in front of me in the queue at the beigal shop. Chances are that you feel the same.
So what does any of this mean? Well, to the residents of the East London scene, I would like to suggest
a call to artistic arms. We need to rid the area of the ‘fake it until you make it’ brand of individual,
the type who tries to dress, act and swag in a particular way that doesn’t really resonate with how
a truly artistic person would. If you are a creative type, be creative, stay creative and continue to be
creative. Don’t let the ignorance of faux artisan types push you out of the E postcode hub. The unnatural direction is that the innovators are pushed elsewhere; in this instance let’s use Dalston as a prime example. The parents of Shoreditch are pushed out by their surrogate children. The parents decide to move to Dalston, only to be followed by the same surrogate children a couple of years later. Those pesky kids thought they could live without their parents, but little did they know. And then what’s next? Do the Dalstonites get pushed further and further up Stoke Newington until they end up in Tottenham?
I’d just like to make it clear that I am not saying that certain individuals do not belong in East London. I just mean it as a general broad stroke that people should drop the act or fear the backlash of being the butt of all ‘scenester’ jokes, ala ‘Being a Dickhead’s Cool’. I truly think there is nothing wrong with a person moving to East London in order to be inspired by the creativity and imagination of the area. I don’t even think there is much wrong with moving to East London for the nightlife. But nobody should move here to be a part of a scene. And here’s my final jab, to those who have moved here for the
scene and then hypocritically choose to complain about the scene, you’re part of the problem, not the solution. This article sits somewhere between the two.
