 Hi, I'm Alex Marks for UPROX reports, and I'm here in Brixton, London, one of the capital's most vibrant and multicultural neighbourhoods. And I'm here to ask, does gentrification always have to be a negative? POP Brixton is a community initiative that has transformed a disused plot of land into a pioneering space that showcases the most exciting independent businesses from Brixton. Years and years ago, when I was a kid, I used to come here, it was a bit rough. You had certain streets and you really wanted to go down. I can see how other people probably would have felt intimidated by the area, by not seeing their own kind around late at night, you know, for instance, and feeling a little bit intimidated. So with regards to gentrification in Brixton, it's been evolving over some time now. It's going to be interesting to see exactly where it goes. In some respects it's good because they're getting loads more choice, but then again it's like sometimes you lose the heart of the community. When an area starts to become quite cool, certain high street brands, they'll outpriced people that have built it up. You might have a rent of 20 grand and then one of these sort of chain companies will come in and they'll pay 25, 27, 30, and that just sets a precedent for everybody else who's coming in and it just goes up and up before, you know, the place is just outpriced. I think POP's done an amazing thing. It's given business operators like myself to employ people, employ local people, you know, and it's a fun place to be so I think it's had a really good positive impact on the area. It's become a destination for one thing. People come to Brixton to actually come to POP Brixton, but at the same time if you look behind the scenes there's a growing number of community organisations that are based here, ranging from projects that help ex-fenders to autocultural projects to radio projects for young people. People aren't as scared when you say you're from Brixton or Peckham. Nightlife appears safer because there's a lot more people on the streets. Over the last five years it's just started to change, regeneration's started to happen, it's more like culturally diverse as well, so it's all positive. In 2017 public figures on both sides of the Atlantic seem to want to focus on that which separates us. Thereby driving people further and further apart, but gentrification, if done right, can perhaps be seen as an opportunity for people and communities to come closer together.