What is going on when the people at one end of a single route live ten years longer than the people at the other end? Heiba Lamara looks at five Slow Ways that pass through areas of extreme wealth inequality
According to research by the New Economics Foundation over 90% of the UK’s most deprived communities are within one mile of a Slow Ways route. And cheek-by-jowl with many of these communities lie their extreme opposites. This stark wealth inequality is at the root of the most pressing issues facing the UK, and the world, today.
In the pictures uploaded by reviewers as they walk the A to B of their route, it’s not uncommon to see significant changes to the neighbourhoods and the surroundings they have captured. Photos record journeys from bustling high streets to boarded-up residential streets, well-kept town squares to littered and neglected canal-side paths. There are differences along a straight line.
In their TikTok series for Slow Ways, Virginie Assal observed the proximity in Manchester between green urban spaces in wealthy neighbourhoods, and notably less green space in more impoverished neighbourhoods. Slow Ways routes which pass through great wealth disparity inadvertently provide a transect of social variety, as this variety is made all the more significant in communities close enough to be connected by foot.
The most recent findings by the Office for National Statistics provide a detailed picture of disparities within English local authorities to a neighbourhood level. We have attempted to pinpoint five examples of A to B routes across the Slow Ways network which cross areas of noted wealth disparity. See them below, and on a Waylist map here.
Observing how these areas interact, how gentrification is at work, how art finds its spaces, how segregation occurs, how anger and lack of choices are expressed, leads to important questions as to how and why inequality in the UK makes itself apparent in the most basic material conditions of everyday life.
Whichever half of ‘the other half’ you find yourself in, we hope that walking these routes provides a foothold to a greater understanding of the social fabric of the UK at this moment in time.
Canary Wharf to Stratford
The gleaming towers of Tower Hamlets’ Canary Wharf, headquarters of banks including Morgan Stanley, Barclays, HSBC and JP Morgan and their corporate wealth, sit just ten minutes from neighbourhoods around Poplar, which experience the highest rate of child poverty in London (Poverty Profile, Trust For London 2021). The continuous building development sites around East London have fashioned these two former docklands into proximate but incredibly different spaces.
Impington to Cambridge
The historic university city of Cambridge is known for its internationally renowned campuses, multi-million-pound city-centre properties and affluent neighbourhoods – bringing income and employment to the south of the city. Impcan one passes through the least deprived area, Central and West Cambridge, and northwards, close to the area with the highest number of households deprived in at least one dimension, King’s Hedges.
Westbourne Park to Shepherds Bush to Kensington
Kensington and Chelsea is often misunderstood by those familiar with Sloane Street, Kensington Gardens or perhaps Channel 4’s ‘Made in Chelsea’ as a uniformly wealthy borough. It is in fact a borough of extremes with, at one point in recent years, three wards in the ‘top 20 least deprived’ and three in the ‘top 20 most deprived’. It was these extremes which provided the backdrop to the tragic Grenfell Tower fire in 2017.
Kensington & Chelsea (Shewes one: Shepherds Bush to Westbourne Park) (Sheken one: Shepherds Bush to Kensington)
Bootle to Liverpool
North of Liverpool city centre, and south of wealthy and desirable Formby, a commuter town home to footballers and celebrities, lies Bootle, a port town and one of Merseyside’s most deprived areas. A ‘health gap’ splitting Sefton means people in Bootle die around twelve years earlier than those in the north of the borough, with poverty, unemployment and poor housing just some of the issues blighting the community.
Yarm to Stockton-on-Tees
While some areas of Stockton-on-Tees are of the most deprived in Teeside, Yarm is known to be one of the most wealthy, attracting tourists from across Yorkshire and beyond with its historic buildings, independent shops and riverside location.
Wealth inequality in the UK is high and rising. By traversing different areas, we can better understand the challenges faced by those living in different locations, to feel connected to the rest of the UK at a time when communities are being divided, and to campaign for better infrastructure, higher living standards, more amenities, access to nature, and opportunities for all. And helping to create Slow Ways might actually help to close some of the inequality gaps – walking can improve health and potentially increase life expectancy, and building knowledge of ways to walk must help.
The header image shows some of this visualisation from the Office of National Statistics. Red areas are the most deprived and blue the least.
Heiba Lamara
Heiba Lamara is an artist-researcher exploring independent print and archival practices.
She co-founded OOMK Publishing House and is assistant editor of OOMK Zine, a biannual publication that champions the art and activism of women from marginalised communities. She is co-founder of Rabbits Road Press, a community-focused risograph studio that provides printing and book binding services for artists and community groups in Newham and beyond.
She incorporates project-based research around print, oral histories, archives and coloniality into zines, artist books and workshops. These offer a closer relationship with under-explored topics related to the cultural history of marginalised communities, using independent publishing methods as entry points.
