As a poor welfare state falls short and social housing fades away, the working-class people who have industrialised the nation’s cities are being priced out. In place of these necessities, they’re being promised the class-dividing horrors of ‘regeneration’ – or gentrification, as the process has come to be known. Council estates are demolished in anticipation of a flurry of new money relocating to the area. Wembley Park is a prime example of this. On first glance, one might believe that the revitalised district is a blossoming cultural hub for all. But residents are increasingly disillusioned by a shifting landscape and demographic, as familiar sights are replaced with something unrecognisable and polarising.
Nabil Al-Kinani, a local resident and author of – a radical blueprint and manifesto detailing how inner-city communities can reclaim their neighbourhoods – greets me as I exit the station barriers. He wastes no time exposing the crooked ways gentrification marginalises migrant and working-class communities. “They built Wembley Park around the history of the British empire exhibition in 1924,” he says, pointing at a map that stands in isolation on the side of the walking path. “Why do you think they called it [road approaching Wembley stadium] Lakeside Way? There are no lakes there! But looking at the 1924 map, there
