‘The secret garden’: Artists, bohemia and gentrification in the Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

Abstract

Research has pointed to the importance of artists in the early stages of gentrification; however, few studies have examined specifically the meaning of gentrification and place-change from the perspective of artists themselves, and few studies have investigated the role of ‘creative city’ policies as unintended drivers of gentrification processes. This study generates insights into artists’ own views of gentrification processes within the gentrifying bohemia of the Ouseburn Valley in Newcastle upon Tyne in the North East of England. We stress that gentrification in this area cannot solely be understood as a process of displacement, but is also clearly linked to the growth of modes of regulation and commercialisation within social space. Increasing regulation, brought about by greater local state focus on ‘creative districts’, has impacted the Valley. Alongside this, projects of property development as well as a general growth in the popularity of the Valley as a nightlife consumption district and area of production for commercially-orientated creative class workers have challenged artists’ values of the area as a ‘secret garden’ where romantically inflected values of self-expression, autonomy, spontaneity and non-instrumental artist cooperation can be found.

Progress of Gentrification Research in China: A Bibliometric Review

“…These facts prove that countries in both global north and south have been affected by gentrification, exhibiting a global trend of this phenomenon [12]. It has become a global buzzword in the fields of urban geography, urban planning and urban society [13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. At present, the content of gentrification has been enriched as its phenomena appearing in different forms and diverse processes around the world [20], with the new concepts like "rural gentrification", "new-build gentrification", "super-gentrification", "commercial gentrification", "tourism gentrification", and "studentification" [21][22][23][24][25][26][27], going beyond the initial meaning of classic gentrification [1].…”

Young Pioneers, Vitality, and Commercial Gentrification in Mudan Street, Changchun, China

“…Pioneers in the initial stage of gentrification have caught the attention of scholars [9,[30][31][32], who generally believe that such gentrifiers often possessed high cultural but low economic capital, while widely accepting the socio-demographic concept of the new middle class to refer to young people with higher education, upward mobility, and preferences for cultural consumption and expressions of good taste [9]. In the beginning, young artists with low incomes had concentrated themselves in the older inner cities mainly for the affordable rents, then gradually endowed new symbolisms into the old neighborhoods by renovating old buildings, producing countercultures, etc.…”

“…Scholars have expressed sympathy for the leaving of these artists and other pioneers [34,45,46]. Furthermore, the loss of authenticity has been criticized because avant-garde young people and artists often rejected spaces colonized by commercialization and entrepreneurialism [10,32,47].…”

“…Additionally, the street has always been a residential area for government employees and university scholars, as well as always had a certain cultural, leisurely, and comfortable living atmosphere. All these qualities catered to the young pioneers seeking spiritual independence, resisting the mainstream business culture, and trying to build their own utopias in relatively quiet corners [32,54].…”

Geographies of corporate philanthropy: The Northern Rock Foundation

“…The role of the Foundation was supportive rather than leading; it was drawn in to high profile regional schemes that could benefit from its rapidly growing income (Robinson, 2015). Momentum had already been established by the partnership of (Miles, 2005;Whiting and Hannam, 2016;Pasquinelli, 2014). This coincided with approximately £18m in donations by the Northern Rock Foundation through its Aspiration and Culture and Heritage programmes and £11.5m through the Capital and Better Buildings programmes and exceptional capital investments in culture and heritage venues (TABLE 3).…”