Fear and loathing in north London: Experiencing estate regeneration as psychosocial degeneration

Abstract

This article analyses residents’ emotional responses to the regeneration – involving demolition and rebuilding – of West Hendon council housing estate in north London. Based on ethnographic research, the article outlines what living on the estate meant for its working-class residents in terms of providing ontological security and place belonging prior to regeneration. The reality of regeneration for residents involved multiple layers of physical, social, symbolic and psychosocial ‘degeneration’. The article’s focus is psychosocial degeneration, which is illustrated through three emotional dimensions: frustration, anger and betrayal arising from broken promises; stress resulting from living near a building site; and displacement anxiety regarding the uncertainties of where and when they would be relocated. The article highlights how residents are emotionally scarred by the protracted, opaque, ever-changing regeneration process. The reality of regeneration/degeneration for residents – involving state-led gentrification – is at stark variance to the official narrative that regeneration entails a smooth, unidirectional trajectory of improving homes and communities.