Gary Budden examines the ever expanding divide between London ‘hipsterism’ and local communities in light of last summer’s riots.

‘Battle lines get drawn / You will need to pick a side in that.’ – ‘Hoxton Bounce’, The Ruby Kid

In May 2010, there was a shooting on London Fields, Hackney, that made a minor splash in the headlines, pointing out the fears about growing gang-activity in the area. However, there was little real analysis of the wider implications of what had happened. What had made this particular incident a cause for alarm was the fact that the victim of the shooting was an uninvolved bystander, caught in the crossfire of a running battle between two local gangs.

As it turned out, London Fields was packed that day with the kind of people it has now become famous – or possibly infamous – for, i.e. that amorphous creature, the ‘East London hipster’. A type of person that has rapidly become an archetype, then a cliché and source of self-referential mockery; just look at the viral YouTube video ‘Being a Dickhead’s Cool’, Vice magazine’s pointless pseudo-mocking (but really self-validating) ‘Dalston Superstars’, any number of anti-hipster websites and a whole slew of articles examining the phenomenon (this one included). I freely admit that there is a sort of irony in covering in such detail a scene that generates such antipathy; it validates it to some degree.