The Street

2019 • 94 minutes

About this movie

As the glinting steel and mirror-glass skyscrapers of London's financial hub edge ever closer, the area surrounding Hoxton Street has been transformed by 'luxury' redevelopments and sky-high property prices. This traditional East London street, less than a mile from the City of London, has become the last bastion of the areas disadvantaged - a concentration of the aged, poor and dispossessed. Hoxton Street's close-knit working-class community has absorbed waves of immigrants since the 1950's. But as traditional industry has withered, the latest influx of young urban hipsters followed closely by expensive restaurants, digital media start-ups and corporate property developers has brought with it a deepening social and financial divide. Sensing they have been left behind, the street's ageing white residents lament the loss of their jobs and former ways of life, echoing the 52% who voted to leave the EU. Set against rapid gentrification, years of austerity and the eruption of Brexit, Zed Nelson's feature-length debut is a comic, tragic and deeply moving portrait of not just a street, but a nation on the cusp of enormous change.

Ratings and reviews

did not go far enough in telling the viewer what a fantastic street it is. yes its changing, but this street has everything. the library, hoxton hall, gp and hospital, sexual health clinic, post office technical college countless hairdressers, solicitors, accountants, kids storytelling workshop spaces, football shop, community gardens, ceramic workshops, georgian townhouses, takeaways of every world food and price range, funeral directors, pubs with irish fiddles, bakers, hardware shops, a book bindery, model agency, private flats and houses, old folks home, carribean patty shop, second hand shops, cab office, street market, record shop, phone & tech shops, opticians, beauty parlours, pharmacies, supermarkets, workshops and studios. all the above is not off hoxton street but on hoxton street and its tiny. this isnt the Cally or something. its local and its the best street in london .

A down-to-earth documentary shedding light on the forgotten and downtrodden - an affect of capitalism in progress. The filmmaker allows his local characters time to speak and express their viewpoint of the changing scenery and culture around them, from a place that they once considered 'home' with childhood memories across each pave-stone, to a new world-order occupied by trendy art galleries and cash-driven corporations. You get the impression that the street was once the crowning glory of this community, and as the winds of time reduced it to a dusty resemblance, 'gentrification' is now encroaching closer causing many to vote 'leave' in the EU Referendum. A gem to mention more than others (and there are many), in the dusty, and once shining crown of this East London street, is the ageing local lady who appears to be fading as the story unfolds, and leaves a salient thought that the memory of her too will be lost to join the shops and stores that were reluctantly relinquished by those who held the lease for generations, and which helped shape the identity of those who lived there.

Run of the mill gentrification blather. Unpleasant people on an ugly street wheel out old horrible cliches and moan on about the good old days when you call a spade a spade. Only the gallery owner comes across as genuinely likeable but she's supposed to be the cartoon villain. About as uplifting as watching a pigeon pecking away at a pile of sick.