Vandals seeking to reclaim Brixton' have used a road sign to smash the windows of a Foxtons branch on the high street of the south London suburb, and have sprayed Yuppies' and No Evictions' on the walls of the office.
Riot police armed with CS spray canisters then guarded the office after the protest, which occured on Saturday afternoon, keeping watch until repair teams boarded up the ceiling-to-floor window cavities.
Foxtons has not made an official statement but it is believed the branch will reopen today with an enhanced security presence.
A spokeswoman for Reclaim Brixton, the campaign group which organised the 1,000-strong protest, says she is disappointed that violence occurred but adds: Foxtons has a very poor reputation when it comes to expensive properties. I don't even think it's right to apologise for these individuals because every protest that you watch, there will be an obligatory that one idiot will smash a shop window.
Not everyone was as critical as the organisers themselves, however - yesterday afternoon eMoov founder Russell Quirk raised a few eyebrows on Twitter when he tweeted: A new window at Foxtons: £2,000. The symbolism of a greedy industry detested by the public Priceless.
Foxtons office on Brixton Road is midway between the police station - which protesters entered, and where CS gas was used on them - and Lambeth Town Hall, which was also the subject of a crowd invasion during the protest.
Foxtons is a magnet for protests against estate agents, high rents and gentrification, with protests often accompanying new branch openings. But the Brixton office has seen a particularly long-lasting spate of attacks.
A year ago a radical group in south London attacked Foxtons' boards outside vendors' homes. We Love Social Housing' messages were pasted over the agents' details on boards outside homes in Clapham and Brixton.
The group which claimed responsibility on that occasion was Lambeth Housing Activists which described its actions as improving the boards.
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Comments
You need to reread your own words if you can't see where you wrote that you are against people getting money for their properties:
"I don't think Foxtons deals with people who are local property owners. It deals with the sort of people who just want to make a profit for profit's sake. The danger being, if we carry on at this rate of gentrification, that London ends up as a playground for billionaires and oligarchs only."
"How would you like it if a load of rich investors came to the country village where you live and and drove you out by buying up the houses"
"What's so wrong with a house price cap if it brings things back down to normal, more affordable levels"
Where did I say I was against people getting money for their properties You've just made that up.
The Algarve is a lot cheaper to buy in than Britain. I have apartments that I let out to holidaymakers for much of the year. To me, there is a big difference between that and buying up a home in London that I never have any plans to live in.
"The estate agents that I have worked for has always told people off the street to do one, whilst tracking down rich Chinese and Russian investors instead."
I can't tell if you're joking or not. If you're not, you need to have a think about your priorities.
What's so wrong with a house price cap if it brings things back down to normal, more affordable levels Or you just think we should keep going as we are until a massive property crash causes absolute chaos. House prices in the UK are out of control, I don't think there is any doubt about that.
Of course, building more houses is the solution to bring supply more in line with demand, but it remains to be seen if anything will actually happen.
I've found one!
Please can I buy one of your properties off you for a pound Since you're so against people getting money for their properties, you must just give your's away..
The estate agents that I have worked for has always told people off the street to do one, whilst tracking down rich Chinese and Russian investors instead.
I presume you are running for election with a promise of a cap on house prices..
"How would you like it if a load of rich investors came to the country village where you live and and drove you out by buying up the houses and making the place you've called home for however many years completely unaffordable"
I rent.
I appreciate your comments though and that's why I said I can't comprehend how it must feel for local people who are affected in this way. I suppose as with everything in life there needs to be a balance, although how often is a sensible balance found in any situation
I don't think Foxtons deals with people who are local property owners. It deals with the sort of people who just want to make a profit for profit's sake. The danger being, if we carry on at this rate of gentrification, that London ends up as a playground for billionaires and oligarchs only. That makes me uncomfortable.
Flip it on its head for a minute. How would you like it if a load of rich investors came to the country village where you live and and drove you out by buying up the houses and making the place you've called home for however many years completely unaffordable. You wouldn't like it, would you You'd be angry and rightly so.
Gentrification has some good aspects, making places cleaner, safer and more crime-free. There is no doubt that Brixton feels much safer these days (although the risks in the past were blown out of proportion by the riots and other isolated incidents which, as usual, had the tabloid press foaming at the mouth). The danger, though, is that gentrification removes any individuality and vibrancy from an area, it becomes a sanitised, homogeneous haven for property developers and big business.
