What is the London equivalent of Wicker Park in Chicago

April 8, 2013 2:26 PM

What is the London equivalent of Wicker Park in Chicago?
posted by BWA to Society & Culture (13 answers total)

When I was in London (two months in 2010), the answer was Shoreditch.

However, Wicker Park today is not the same as Wicker Park in 2010, and (in my observation/opinion) Wicker Park today has more in common with Lincoln Park than with the Wicker Park those articles are talking about. I don't know what part of London is the equivalent of that. If you want to kind of ping pong backwards a bit, I'd say that the current Chicago equivalent of Shoreditch is Ukranian Village.
posted by phunniemee at 2:35 PM on April 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

Sounds a lot like Hoxton.

Basically, the Shoreditch/Hoxton/Clerkenwell area has been Hipster Central for generations; the only steady change has been rich hipsters taking over the central bit and budget hipsters being jostled out to the fringes, north and east. Dalston is hipsterfying now, as is Hackney, and Stoke Newington (which was always its own little oasis of funkiness) is being assimilated.
posted by Pallas Athena at 2:45 PM on April 8, 2013

Seconding Shoreditch. Maybe Hackney and Dalson, too? (Keep in mind that I haven't been to London in months, which is serious turnover time in terms of trends.)

Also!
posted by fireandthud at 2:49 PM on April 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Temporal snapshots can a bit of trial in all these comparisons, as noted. Feel my pain.

Basically, I need to give an Englander the sense of the place as still having a lingering old time immigrant base (German/Polish in the case of WP) that has in recent years seen an influx of hipsters and a different ethnic demographic.

This is good, all are welcome.
posted by BWA at 2:54 PM on April 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Basically, I need to give an Englander the sense of the place as still having a lingering old time immigrant base (German/Polish in the case of WP) that has in recent years seen an influx of hipsters and a different ethnic demographic.

Then a better example might be Brick Lane.
posted by vacapinta at 3:00 PM on April 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Mmm... Dalston is a good one then. It's heavily Turkish -- all restaurants are Turkish -- but it's so hip that it's already not hip, totally overrun with partiers from outside London on weekends. The saga of Efe's is illustrative, a rather mundane Turkish snooker hall that became an ironically cool spot and the centre of the scene, and then became a major destination nightclub with lines out the door (still really terrible inside, everyone hated it, yet everyone always went, funny that), and finally lost their liquor license.
posted by PercussivePaul at 3:03 PM on April 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

FYI, Wicker Park in 2010 wasn't Wicker Park in 2005 (when I lived there), for me at least, the big "gentrification event" was when Swank Frank and Filter closed in 2007 and they opened... a bank of America right at the big Damen/Milwaukee/North intersection.

Then again, my wife lived there from 2001-2002, and swore it was completely yuppified by the time I got there.
posted by Oktober at 3:40 PM on April 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

There isn't one - no third-ranked national hipster neighbourhood, at least. If you want people in non-essential eyewear, go to Hoxton. Otherwise, good food trucks are to be had at Spitalfields markets, and you head to Shoreditch for decent coffee shops (run by Australians, of course) if you're in the area. None of which have a non-English ethnic minority. All three together are hard to find, so you need to determine your highest priority, and ask your question again if you're actually looking for a place to live.
posted by goo at 7:23 PM on April 8, 2013

I don't know Wicker Park, but Brixton is a 2nd tier hipster spot in London, behind Hoxton/Shoreditch and Dalston. It's got the food and bars and starting to get the shops. It still has a large non-white community and a large immigrant community. It is highly gentrified in parts, and barely gentrified in others. It has both a proper food market and a farmer's market.
posted by MuffinMan at 11:03 PM on April 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Agreed with muffinman. Brixton sounds a lot like what you're describing. It has a very established ethnic community who are being slowly squeezed out by cool kids looking for the 'next hackney'. My understanding is that Peckham is next.

Confusingly Brixton is also apparently 'London's Harlem'. Don't know where that fits into this, though.
posted by Dorothia at 4:11 AM on April 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

I know a lot of people are suggesting the Shoreditch/Hoxton area, but I think that might be a little off base considering the area is now mostly filled with tourists and less with people who actually live and contribute to the community.

Wicker Park to me sounds a lot more like the Dalston/Hackney Central area. In Dalston/Hackney Central, you've got a very large and very active immigrant community comprised mostly of Turkish/Caribbean/African peoples and most of the shops and businesses around reflect that. You've also got a growing number of interesting independently owned cafes, pop-up bars, pubs, and restaurants owned by hip 20-somethings who live in the area.

Maybe take a look at the different markets in Dalston/Hackney Central/Hackney Downs, to get the best picture. Ridley Road hosts a lot of African and Caribbean stalls, Broadway Market is your standard "hip" market, and Hackney Downs Studios hosts an event every month called Street Feast that's only different types of food trucks.
posted by _superconductor at 4:35 AM on April 9, 2013

My understanding is that Peckham is next.

Camberwell is probably next, as Brixton stretches out and Loughborough Junction gets cleaned up.

Peckham is a mix of unhipterish and unwelcoming South East London social housing on one side and some quite expensive gentrified housing stock around Peckham Rye and the Bellenden Rd area as overflow from the gentrification of Lordship Lane in East Dulwich that attracts families. It definitely is on its way, but it will take a bit longer yet for the younger crowd and it may get bypassed in favour of New Cross.

One of the things that makes Peckham attractive is that it has great links into town either by train or now on the East London line extension. But that is also true for New Cross, which is a lot cheaper and already has a thriving influx of young creative types because of Goldsmiths.
posted by MuffinMan at 6:15 AM on April 9, 2013

Response by poster: Much obliged to all. No best answers only because all are interesting. (Leaving aside the initial reason for asking, now I have things to check out myself next time we make it over, so there's a bonus right there.)
posted by BWA at 7:40 AM on April 9, 2013