The Seb & Fiona Blog

I moved to East Dulwich in 1988, at the precipitous age of 11. In those days, depending on where you were standing, the area was either a poor cousin to the dreaming mansions of Dulwich Village, or a rich aunt to the hulking estates of Peckham. But it had a homely charm, and there was a sense of community among our liberal-leaning, baby-boomer parents. They’d take it in turns to heave us forth in the giant tyre swing of our rickety local adventure playground.

Twenty years have passed and I’m living there once more. The parents with 11-year olds have stayed the same age - which is a bit closer to mine now - but the magic spell of gentrification has transformed things. Most of the knackered old boozers have been tamed and turned into gastropubs kitted out to evoke the spirit of knackered old boozers; there are delis, posh kitchen supply shops, organic butchers, wine tasting cafes, ceramics cafes, a Gourmet Burger Kitchen, a branch of The White Stuff and I’m sure that the tyre swing will have been slashed down on health and safety grounds.

It still feels like home though. Gentrification is an easy target for harumphing but sometimes, you know, I like being able to buy a bit of nice cheese and some of those boozers had a genuinely terrifying clientele. And the community? Well you can see for yourself. It’s passionate, active, obsessed with the minutiae of local life, and it’s online: www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk.

It’s fascinating.