If you moved to London a decade ago and wanted to experience fashion, parties and youth culture, it seemed like there was only really one place to head: East London. These days, Shoreditch is an entirely different entity: townie on the one hand, boutique on the other (with the odd flash of its old soul). As the i-D team got together to talk about how we see London now, there were ideas from all over the map: from new fashion studios cropping up in Seven Sisters to the Peckham art scene, from the skate parks of Mile End to Holloway club nights.
London is exciting precisely because it’s always in a wild state of flux. Just as once-vital spaces in Earl’s Court and Kensington Market are now long forgotten, Hackney Wick, Leyton and Walthamstow are taking a new type of city further East. As tunnels are buried across town for Crossrail, look down into the deep dug holes at future stations, we watch as new plazas emerge from the site of bulldozed old buildings. It’s a thrilling sight — a glimpse of our future.
As well as looking at the allure of Europe’s biggest, boomiest city, we talk about the problem of the hidden homeless and the spaces that have shut down — victims of London’s relentless change. And to prove we’re not getting too smug, we take a look at the lessons London could learn from other cities (daytime clubbing, sickness masks and women only carriages being just some). Through a series of photo stories, think pieces and interviews, i-D takes a look at a shifting city, peeking at London past, assessing London present and predicting London future. #iDentifyLondon
FIND out how London’s changing with our series exploring the shifting city.