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Haringey: Wealth and Social Divide
London has become the most unequal city in the western world. The wealthiest ten percent of people living in London have an average wealth 273 times higher than the lowest ten percent.*
Statistically the Borough of Haringey is unique: from its construction of 19 wards, four are in the top 10% of London’s wealthiest, and five in the lowest 10%, making the Borough’s residents the most financially divided in London.*
Haringey in its geographical structure also represents a historical London wealth divide of east and west. Haringey is split by Green Lanes, which runs centrally through the Borough. Residents know this as the dividing wealth line in a micro way similar the Thames River dividing the traditionally affluent north of London from its poorer south side.
Statistics have defined Haringey; these are easily digested and paint a depressing yet accessible view of the Borough. Cartography has created differentiated zones within cities, which become easily defined and quantified. These boundaries however cannot be set in stone; they are intangible; they are maintained by complex cultural and social codes, which divide areas into distinct clusters.
Issues currently affecting the nation as a whole are voiced on a personal scale, creating awareness of multiculturalism, social and cultural differences, religion and its relation to surrounding environment and the effect of the declining high street are all raised and explored.
Through a series of portraits and extended captions the residents of the Borough of Haringey represent their personal environment and identify the demographic and geographical wealth and social divide, which is so prevalent in the Borough.
*Data: New Policy Institute / Trust for London
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