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Cory Doctorow: How startups of Silicon Roundabout are gradually being flattened

theguardian.com

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Re: Cory Doctorow: How startups of Silicon Roundabout are gradually being flattened

#21

Post by 7952 »

pjc50 wrote: post #10

Nothing in London is quite so profitable as property development. I suppose this is the continuation of the process of sweeping away the derelict bits of Hackney for the 2012 Olympics. It would be nice if economic activity wasn't quite so concentrated in unaffordable London. But I can feel the wave of money washing over the built environment even out here in Cambridge ("Silicon Fen"); it's just about commutable to No…

Britain does seem to be getting balkanised into areas where economic development is allowed and areas where it is not. The planning system compartmentalises everything so that marginal development is impossible. Places like Silicon Fen are great, but you also need the crappy industrial estate that have cheap rents and access to transport links.

Re: Cory Doctorow: How startups of Silicon Roundabout are gradually being flattened

#22

Post by rjsw »

kasbah wrote: post #14

Nice little bit of criticism of the Hackney council and I like the summary of the startup scene in general: A common pattern in startups is to go to work for one, watch it implode and team up with a colleague or two to move on to another startup; repeat several times until you have agglomerated a bunch of people you know, like and trust; then do your own startup with them. The statement that foreign students paying v…

Restricting the number of visas so that they go elsewhere would probably burst the bubble.

Re: Cory Doctorow: How startups of Silicon Roundabout are gradually being flattened

#23

Post by Bigkate »

my best guess for where the roundabout people will move to is Deptford - if they can cope with moving to "sowth louwdon" - home of two separate hack-spaces spc.com and a new men-in-sheds being set up by the peabody trust http://menssheds.org.uk and Goldsmiths college

Re: Cory Doctorow: How startups of Silicon Roundabout are gradually being flattened

#24

Post by pgeorgi »

gaius wrote: post #15
gutnor wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, silicon roundabout is at 5 min walking distance of the heart of the city of London, so any kind of success would have priced them out. The council is doing what their own success would have been doing in a few years. It would have required tremendous effort by the government to maintain the right balance of cheap business place and accommodation required to let the community survive. 100 meters away from one of…

We have had a lot of Silicon-whatsits in the UK. Silicon Fen in Cambridgeshire and Silicon Glen somewhere in Scotland. There's a big electronics scene in Bristol. Tho' this is something that it's impossible for governments to do, really, all the money will be creamed off by "advisers" and "consultants", small companies given impossible bureaucratic hoops to jump through, etc. The best thing the government can do is j…

Moving the UK govt to Archimedes would certainly slow down GCHQ for a while.

Re: Cory Doctorow: How startups of Silicon Roundabout are gradually being flattened

#26

Post by duncanawoods »

gutnor wrote: post #12
gaius wrote: post #4

Gentrifiers complaining that they've been out-gentrified. There were people living in Hackney and Dalston before the hipsters moved in and starting pricing them out of the neighbourhoods they grew up in, but what goes around, comes around.

Also, silicon roundabout is at 5 min walking distance of the heart of the city of London, so any kind of success would have priced them out. The council is doing what their own success would have been doing in a few years. It would have required tremendous effort by the government to maintain the right balance of cheap business place and accommodation required to let the community survive. 100 meters away from one of…

I agree that startups in central London is pretty daft. Bit like choosing Manhattan with good views of the park.

I like Bristol. 90 mins from the big smoke, decent airport and railway hub, more chilled and counter-culture than South/South-East, closer to countryside, climbing and surfing. Has a history of new and high-tech like chip fabs and renewables. Oh and its not the North :)

Re: Cory Doctorow: How startups of Silicon Roundabout are gradually being flattened

#27

Post by gaius »

pjc50 wrote: post #10

Nothing in London is quite so profitable as property development. I suppose this is the continuation of the process of sweeping away the derelict bits of Hackney for the 2012 Olympics. It would be nice if economic activity wasn't quite so concentrated in unaffordable London. But I can feel the wave of money washing over the built environment even out here in Cambridge ("Silicon Fen"); it's just about commutable to No…

What is the value of a building? To me it seems obvious that a building is an asset and what you want from it is the income from the rents, and the value of it is the NPV of future rents. Anything else is bubbly.

Re: Cory Doctorow: How startups of Silicon Roundabout are gradually being flattened

#29

Post by lifeisstillgood »

gaius wrote: post #27
pjc50 wrote: post #10

Nothing in London is quite so profitable as property development. I suppose this is the continuation of the process of sweeping away the derelict bits of Hackney for the 2012 Olympics. It would be nice if economic activity wasn't quite so concentrated in unaffordable London. But I can feel the wave of money washing over the built environment even out here in Cambridge ("Silicon Fen"); it's just about commutable to No…

What is the value of a building? To me it seems obvious that a building is an asset and what you want from it is the income from the rents, and the value of it is the NPV of future rents. Anything else is bubbly.

An excellent point, that is almost universally ignored. NPV of future rents is ignored almost totally in the domestic housing market, and it seems that commercial property is riven with debt fuelled purchases that need another purchase to work.
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