Gentrification comes from the word Gentry (i.e. upper middle class) and the second part of the word links to a process of change – in this case higher income groups moving into a formally low income rented area.

The higher income households then displace lower income residents of a neighbourhood because they bid up rents and change the essential character and flavour of that neighbourhood by attracting new types of shops and restaurants into the area.

Displacement of current residents, physical upgrading of the neighbourhood by individuals and developers of the housing stock change in neighbourhood character reflected in income levels, local services, and possible conflict between new and old residents. It is know as a form of private urban regeneration of the inner city area.

Gentrification can also be the migration of middle and upper-class residents into a deteriorating area which may help to revitalise the area, hence regeneration.

However gentrification impacts on property values and reduces the supply of cheaper or affordable housing, hence social exclusion.

Gentrification examples in London are Islington, Finsbury Park, Brixton and Hackney.

Inner Cities

Term used to describe areas in decline around the old urban core of the city. These areas have lost there old jobs i.e. manufacturing, road haulage, warehousing and docks, and have high levels of unemployment. This is due to the modernisation of the world today, hence the building of change between the 20 and 21 century. Poor and public housing is found in these areas, also the inner cities are an entry point for new arrivals into the city.

The middle class have left these areas because of poor schools, fear of crime and poverty. This is due to poor local government services and declining communications.

Social Exclusion

A shorthand term for what can happen when people or areas suffer from a combination of linked problems such unemployment, poor skills, low incomes, poor housing, high crime, bad health and family breakdown.

‘What does the ‘Gentrification’ of the inner city explain?’ well by linking the above three terminologies together I have come to the conclusion that gentrification of the inner city explains that by middle and upper-class people moving into a deteriorating area may help to revitalise and conduct the area, hence the middle and upper-class people try to move in and make a change for the better. But, the people already living in these areas who have not moved because of fear of poor schools, crime and poverty are in conflict with the new residents. So in conclusion this is a form of private urban regeneration of the inner-city areas.

This word is part of the hierarchy approach to land usage – i.e. urban, sub-urban and rural. Large scale suburbanisation began in the great cities such as London and New York when cheap transport made the need to live near the place of work unnecessary.

Transport revolution i.e. trains, buses, motorcar and the underground railway, all made travel to work and general travel around the city a lot easier and simpler. But, as time went on people generally became disgusted the all the pollution (noise and literal) and poor housing that the city had to offer. Hence they looked for a place to get away – fresh air with open green spaces and to escape the pollution and poor housing of the core city.

What is suburbanisation? Suburbanisation is establishing residential communities on the outskirts of a city.

Many of the suburbs we have today were created after the Second World War in England and the USA. The suburban dwellers typically work in the cities but raise their families outside the city. Over time more and more businesses moved out of the core city into the suburban business park or the suburban shopping mall – creating the ‘Edge City’.

Nowadays more and more people move out of the city into the suburbs. The main cause of this situation is that people have got so use to living in the ‘Big City’, that they forgot what its like to live a life without the everyday noise pollution, without the everyday look of the road or pavement etc.

People will tend to reach a limit, then break away and move from the urban into the rural to escape the pressures of everyday life. People will like to experience a life without the stresses of the city that embark on everyday. Groups of people will move out of the city together and begin to create their own society out of the city into the rural areas; however people will keep the use of motor cars in order to travel to work in the big city.

One of the first people to be affected by the pressures of urban life was a man named Ebenezer Howard (1850 – 1928); a British thinker about urban problems and designer of urban futures.