Diana Sach once employed over 30 people and catered for hundreds daily from her Latin American restaurant and delicatessen in south London's Elephant and Castle district, famous for its Peruvian empanadas. Now, she looks longingly at the shiny tall buildings that replaced the brightly coloured but shabby shopping centre demolished in 2021. 'I hoped to be part of it. But there has been delay after delay and now I can't see how it will happen for me,' says Sach.
The Elephant Development Opens
The Elephant, which welcomes its first commercial tenant this month—Blank Street Coffee—and where residents are due to move in later this summer, is part of a £500m redevelopment of the south London landmark once renowned for urban deprivation. A modern town square surrounded by tower blocks has replaced the old shopping mall, a brutalist fortress with underground walkways, one of Europe's first large indoor shopping centres when it opened in 1965.
The opening includes about 40 shops, restaurants, bars, a cinema, gym, a new home for the London College of Communication, 55,000 sq ft of offices, and hundreds of flats, all watched over by the former centre's distinctive statue of a pachyderm carrying a tower on its back.
Displaced Traders Feel Betrayed
Sach is not alone in feeling there is no place for her. She says developers Get Living and Southwark council failed to honour promises that her restaurant would find a new home. The 90 displaced Latin American businesses were told there would be adequate temporary accommodation, but only a handful found a new place on a temporary site. For restaurant and cafe owners, the shoe-box spaces within a stack of metal containers proved unviable; many closed due to difficulty finding alternatives, compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Fewer than half of the displaced small businesses are being offered new premises in the neighbourhood. Alongside Blank Street Coffee, tenants include a Marks & Spencer food store, Pret a Manger, Everyman cinema, and DistriAndina, a Latin American supermarket. Only five of the 40 commercial sites are set aside for local businesses at affordable rents, plus 10 small spaces within railway arches. A food market hall with 14 stalls has none specifically for former tenants.
Housing: Mostly Market Rate
Above the shops, there are 485 homes to rent across three towers, including just five at social rent, 45 on London Living Rent (LLR), and 124 at discounted market rent. A future phase will add 116 social rent, 12 LLR, and 37 discounted market rent homes. Get Living says it is 'working closely with Southwark council to finalise the affordable retail strategy, with a clear commitment to ensuring that eligible independent traders from the former Elephant and Castle shopping centre are given first priority when applying for discounted market rent units.'
Expert Warns of 'Patient Zero' Gentrification
Oli Mould, professor at Royal Holloway, University of London, calls the redevelopment 'patient zero of London's gentrification,' creating an 'identikit homogeneous gentrified place' that risks 'destroying the very thing that makes a community thriving and beautiful.' The regeneration has been contentious since the 1990s, with residents fearing their needs would be steamrollered.
Struggling Independents
Even businesses that found space struggle. Dario Lopez, an accountant for Latin American businesses, says most fear leaving despite taking loans to fit out shops. Miko, a Venezuelan restaurant, started as a kiosk in the old centre. Owner Lenin Erazo was offered a lease with zero rent in the first year, rising to £3,000 a month after five years. Now in dispute with a new landlord, who wants to double rent to over £6,000 a month. Lopez says the area is still a building site, with developers failing to increase footfall.
John Batteson, Southwark council's cabinet member, said keeping cultural diversity is a 'cast-iron condition of planning permission' for affordable retail space. Rick de Blaby, outgoing boss of Get Living, acknowledges a 'decade of destruction' and says developers must show it was worthwhile.
Mould suggests local authorities should be wary of what they lose: 'You can address problems without displacing people with multi-billion pound programmes. If you can make a developer out of the community, that's better.' He points to efforts by traders in Brixton to buy their market, which 'might not make as much money short term, but longer term keeps cultural vibrancy.'
