In 2010 the job centre in Deptford, the area of London i used to live, was closed due to government cut backs.
Though campaigners fought to save it, the building has now been bought privately and run as a bar, but has caused recent controversy by naming it ‘The Job Centre’.
Both critics and local residents have been angered by this who see this as part of a wider trend of gentrification in the area as those from a higher socio-economic move to this part of the city.
The term ‘Ironic Gentrification’ has been used by some, citing the way that the provocative naming of the bar mocks the people that once used the space.
Read an article about it in The Guardian here:
urbanculturalstudies 