ABSTRACT
The preceding chapters have described the redevelopment of the Isle of Dogs, the motivations of those who steered it, those attracted by it or forced to accommodate it. This chapter focuses on two issues that came to dominate the lives of many working-class residents on the Island more immediately than the development itself: the battle over public housing and emerging racism. These separate but interlinked issues personified the conflict-ridden and contested nature of Island life in the 1990s and revealed the extent to which some were willing to go to retain what they regarded to be theirs and to make their frustration and anger felt.
