People in Dalston value its unique character that comes through its diversity and it’s being a place which welcomes newcomers. Long-term residents value places like Ridley Road market and the traditional cafés which are affordable to all, as well as newer places like the ice cream parlour which attracts a real mix of people.
However, despite strong connections within groups, there is not always so much mixing across groups. There seems to be a daytime Dalston with strong interactions between those who work in the area, and more recently a nighttime Dalston which is inhabited by those who live but don’t work in the area, and those who just come to go out.
Gentrifiers may have chosen or ‘elected’ to come to Dalston because it is a place that forms part of their self-identity (it is gritty, it is alternative). This is part of a theory called ‘elective belonging’. But they may have obtained this cultural identity by proximity to Dalston’s edginess rather than mixing with it.
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