The Dalston Plan
Abstract
This article (from July 2021) uses the paradigm of sound studies to consider the effect of council-led gentrification on the soundscape of Dalston, a largely migrant neighbourhood located in the East London borough of Hackney.
Hackney Council’s proposed 2023 implementation of its Dalston Plan envisions the ‘regeneration’ of Ridley Road Market, Ashwin Street, and Gillett Square through increasing surveillance infrastructure, formalization of the market, and ‘cleaning up’ street facades – proposals commonly associated with gentrification.
using sound recordings, semi-structured interviews, and ethnographic research to gauge the importance of sound to the local community, and unveil sonic tensions in Dalston under increasing spatial dispossession of existing residents through council-led gentrification.
Analysis focuses on highlighting sound as a tool in community building, resistance to ongoing gentrification through claiming sonic ‘right to the city’, and the gendered nature of those given agency to make noise in contestation to the Dalston Plan, reinforcing the ‘sonic order’ of urban public space. By underlining the politics of soundscapes, this study offers new ways to study gentrification and highlights the important geographies of sound and music in studies of urban change and displacement.