It's like Starbucks or McDonalds or even Foxtons coming to your small village - would ruin the aesthetic somewhat, wouldn't it Would you be happy for Foxtons to take over your high street If so, fine, your mind is not going to be changed. If not, then it's a wee bit hypocritical to be blaming others for being angry too.
Agree with you about Russell Quirk and the person who smashed the window, though. Mindless, thuggish violence. But, by all accounts, only a few people were out to make trouble. I'm sure, as always in these situations, their actions will overshadow those who were protesting peacefully. See also the student and G8 riots of recent years.
Just read Russel's Twatter comment. Strange how a chap who is apparently all about giving the power and profit back to the people is so against local property owners achieving high asking prices and making a profit
If we could all just remember what a notoriously violent and degraded place Brixton was many years ago, I see more positive than negative to what is happening in the area. Of course it must be a difficult situation for locals who can no longer afford to live there and myself being a country bumpkin, I find it very difficult to comprehend, but acts of vandalism make it difficult to feel any empathy for these muppets.
Russel you sad little man, I wonder how you would feel if somebody smashed the windows of your emoov head-quarters in response to your disgusting comment
Where is RQ's comment
The answer to that is so easy to give, Mr Walker.
You may remember a certain Mr Hendry retired surveyor; owner, Consultant in Housing Valuation, Website Manager and tea-boy all wrapped into one of a woeful FSBO website, who has spent what feels like decades banging on about how every part-time hairdresser should be able to afford a six-bedroom mansionette in Mayfair on his or her salary (without tips, obviously). Now he was selling his own property in Nottingham somewhere, and had a right cob on with several different Estate Agents causing him to write to their principals, the NAEA, RICS, RSPB and several Government Departments and other parties proclaiming that HIS way would sort out the world. At the time, there was a canny HPCer going by the name of Sibleys, who would give a body part to own a property, and was looking in the Midlands. I made an offer to this chap on behalf of young Sibs, based not upon what this chap had unsuccessfully been attempting to achieve for month upon month but what Sibs and his family could afford. Did the vendor take the offer
Yeah, right. Shut him up for a few days, though so there was a result of sorts ;o)
Always bemuses me when estate agents get blamed for house prices. Not a lack of supply in a marketplace. Too easy to lash out at someone in the street rather than an overarching problem with global economics. I always wonder if people who blame estate agents for house prices ask an estate agent to get the least amount of money for their property.
Very poor form from the idiot who smashed the window - but these types of protests are always sabotaged by a few trouble-making anarchists.
Having said that, Foxtons are a magnet for this type of criticism and you have to ask yourselves why they have been singled out. Foxtons moving in seems to be the precursor for the onslaught of gentrification, so you can see why people aren't happy with them. Rightly or wrongly, people feel like the heart and edge is being ripped out of where they live and they don't like it.
So you don't think gentrification is an issue You don't think sky-high rents and house prices are an issue No, you just turn to tired, lazy stereotypes.
Not many scummy bedsits in Brixton anymore. And if there are, you'd probably be paying well over the odds to live there.
You're assuming none of these people have a job. You're assuming they are all tree-hugging Labour voters. You're also assuming that no-one was protesting peacefully. Just because a few anarchists turned up looking for trouble, something you get at every protest, doesn't mean the protest isn't worthwhile.
You make a lot of sweeping, crass generalisations in your post. Easy, but lacking in any substance.
You can't condone vandalism, and the people in Foxtons are just doing their job like everyone else, but the more general point shouldn't be ignored because of the actions of one yobbo. Gentrification has pros and cons, like everything else, but you risk turning London into a soulless, corporate mess if you continually push out the poorer people with sky-high rents and house prices.
Quirk, as usual, not covering himself in glory. But did we really expect anything less The man craves controversy and bad PR.
Where is Brixton High Street
bunch of tree-hugging labour labour lovers. The quicker they stop complaining about being pushed out of their scummy bedsits and find a job to support a better place the better.
Completely in agreement with the below comments - new levels of ridiculousness from Mr emoov...
Imagine having one of the young negs in that office as the mob smashed the window.... it must have been utterly terrifying. Still, Russells 'joke' will have cheered them up. Not
Mr Quirk - you have reached a new depth that even I didn't think you were capable of.