{"id":190859,"date":"2021-06-04T12:23:42","date_gmt":"2021-06-04T12:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/?p=1438139"},"modified":"2021-06-04T12:23:42","modified_gmt":"2021-06-04T12:23:42","slug":"londons-luxurious-sky-pool-is-peak-gentrification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/06\/04\/londons-luxurious-sky-pool-is-peak-gentrification\/","title":{"rendered":"London\u2019s luxurious \u2018Sky Pool\u2019 is peak gentrification"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 1 June, the BBC<\/a><\/em> shared a video of swimmers enjoying London’s new ‘Sky Pool’, which is “believed to be the world\u2019s first transparent pool built between two skyscrapers”. People soon took to Twitter to highlight the entrenched inequalities that the opulent architectural feature represents. Indeed, it’s situated at the heart of a city in which an estimated 170,068<\/a> people are homeless and over 600,000<\/a> children live in poverty.<\/p>\n

London’s widening class divide<\/h5>\n

The Sky Pool<\/a> is situated in\u00a0Embassy Gardens, a housing development near the new US Embassy. The development is part of the \u00a33bn<\/a> Nine Elms regeneration zone<\/a>, a riverside development which covers large areas of land from Vauxhall to Battersea in the south-west London boroughs\u00a0of Lambeth and Wandsworth.\u00a0Highlighting the inequality that persists in what has been\u00a0dubbed<\/a> an “opportunity area”, Labour councillor Maurice McIeod tweeted:<\/p>\n

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This is in my ward…in which more than half of children officially live in poverty. Just saying. https:\/\/t.co\/RQGVwBu9mt<\/a><\/p>\n

— Maurice Mcleod (he\/him) (@mowords) June 1, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n