Protecting the places that make Elephant and Castle: our response to the London Plan
What is the London Plan? It is the Mayor’s long-term plan for how London grows: where new homes, offices and tall buildings go, and what must be protected. Every council’s planning decisions have to follow it. This summer the Mayor published a new draft, and the public consultation closed on 15 October.
Why it matters to us. Elephant and Castle is at the heart of the draft Plan. It is an “Opportunity Area” planned for 5 000 new homes, a location for buildings over 100 metres tall, and on the route of the Bakerloo Line extension. We have already lived through this kind of regeneration. When the Shopping Centre closed in 2020, around 130 small businesses were affected, most of them run by migrants. We know what these policies mean on the ground.
What we said. Latin Elephant sent a detailed response covering every chapter of the Plan. We also supported the joint response of Protect Our Places (POP), the coalition of campaigns we bring together. Our main message is that everyday markets and migrant businesses are social and cultural infrastructure, not “surplus floorspace”.
We asked the Mayor to:
Protect markets at least as strongly as the Plan already protects pubs and cultural venues.
Make developers give displaced traders space back in new buildings, at affordable rents and with a right to return, instead of just “relocation options”.
Change the Plan’s vision for Elephant and Castle from simply “recognising” our Latin American community to “retaining and supporting” it.
Recognise our living heritage: our trades, food, music and languages.
Make consultation meaningful, with information in community languages and traders involved from the start.