At the turn of the new Millennium Hackney was topping the crime rates and poverty statistics in London. The introduction of large development plans for the 2012 London Olympics has caused a tremendous impact on the borough, which has been subject to intensive physical alteration over the past 5 years. In this paper I undertake a critical analysis of the ongoing development with particular focus on how the visual and socio-cultural environment changes as a consequence of this process. The main target of this investigation is Clapton Road - the ‘Murder Mile’ - which is frequently described as the most dangerous and hostile route in Hackney. My study explores the confrontational aspects of gentrification and highlights the contradictions that occur when concepts like sustainability and crime reduction initiatives hit urban spaces like Clapton Road.       

According to official statistics crime-rates are now dropping significantly in Hackney and council-driven projects have put recycling and other environmental-friendly initiatives on the local agenda. In this paper, however, I argue that there is reason to question the use of ‘sustainability’ as a tag for the Hackney development schemes. I build on Tony Ward’s writings on critical sustainability, particularly his theories on power disparities at work in local development partnerships. The operations at play in Hackney are often presented as local and community-based but the rhetoric strategy of the transformation campaign cannot disguise the fact that local residents are being submitted to various forms of social control. This is especially noticeable in Clapton Road where surveillance and security enforcement dominate street life in both visual and socio-cultural terms. To unravel the underlying forces that govern this operation I draw on David Harvey’s theory of uneven geographical development, which I propose as a valuable perspective for current understanding and future insights on Clapton Road and similar cases.