ABSTRACT
The fear now, of course, is precisely reversed. People who consciously possess an unassailable identity as East Enders are fearful that their civilization is being overrun by the new hooligans of the eighties-lager louts and yuppies-spilling over from their traditional habitats of the City and the West. East Enders, who have spent a lifetime confronting, bribing, outwitting, circumventing or simply ignoring the various local agencies of the state, now believe they face an unprecedented catastrophe. The physical environment of the old communities, which gave material form to the lived cultures of East London, have been razed to the ground. Colossal movements of capital have created, as if from nothing, what is in effect a vast bright new city which can only appear alien to those who had formerly lived in what were once the dark corners of the metropolis.
