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MY NEIGHBOURHOOD.

INTRODUCTION

The idea of neighbourhood has suddenly become popular again amongst

politicians and social policy makers. Yet in all the realms of strategic

documents, policy reports and research papers there is a singular lack of

definition on exactly what constitutes a neighbourhood in respect of its

geographical area, its population size, or physical and social characteristics.

The point is illustrated perfectly by the National Strategy for Neighbourhood

Renewal Action Plan:

‘There is no exact definition of what makes a neighbourhood. Local

perceptions of neighbourhoods may be defined by natural dividing

lines such as roads, changes housing design or tenure, or the sense of

community generated around centres such as schools, shops or

transport links. Neighbourhoods vary in size but tend to be made up

of several thousand people. Many are dominated by local authority or

housing association property, but others have a higher proportion of

privately-owned housing’.

Professor Anne Power of the London School of Economics has suggested that

‘a recognisable neighbourhood is rarely more than 5,000 households, and

often much smaller with around 1,000 – 2,000 households, up to 6,000 people.

Her American counterpart, William Julius Wilson, in his study of urban ethnic

neighbourhoods in Chicago, chose four neighbourhoods ranging in size from

12,000 to 91,000 people. The scale of this difference, the lack of specificity,

leads to much confusion.

The existence of neighbourhood is easily assumed and only rarely properly

justified. If neighbourhood is simply synonymous with a locality in which

people live, than as a concept it is pretty banal. Not all residential

neighbourhoods can or indeed should be described as neighbourhoods.

Meaning is only given to neighbourhood by its residents: the proportion of

local people who have a common sense of spatial identification, can arrive at

some consensus about its geographical boundaries, and have some degree of

contact and interaction with another. This fairly simple proposition, which is

that neighbourhoods should be defined by the people who live in them,

generally seems to be ignored.

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Around six months ago, I led a discussion between officers in the London

Borough of Hackney’s Research Team. After a long and largely fruitless

debate about how we could best conceptualise neighbourhood within the

local authority setting, I asked the group to consider what neighbourhood

meant to them in their personal lives. Three out of the six people present said

that they did not feel part of a neighbourhood in the areas of London where

they lived; two went further to suggest that perhaps the idea of

neighbourhood was outmoded in the modern world. Although hardly a

representative sample, half of our group had no direct experience of

neighbourhood and one third had no belief in neighbourhood.

As local authority officers, if we are not sure about what a neighbourhood is, if

it has no direct personal relevance or resonance, then this creates a real

problem for social policy, and the planning and delivery of public services.

Moreover, if neighbourhood does not matter to us, then it is difficult to see

how we can understand why and how it matters to local people. The

consequence is that we a perhaps too prone to invent neighbourhoods where

none exist, purely as a response to national political imperatives and for

bureaucratic convenience. Neighbourhood is based upon administrative

fictions rather than social realities. Yet the latest Hackney Residents Survey

shows that local residents do have a deep and abiding affinity with place.

I have lived and worked in Hackney for around twenty years. For much of that

time I have been heavily involved in local community activities in either a

voluntary or professional capacity. As a regeneration consultant, I have been

engaged in many different community projects in England. My personal and

professional experience is that neighbourhood plays a prominent role in many

people’s lives. Indeed, my own neighbourhood, Stoke Newington (incidentally

I belong officially to a different neighbourhood1), matters a lot to me. I enjoy

living in the area; I am interested in its past; and I concerned about its future.

Like most other residents, I was neither borne nor bred here, but over time, as

I have put down roots in the community, I have developed a strong

attachment to Stoke Newington and my sense of neighbourhood has matured

and grown stronger.

1The London Borough of Hackney has a system of six neighbourhood committees. The street

in which I live has been assigned to the Upper Clapton Neighbourhood and not to the Stoke

Newington Neighbourhood. There was no consultation with local residents on what

neighbourhood they considered themselves to belong to!

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MY NEIGHBOURHOOD.

As part of wider community consultation work, I have conducted several

neighbourhood mapping exercises as a way of understanding how people

experience place. Although I think that I know my own neighbourhood well,

this is the first time I’ve attempted the exercise myself. It took me a couple of

minutes to complete and the result shown overleaf.

My house is marked by the icon. The red lines are what I consider to be the

boundary of my neighbourhood, and the blue lines are the various ward

boundaries. The red dot represents the dead centre of the neighbourhood.

