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• Clouds with...

Описание: 1 Ashley Road, Tottenham, London N17. Have you spotted a frequent feature of property developers' advertising? Their artists paint pictures with blue skies and puffy white clouds. There's prominent greenery and perhaps a glimpse of shining water. It is true that - if high enough above the traffic - some flats being built at the junction of Ashley Road and Monument Way will have an open view southwards. Including a vista of Tottenham Marshes and Hackney Marshes, the River Lee and nearby reservoirs. (Walthamstow Wetlands.) Other new residents may not be so lucky. It also depends where and how high the overdevelopers build the next tranche of towers. As Gus Elen sang in an 1899 music hall song:. Wiv a ladder an' some glasses You could see to 'Ackney Marshes If it wasn't for the 'ouses in between. Left out of the picture? Such property advertising in London - and perhaps many other British cities - may leave out inconvenient facts. Omitting for example any hint of London's growing poverty and inequality. No homeless street people; no beggars. None of the reality of run-down areas; underfunded parks; litter; dumped rubbish; and graffiti tagging. Artists' impressions of the interiors of new flats are commissioned by developers. Often they are gleaming and empty. Not only minus people, but not even a trace of a child's toy or an unwashed cup. If an imagined outside view does show people they tend to be well-dressed and enjoying pavement caf'es. Or perhaps strolling streets which never have any potholes, or crowds, or traffic jams. And perhaps that's what we expect. The world as a glossy sales brochure filled with luxury goods? In which case, Buyer Beware of billboards advertising new towers. Especially those rising next to polluted main roads. With never the tiniest hint of the climate crisis. I wonder how artists will paint their idyllic penthouses and sub-penthouses in a future when Londoners wear masks to protect us from polluted air?

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