Brent Central

[mondialito]

BRENT CENTRAL

An inner-city constituency in North West London, Brent Central has many of the hallmarks one may expect of such a constituency. It is one of the most ethnically diverse constituencies in the country; a majority of residents are tenants, be they social or private and while there are some pockets of affluence, there is also social deprivation.

As the name implies, Brent Central spans much of the middle of the London Borough of Brent, stretching from the Welsh Harp Reservoir in the north of borough, to the Park Royal Industrial Estate in the south. In between are a number of communities which do vary significantly. There is Neasden, which is dominated by the North Circular Road; Willesden, which in recent years has attracted young professionals seeking affordable rent and quick access to Central London via the Jubilee Line; Harlesden, which has historically been one of the hubs of London’s Black community; Stonebridge, which is possibly best known for the large housing estate it gives its name to and Kensal Green, which is home to an affluent middle-class intelligentsia which has spilled over from nearby Notting Hill. The constituency also includes parts of Wembley and Cricklewood.

As mentioned above, the areas within Brent Central are quite ethnically diverse, with just 38.8% of residents identifying as White in the 2011 census. There is a significant African-Caribbean population as well as Indian and Pakistani communities. It is no coincidence that the one of the largest Hindu temples outside of India, the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, was erected in Neasden. There has also been a large Irish community within the boundaries of the constituency while in recent decades there has been migration from Eastern Europe, particularly Poland after EU accession and ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo in the wake of the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s.

Gentrification and redevelopment have taken place within the constituency much like other similar parts of Greater London. Harlesden and Cricklewood are beginning to attract young professionals, while Wembley has undergone major regeneration, the centre of which is the constituency’s biggest claim to fame – Wembley Stadium, whose luminous arch dominates the local skyline.

Brent Central is a relatively new constituency, formed for the 2010 Election by fusing the northern half of the Brent East constituency with much of the Brent South constituency, a redrawing of boundaries that initially created an intriguing battleground in its first election. Sarah Teather, the Liberal Democrat who had represented Brent East since a stunning by-election victory in 2003, chose to contest this seat rather than the neighbouring Hampstead and Kilburn seat, also newly created and on paper a better Lib Dem prospect. Her decision put her on collision course with Dawn Butler, a junior Labour minister who succeeded Paul Boateng as MP for Brent South in 2005. Teather’s decision was vindicated, winning the new seat on an 11% swing in an election where Labour was on the defensive nationally and Butler’s parliamentary expenses were a salient issue. Teather stood down at the following election in 2015, when the Lib Dems collapsed just as they did nationally, falling to 3rd behind the Conservatives while Butler was returned with the largest swing recorded in that election outside Scotland. Butler has continued to hold the seat with very large majorities since.

[mondialito]

Apr 5, 2020 8:24:11 GMT @barnabymarder said:

It's not long since my job took me to Harlesden, including its town centre. It didn't strike me that there were many young middle-class professionals there, it seemed to remain an almost entirely working-class area with a very large African & Caribbean population as it has been for so long.

I'll edit that bit. The young professionals are starting to move in, but the naff hipster bars have yet to follow like in Willesden Green.

[John Chanin]

Last time I ventured into a Willesden pub, admittedly a long time ago, I was solicited with a collection for the IRA.

[Deleted]

Apr 6, 2020 18:52:36 GMT John Chanin said:

Last time I ventured into a Willesden pub, admittedly a long time ago, I was solicited with a collection for the IRA.

Kilburn isn't what it was.

My Other Half lived there for a year, so I was a frequent visitor. There's still one authentically Irish pub, the Sir Colin Campbell, which has a couple of trad music sessions every week, and a newsagent that sells all the local Irish papers. However, that's basically it. The Irish community is shrunken and aging, and has been largely replaced by later waves of immigrants. 

[Adam in Stroud]

Apr 6, 2020 19:04:55 GMT @goodoldcause2 said:

Apr 6, 2020 18:52:36 GMT John Chanin said:

Last time I ventured into a Willesden pub, admittedly a long time ago, I was solicited with a collection for the IRA.

Kilburn isn't what it was.

My Other Half lived there for a year, so I was a frequent visitor. There's still one authentically Irish pub, the Sir Colin Campbell, which has a couple of trad music sessions every week, and a newsagent that sells all the local Irish papers. However, that's basically it. The Irish community is shrunken and aging, and has been largely replaced by later waves of immigrants. 

I hope you aren't suggesting that Willesden is Kilburn.

Alan Coren once wrote a paean to Cricklewood referring to estate agents' terms for the area, which included "West Hampstead borders" and "definitely not Kilburn."

When I briefly worked in Kilburn circa 1990 it struck me as a place that people only lived in if they couldn't get out - recent immigrants (mostly African IIRC) and the elderly poor. I worked in some other run-down areas at the same time with equal or worse poverty but more community spirit. The Stonebridge and Mozart estates were if anything worse, more violent anyway; I don't know if they've got better.

