This paper examines social mixing at a mixed-tenure neighbourhood in London – a former social housing estate which is undergoing a lengthy radical regeneration process. This process involves rehousing of tenants into newly-built social housing properties, alongside extensive building of large numbers of upmarket flats for sale. The latter has brought about a radically changed neighbourhood demographic involving a far more affluent population, alongside visible signs of gentrification. The research methods include participant observation, a resident survey and semi-structured interviews with residents and officials.

The paper explores social mixing between the established social tenants and the newer residents living in the private housing blocks, and it highlights several reasons why such social mixing is overall extremely limited. First is the way that the social housing blocks are physically separated from the private housing blocks. Second is how the spatial focus of the private residents is often the block itself, a process which is reinforced by social media usage, as well as by use of exclusive gyms and swimming pools. Third are the large class and demographic differences between the social tenants and private residents. Fourth is the different usage of local amenities and public space. Fifth are the very different housing governance regimes in operation. Sixth are inter-personal tensions which exist between the two groups. Rather than social mixing, the dominant socio-spatial configuration at the neighbourhood is one of segregation and parallel lives.
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Speaker bio: Paul Watt is Visiting Professor in the Department of Sociology, London School of Economics and Political Science, and Emeritus Professor in Urban Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. He has published widely on social housing, urban regeneration, communities and neighbourhoods, homelessness, housing activism, gentrification, suburbanisation, and the 2012 London Olympic Games. He is co-editor with Peer Smets of ‘Social Housing and Urban Renewal: A Cross-National Perspective’ (Emerald, 2017), and co-editor with Phil Cohen of ‘London 2012 and the Post-Olympics City: A Hollow Legacy?’ (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). His latest book is ‘Estate Regeneration and Its Discontents: Public Housing, Place and Inequality in London’ (Policy Press, 2021) (policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/estate-regeneration-and-its-discontents)
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