As inner London becomes supergentrified, it’s suburbs such as this that are left for the likes of you and me
What’s going for it? Ilford’s attraction is not immediate. I rise past it most weeks on the North Circular; you might be in any outer London suburb, Kingston or Kingsbury, Bromley or Barnet. If you squint hard (health and safety warning: not when you’re driving), you could even be in Los Angeles. Maybe. Look, Ilford has its moments. Indeed, as central London becomes supergentrified with artisan chocolate boutiques, suburbs such as Ilford are left for the likes of you and me, with the cosmopolitan diversity we once used to seek in the hubbub of the city. These are today’s boomtowns, filled with young professionals, here not least because of Crossrail – aka the Elizabeth line. Sure, Ilford is fat on chainstores, but look past TK Maxx and Wilko and you’ll find wonderful green pockets such as Valentines Park, ace south Asian grocers and Turkish grills, and ooh, a Percy Ingle. A Percy Ingle always makes a good place great.
The case against It’s not a beauty. It’s as if a giant toddler tipped out its building blocks on to the Essex borders.
May 26, 2017 at 09:03PM
from Tom Dyckhoff
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