Bonneville, Fuck Parade and anti-gentrification

“#CSIClapton due to events on Lower Clapton Road this evening, we will unfortunately have to close #WelcomeToHackney”, so tweeted the newly opened Bonneville (bar? pub? restaurant?) on Saturday 14^th June 2014. They followed this up with an explanation of what these ‘events’ were: “Some kid got stabbed over the road and decided to run into ours. Great look for our first week.”

The subsequent angry response on Twitter forced the newly opened bistro-cocktail bar to issue an apology: the victim had been “very aggressive” towards the staff trying to help him, and “more interested in calling his friends to gain retribution for his injury.”

This half-apology, half-excuse did not appease everyone and resulted in Twitter and actual protests against ‘gentrificleansing’ with some people demanding that the business leaves Hackney.