2015年经济学人 商业街 陌生的城市

High streets

Strange town

Why some streets in London stay resolutely¹ the same

KENTISH TOWN ROAD is a humdrum² high street in north London.

It contains pawnbrokers³, pound shops, hairdressers and some long-in-the-tooth hardware stores.

Unlike Camden Town to the south, full of bars and tattoo⁴ parlours,

or Hampstead to the west, with its bistros and boutique clothing shops,

little seems to have changed on the street for the past three decades.

“It's never quite got going,” admits Gary McLaren, a local bookseller.

Yet the lack of change is odd—and hints at some of the strangeness of London.

Kentish Town has excellent transport links to central London,

and plenty of residents prepared to pay good money for that.

Off the high street stretch rows of pretty Victorian terraced houses,

which sell for as much as 2m ($3m) apiece.

Between 2007 and 2014 property prices in the postcode area surrounding the main Tube and railway station more than doubled.

An influx⁵ of French parents, drawn⁶ by a school that opened in 2011, is pushing prices even higher.

Yet Kentish Town's shops and cafes are almost invariably untrendy and in some cases mouldering⁷.

A hair salon⁸, a butcher and a sportswear shop have each been owned by the same men for more than a quarter of a century. Why?

One explanation is that, in common with other parts of London,

Kentish Town has lots of social housing as well as costly⁹ Victorian terraces.

Camden Council, the local authority, is building even more in the borough¹⁰.

This helps cheaper shops survive, suggests Tony Travers of the London School of Economics:

council tenants¹¹ are less likely to drive and so rely more on local outlets¹².

And the sheer volume of car and lorry traffic on the busy high street,

which is a main road into the city, might deter¹³ shoppers from visiting and swanky businesses from setting up in the area.

Demography¹⁴ plays a part, too. Fully¹⁵ 72% of the population of Kentish Town is white,

including a good number of Irish residents—higher than the proportion in London as a whole, at 60%.

Unlike the high streets around Peckham and Brixton in south London, which cater¹⁶ for African shoppers who may travel far to reach them,

few specialist shops draw people to Kentish Town. “We're not a destination high street,” sighs one local trader.

NIMBYs have not always helped. Lots of civic¹⁷ groups are active in the area,

campaigning against late licences and the like, says Dan Carrier of the Camden New Journal, a newspaper.

A local business association is also good at complaining. Partly because of this,

a big supermarket has not yet opened on the high street—though Lidl, a discounter, will set up shop this year.

“We quite like that it is rough around the edges,” says Michael Williams, a writer and local.

Paradoxically, soaring house prices in the area might be another brake on change.

Wealthy family buyers mean that some houses once split into flats have been turned back into homes, says Mr Carrier.

The result is fewer shoppers on the high street.

Wealthy residents are more likely to get their groceries online or drive to bigger stores.

And most will go out to the West End rather than a local restaurant.

Such “counter-currents” will prevent Kentish Town from gentrifying fully, suggests Gillian Tindall, a local historian.

And they affect many other streets in London, too.

Lupus Street in Pimlico serves a large council block on one side and white stucco houses on the other.

Caledonian Road in Islington, close to rapidly-changing King's Cross, is still full of kebab shops.

London is a global city, but it is also a collection of villages, cranky and resistant¹⁸ to change.

1 resolutely   

adj.坚决地，果断地

参考例句：

• He resolutely adhered to what he had said at the meeting. 他坚持他在会上所说的话。
• He grumbles at his lot instead of resolutely facing his difficulties. 他不是果敢地去面对困难，而是抱怨自己运气不佳。

2 humdrum   

adj.单调的，乏味的

参考例句：

• Their lives consist of the humdrum activities of everyday existence.他们的生活由日常生存的平凡活动所构成。
• The accountant said it was the most humdrum day that she had ever passed.会计师说这是她所度过的最无聊的一天。

3 pawnbrokers   

n.当铺老板( pawnbroker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• To exploit this demand, pawnbrokers are shedding their dingy, Dickensian image. 为了开拓市场，典当商人正在试图摆脱他们过去阴暗的狄更斯时代的形象。 来自互联网
• Each state and territory has legislation that requires pawnbrokers to be licensed. 各个州和地区的法律都规定当铺老板必须取得特许执照。 来自互联网

4 tattoo   

n.纹身，(皮肤上的)刺花纹；vt.刺花纹于

参考例句：

• I've decided to get my tattoo removed.我已经决定去掉我身上的纹身。
• He had a tattoo on the back of his hand.他手背上刺有花纹。

5 influx   

n.流入，注入

参考例句：

• The country simply cannot absorb this influx of refugees.这个国家实在不能接纳这么多涌入的难民。
• Textile workers favoured protection because they feared an influx of cheap cloth.纺织工人拥护贸易保护措施，因为他们担心涌入廉价纺织品。

6 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

7 mouldering   

v.腐朽( moulder的现在分词 )；腐烂，崩塌

参考例句：

• The room smelt of disuse and mouldering books. 房间里有一股长期不用和霉烂书籍的味道。
• Every mouldering stone was a chronicle. 每块崩碎剥落的石头都是一部编年史。 来自辞典例句

8 salon   

n.[法]沙龙；客厅；营业性的高级服务室

参考例句：

• Do you go to the hairdresser or beauty salon more than twice a week?你每周去美容院或美容沙龙多过两次吗？
• You can hear a lot of dirt at a salon.你在沙龙上会听到很多流言蜚语。

9 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

10 borough   

n.享有自治权的市镇；(英)自治市镇

参考例句：

• He was slated for borough president.他被提名做自治区主席。
• That's what happened to Harry Barritt of London's Bromley borough.住在伦敦的布罗姆利自治市的哈里.巴里特就经历了此事。

11 tenants   

n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者

参考例句：

• A number of tenants have been evicted for not paying the rent. 许多房客因不付房租被赶了出来。
• Tenants are jointly and severally liable for payment of the rent. 租金由承租人共同且分别承担。

12 outlets   

n.出口( outlet的名词复数 )；经销店；插座；廉价经销店

参考例句：

• The dumping of foreign cotton blocked outlets for locally grown cotton. 外国棉花的倾销阻滞了当地生产的棉花的销路。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They must find outlets for their products. 他们必须为自己的产品寻找出路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

13 deter   

vt.阻止，使不敢，吓住

参考例句：

• Failure did not deter us from trying it again.失败并没有能阻挡我们再次进行试验。
• Dogs can deter unwelcome intruders.狗能够阻拦不受欢迎的闯入者。

14 demography   

n.人口统计，人口学

参考例句：

• Demography is the analysis of population variables.人口学是对人口变量的分析。
• It was once a rule of demography that people have fewer children as their countries get richer.按人口统计学的一贯规律，一个国家里的人民越富有，他们所拥有的孩子就越少。

15 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

16 cater   

vi.(for/to)满足，迎合；(for)提供饮食及服务

参考例句：

• I expect he will be able to cater for your particular needs.我预计他能满足你的特殊需要。
• Most schools cater for children of different abilities.大多数学校能够满足具有不同天资的儿童的需要。

17 civic   

adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的

参考例句：

• I feel it is my civic duty to vote.我认为投票选举是我作为公民的义务。
• The civic leaders helped to forward the project.市政府领导者协助促进工程的进展。

18 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。