London's Cascading Displacement Effects Start at the Top of the Income Ladder

"London’s traditional elite, such as lawyers, architects and academics, are being pushed out of their enclaves in Mayfair, Chelsea and Hampstead by an influx of global super rich investors, causing a chain reaction of gentrification across the capital," according to an article by David Batty.

Batty is sharing the findings of a new study by Dr. Luna Glucksberg, titled "Is this displacement? Pushing the boundaries of super-gentrification in London's Alpha Territory." Dr. Glucksburg presented the research to the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Annual International Conference in London, on August 31, 2016.

Already affluent populations moving away from neighborhoods like Mayfair, Chelsea, and Hampstead, are now moving to neighborhoods like Battersea and Clapham to Acton in the South and East of London. Thus, housing costs around the city are inflating "out of the reach of average Londoners and threatening to push those on low incomes to the margins of the city and beyond," according to Batty.

The London School of Economics also posted an announcement of the study, offering more details on the findings and methodology of the new study.

Not to make light of the situation or the hard work that went into this original research, but The Onion fake news site basically predicted the findings of this study, with a satirical and fabricated story about the 'aristocratization' of gentrified neighborhoods. Their fake version of this story included an influx of "exceedingly affluent powder-wigged aristocrats" rather than the "global super rich investors," but the basic dynamics are the same. Once again, the absurdities of satire prove basic facts of human society.