Adam: ‘My windows sills get dirty very quickly when I leave the windows open, from the construction work and pollution in the centre of the city.’ London, UK
‘I was surprised to see seeds as well as stray hair included in the dirt and dust you’d expect. My windows sills get dirty very quickly when I leave the windows open, from the construction work and pollution in the centre of the city, and because there is always a breeze or wind that blows things inside.’ July 2020
‘[What] bothers me the most is the developers who, with the connivance of city officials, almost always get their way despite local opposition to the tearing down of old buildings + replacing them with bland uninspired new architecture.’ February 2021
Adam is a Canadian man in his late sixties, who has lived in London for almost forty years. He has been a ‘social’ tenant in a 17-storeyed council block in the middle of Soho since the late 1990s, when he was diagnosed with a chronic illness. He is also registered as disabled because of problems with his eyesight. He has always treasured living in the centre of the capital with a huge variety of pubs, restaurants, theatres and cinemas right on his doorstep. However, over the past decade developers have turned his neighbourhood into a building site, and new infrastructure has in turn led to a huge influx of tourists and shoppers.
Adam’s block has been in the process of being renovated during six long years with residents having to endure non-stop noise and air pollution. Whenever he opens his windows, dirt and dust blow inside. He is concerned about the toxicity of this substance because canisters with ‘biohazard’ written on them were used and ‘plumes of dust were going up into the air without protection… often it was just white but sometimes black’. Residents have really treasured the silence that descended on the capital during the first few weeks of the pandemic. However, this reprieve was short-lived as soon the construction workers and the endless drilling and banging as well as the air pollution returned. Moreover, as lockdowns eased, Westminster Council introduced an Alfresco Dining Scheme that transformed local streets into buzzing, boozing zones that fuelled noise and rowdy behaviour deep into the night.
