Ganesha Lockhart

The Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre was with me throughout my years of uni and after. Similar to the Wood Green shopping centre where my Nan has been going to since moving to the UK, the E&C equivalent is the place that fed me real food throughout uni, served up by some solidly amazing people from incredible places. This is one of the many reasons why this place had such a strong community surrounding it in my opinion. Food that has some resemblance to your family’s cooking is hard to come by anywhere in the world but this place had it all and then some. A renovation would have gone further than a demolition but hey, we live in London and you know the drill. The work Latin Elephant and all the other grassroots groups and activists around the UK are doing are gaining traction. Hopefully one day we’ll see more community-based consultation so that gentrification can work for those that are there and those are coming.