There is Spirit in Broadway...

That is in the Broadway Market, Hackney, London. I went to the market today first time in more than a year. Every shop had little posters on the window collecting money for Spirit. Talking to a rather earnest man (kind of cute but with eyebrow dandruff) carrying a collection bucket, I learnt that Spirit is the old man who runs one of the convenience stores on the same street as the market. He is forced out of his shop and flat upstairs by the landlord. The money was collected to make up half the £3000 the court ordered him to pay by Feb 3rd to support his appeal. Why was he forced out? The man went on about how bad the rich landlord was and that they suspected he lived in Saudi Arabia (God forbid not a local!) but had to admit (with the shadow of a smile) that Spirit had not been paying his rent for some time!

It seems this little omission by Spirit doesn't matter for his supporters, who are also occupying a cafe down the market the owner of which wanted to sell. 'Pasta not flats' the supporters protest on the cover of 'The Eel', the Broadway Fanzine. Their protest is beyond the shop and the cafe and for keeping the market as is against development of flats for yuppies.

Broadway Market is on every Saturday. It has farmers' market, fluffy baby clothes, expensive cheeses (but admitedly delicious), bits of art etc. etc. Regular visitors and the traders do clearly think that they have a nice little community. And on cold but sunny winter days like today, it is a welcomed change from the surrounding areas.

Reading through The Eel, I saw there is also a campaign against the development of nearby Dalston (developments for better transport links). I'll put a link to that site after posting this - to be fair their campaign is not so much against the developments but a plea to have full consultation about them.

All good but makes me think...why do these people care? Why try preserve Dalston, which does have a sense of some sort of community in parts, but is a truly ugly, deprived and depressing place. Perhaps development will make it better....I don't know. Or maybe what development will do is not as important as the exercise of social consciousness - that great British intellectual tradition practiced mostly by people who have more than sufficient means of living. Do the campaigners have the support of everyone in the community (including those who wish they could afford to live somewhere else or in a better developed Dalston and Hackney)?

I don't know...but I gave some money towards the Spirit campaign...partly because I couldn't say no to that earnest man but mainly because Spirit looks like a charming man and a true character. I hope he sticks around for years to come, playing his reggae music and being generally jovial.