All Categories
    Filters
    Preferences
    Search

    Alpha City: How London Was Captured by the Super-Rich

    £15.29
    £16.99
    Price-Match is available in-store for recommended titles in CCCU module handbooks
    ISBN: 9781788737975
    Products specifications
    Attribute nameAttribute value
    AuthorAtkinson, Rowland
    Pub Date16/06/2020
    BindingHardback
    Pages256
    Publisher: Verso Books
    Ship to
    *
    *
    Shipping Method
    Name
    Estimated Delivery
    Price
    No shipping options
    Availability: Available for despatch from the bookshop in 48 hours
    How London was bought and sold by the Super-Rich, and what it means for the rest of us

    Who owns London? In recent decades, it has fallen into the hands of the super-rich. It is today the essential 'World City' for High-Net-Worth Individuals and Ultra-High-Net-Worth Individuals. Compared to New York or Tokyo, the two cities that bear the closest comparison, it has the largest number of wealthy people per head of population. Taken as a whole, London is the epicentre of the world's finance markets, an elite cultural hub, and a place to hide one's wealth.

    Rowland Atkinson presents a history of the property boom economy, going back to the end of Empire. It tells the story of eager developers, sovereign wealth and grasping politicians, all paving the way for the wealthy colonisation of the cityscape. The consequences of this transformation of the capital for capital is the brutal expulsion of the urban poor, austerity, cuts, demolitions, and a catalogue of social injustices. This Faustian pact has resulted in the sale and destruction of public assets, while the rich turn a blind eye toward criminal money laundering to feather their own nests.

    Alpha City moves from gated communities and the mega-houses of the super-rich to the disturbing rise of evictions and displacements from the city. It shows how the consequences of widening inequality have an impact on the urban landscape.