The neighbourhood has a population of 21,000 people - the size of a small

town. It has an area of 0.77 square miles. The distance from my house to the

furthest boundary is 1.11 miles, or roughly within a twenty minutes walk.

I’ve worked out that I have 25 friends and close acquaintances in the

neighbourhood. Because other friends are scattered more widely across

London, this represents the greatest geographical concentration of my social

relationships. I live with my immediate family (partner and stepson) but none

of my extended family live in the immediate locality - although my brother

and one of my sisters lives in Hackney. It is a pattern fairly typical of a white,

middle-aged and middle-class professional.

CONCEPTIONS OF PLACE:

1. SMALL VILLAGE (Population 0-300)Very small village surrounded by countryside

2. VILLAGE (Population 301-1000)Small village surrounded by countryside

3. LARGE VILLAGE (Population 1001 - 2500)Larger rural village surrounded by countryside but lackingthe features associated with a 'market town'

4. URBAN COMMUNITY (Population 2001-10000)A community that forms part of a larger conurbation

5. SMALL COUNTRY TOWN (Population 2501-6000)6. SMALL TOWN (Population 6001-12000)7. TOWN (Population 12001-35000)8. LARGE TOWN (Population 35001-100000)9. CITY (Population 100001-200000)

10. LARGE CITY (Population over 200000)

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I could go on to describe what I value about neighbourhood. The fact that it

has a ‘village character’, its cosmopolitan character, and despite the almost

continual background noise of police sirens, it actually seems quite safe most

of the time. I could also list various complaints. Nevertheless, there are some

important features of my experience that deserve more emphasis as they can

illuminate a wider understanding of neighbourhood and have implications for

social policy.

It is easy for me to define my neighbourhood because my familiarity

with the place derives from an accumulation of countless and repeated

everyday interactions with the local environment and local people.

Much of that everyday interaction is driven by utilitarian purposes –

local shopping and leisure activities. But I also have a fairly large circle

of friends living in the neighbourhood.

Almost all of my personal travel within the neighbourhood is on foot as

it is [relatively) pedestrian friendly and this brings me into more

immediate and direct contact with my physical surroundings.

In the neighbourhood are to be found all the essential public and

private facilities: banks, a post office, library, parks and open spaces,

several primary schools and a secondary school, a police station, public

transport links (a railway station though instead of a tube), and so on.

The neighbourhood has a clearly defined central area, comprising Stoke

Newington High Street and Church Street. This central area has a good

variety and a high density of shops (generally small shops and not the

large multiples), a weekly farmers market, restaurants and bars. The

socio-economic mix of Stoke Newington is such that there is a level of

local disposable income that can support the range of activity.

The built environment, the street pattern and the public realm has

much aesthetic appeal. There is a fair sprinkling of historic buildings

and a high percentage of the housing is of good stock. Many of the

streets are planted with trees. The neighbourhood has three large

open spaces (Clissold Park, Abney Cemetery and Springfield Park) and

other attractive smaller green and play areas.

It is a mixed use, high density neighbourhood, with small businesses

and light industry coexisting more or less successfully with residential

and other land uses.

The neighbourhood has a clear identity because it retains much of its

historical character, a lot of local cultural events (including the annual

Stoke Newington Festival) take place, many active community groups,

and even its own magazine (N16) produced by local people.

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CONCLUSIONS

This paper hopefully demonstrates the usefulness of basing our delineation of

neighbourhood on local knowledge. The determination of place – the

nomenclature of neighbourhood2 – should not be a top-down process but

instead should be driven by local perceptions and experience.

It would be wrong to suggest that one person’s view of what constitutes their

neighbourhood should be taken as definitive. The definition of

neighbourhood should be a collective process, whereby the opinions are

solicited of many more residents to arrive at some form of consensus. The

community view also needs to take account of administrative reality.

Finally, most people operate within a sophisticated hierarchy of meanings of

place and identity. It is possible to have many different physical affiliations

between nationhood and neighbourhood. Thus, I have a sense of attachment

to Hackney, London, and England as well as to Great Britain and Stoke

Newington. Similarly, I have a sense of my European identity and a growing

awareness of what it means to be a global citizen.

Damian Tissier

January 2006

2Nomenclature is defined by the dictionary as a system or mode of naming. It is interesting

to note that the same word was used to describe the administrative strata of the old Soviet

Union, one of the most centralised societies of our times.