[Pete Whitehead]

[finsobruce]

Apr 6, 2020 20:45:32 GMT Adam in Stroud said:

Apr 6, 2020 19:04:55 GMT @goodoldcause2 said:

Kilburn isn't what it was.

My Other Half lived there for a year, so I was a frequent visitor. There's still one authentically Irish pub, the Sir Colin Campbell, which has a couple of trad music sessions every week, and a newsagent that sells all the local Irish papers. However, that's basically it. The Irish community is shrunken and aging, and has been largely replaced by later waves of immigrants. 

I hope you aren't suggesting that Willesden is Kilburn.

Alan Coren once wrote a paean to Cricklewood referring to estate agents' terms for the area, which included "West Hampstead borders" and "definitely not Kilburn."

When I briefly worked in Kilburn circa 1990 it struck me as a place that people only lived in if they couldn't get out - recent immigrants (mostly African IIRC) and the elderly poor. I worked in some other run-down areas at the same time with equal or worse poverty but more community spirit. The Stonebridge and Mozart estates were if anything worse, more violent anyway; I don't know if they've got better.

Was that the same book in which he queried its name since it had 'neither wood nor crickle' ?

[belvoir]

[Robert Waller]

2011 Census

Age 65+ 9.4% 620/650
Owner-occupied 35.4% 627/650
Private rented 32.4% 20/650
Social rented 29.0% 58/650
White 38.8% 639/650
Black 25.5% 9/650
Asian 23.8% 34/650
Born in Ireland 3.4% 5/650
Managerial & professional 24.6%
Routine & Semi-routine 23.6%
Degree level 29.8% 191/650
No qualifications 20.9% 422/650
Students 12.7% 89/650


2021 Census

Owner occupied 33.3% 553/573
Private rented 38.0% 19/573
Social rented 28.7% 38/573
White 36.0%
Black 23.7%
Asian 23.0%
Managerial & professional 25.7% 475/573
Routine & Semi-routine 22.7% 325573
Degree level 37.9% 137/573
No qualifications 22.3% 116/573




General Election 2019: Brent Central

Party Candidate Votes % ±%

Labour Dawn Butler 31,779 64.7 -8.4
Conservative David Brescia 10,909 22.2 +2.7
Liberal Democrats Deborah Unger 4,844 9.9 +5.0
Green William Relton 1,600 3.3 +1.7

Lab Majority 20,870 42.5 -11.1

Turnout 49,132 58.3 -6.

Labour hold
Swing 5.5 Lab to C

[Pete Whitehead]

An unsatisfactory name for some unsatisfactory boudnaries, the initial proposals here retained the first and compounded the second. The revised proposals improve both markedly.

As currently constituted the seat covers most of the former borough of Willesden together with parts of Wembley (including the stadium) and Kingsbury. The initial proposals removed the Kingsbury elemement (but in the process divides Neasden, as a result of the moronic Welsh Harp ward) and Harlesden & Kensal Green (which splits Harlesden as much of that community is in the Roundwood and Stonebridge wards). Replacing these were to be more areas around (but not including) the centre of Wembley such as Alperton and Wembley Hill.

The revised proposals are much more sensible. Harlesden & Kensal Green is still removed but Brondesbury Park (which comes close to the centre of Willesden) is added from Hampstead & Kilburn. Meanwhile none of the areas which were to be added from Wembley are added, instead the Tokyngton ward (and the new Wembley Park) are removed bringing the Western boundary to the river Brent at the southern end of the seat. Instead the Kingsbury ward itself (which doesn't include the centre of Kingsbury and is effectively the old Fryent ward) is added taking the boundary of the seat some way to the North. The Kingsbury panhandle is unsatisfactory especially as the seat is to be renamed 'Willesden' but overall it is an improvement on the current boundaries and on the initial proposals and a greatly improved name.

[John Chanin]

Nov 21, 2022 16:00:48 GMT Pete Whitehead said:

An unsatisfactory name for some unsatisfactory boudnaries, the initial proposals here retained the first and compounded the second. The revised proposals improve both markedly.

As currently constituted the seat covers most of the former borough of Willesden together with parts of Wembley (including the stadium) and Kingsbury. The initial proposals removed the Kingsbury elemement (but in the process divides Neasden, as a result of the moronic Welsh Harp ward) and Harlesden & Kensal Green (which splits Harlesden as much of that community is in the Roundwood and Stonebridge wards). Replacing these were to be more areas around (but not including) the centre of Wembley such as Alperton and Wembley Hill.

The revised proposals are much more sensible. Harlesden & Kensal Green is still removed but Brondesbury Park (which comes close to the centre of Willesden) is added from Hampstead & Kilburn. Meanwhile none of the areas which were to be added from Wembley are added, instead the Tokyngton ward (and the new Wembley Park) are removed bringing the Western boundary to the river Brent at the southern end of the seat. Instead the Kingsbury ward itself (which doesn't include the centre of Kingsbury and is effectively the old Fryent ward) is added taking the boundary of the seat some way to the North. The Kingsbury panhandle is unsatisfactory especially as the seat is to be renamed 'Willesden' but overall it is an improvement on the current boundaries and on the initial proposals and a greatly improved name.

Your longstanding detestation of the Welsh Harp ward is of some amusement to me.  There’s worse in the Black Country, like Quarry Bank and Dudley Wood.

[Pete Whitehead]

Nov 21, 2022 16:11:34 GMT John Chanin said:

Nov 21, 2022 16:00:48 GMT Pete Whitehead said:

An unsatisfactory name for some unsatisfactory boudnaries, the initial proposals here retained the first and compounded the second. The revised proposals improve both markedly.

As currently constituted the seat covers most of the former borough of Willesden together with parts of Wembley (including the stadium) and Kingsbury. The initial proposals removed the Kingsbury elemement (but in the process divides Neasden, as a result of the moronic Welsh Harp ward) and Harlesden & Kensal Green (which splits Harlesden as much of that community is in the Roundwood and Stonebridge wards). Replacing these were to be more areas around (but not including) the centre of Wembley such as Alperton and Wembley Hill.

The revised proposals are much more sensible. Harlesden & Kensal Green is still removed but Brondesbury Park (which comes close to the centre of Willesden) is added from Hampstead & Kilburn. Meanwhile none of the areas which were to be added from Wembley are added, instead the Tokyngton ward (and the new Wembley Park) are removed bringing the Western boundary to the river Brent at the southern end of the seat. Instead the Kingsbury ward itself (which doesn't include the centre of Kingsbury and is effectively the old Fryent ward) is added taking the boundary of the seat some way to the North. The Kingsbury panhandle is unsatisfactory especially as the seat is to be renamed 'Willesden' but overall it is an improvement on the current boundaries and on the initial proposals and a greatly improved name.

Your longstanding detestation of the Welsh Harp ward is of some amusement to me.  There’s worse in the Black Country, like Quarry Bank and Dudley Wood.

It is an absurd ward on any objective analysis but I have a personal interest. My father grew up in the Kingsbury part of that ward and my grandparents still lived there into the 1990s so I spent much time there in my childhood and into my 20s. They lived actually very close to the river Brent and therefore the old boundary between Wembley and Willesden but Neasden might as well have been on another planet.

[batman]

certain things are natural boundaries, and really oughtn't to be crossed if a better arrangement can be arrived at.

[Pete Whitehead]

Its a shame that ward splits cannot be used when not necessary due to the numbers. My proposal to the boundary commission involved a Wembley seat exactly as they have it in their revised proposals but a Willesden seat entirely South and East of the Brent (including Harlesden and Kensal Green rather than Welsh Harp and Kingsbury). The whole of Kingsbury (Kingsbury, Queensbury, Welsh Harp) would have merged with much of Harrow East in a Stanmore & Kingsbury seat with good internal logic. The problem with it was that it reached across the Brent to include part of Neasden and a ward split along the Brent would have solved that.

[Pete Whitehead]

Notional result 2019 on the proposed new boundaries (Willesden)

Lab	28580	60.6%
Con	11545	24.5%
LD	5307	11.3%
Grn	1515	3.2%
BxP	183	0.4%
Oth	27	0.1%
Majority	17035	36.1%

[spinach]

Dollis Hill - 5.6 % White Irish

MSOA with the highest White Irish % in England and Wales 2021.

[John Chanin]

Dec 26, 2022 21:23:42 GMT spinach said:

Dollis Hill - 5.6 % White Irish

MSOA with the highest White Irish % in England and Wales 2021.

Islington North is the constituency with the highest white Irish (just 3.6%).  Brent Central which includes Dollis Hill is second.

[The Bishop]

Is it correct that the number identifying as "Irish" in the census is in decline?

[spinach]

Dec 27, 2022 11:06:11 GMT The Bishop said:

Is it correct that the number identifying as "Irish" in the census is in decline?

There was a decrease in the number of people identifying their ethnic group as "White: Irish", from 531,000 (0.9%) in 2011 to 507,000 (0.9%) in 2021. 

[spinach]

Dec 27, 2022 8:23:11 GMT John Chanin said:

Dec 26, 2022 21:23:42 GMT spinach said:

Dollis Hill - 5.6 % White Irish

MSOA with the highest White Irish % in England and Wales 2021.

Islington North is the constituency with the highest white Irish (just 3.6%).  Brent Central which includes Dollis Hill is second.

Many of the nearby wards in and around Kilburn are 3%+ White Irish but I'm sure the old Irish community there has declined significantly in such areas in the recent decades. 

I wonder what areas of the UK have the highest amount of residents with Irish ancestry. Perhaps Merseyside and some parts of Outer London?