Poppy

 

In 2020 Poppy and her family made the difficult decision to leave their life-long home in Kensington due to concerns about the security of their regulated tenancy.

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‘I try not to think about it. To me its still exactly the same as it was, I’m sure that whoever has it is now is not going to keep it as a 6-bedroom flat. They will knock down all the walls, have more bathrooms for the bedrooms, more open-plan. They couldn’t rent it out in the state that it was in because it would not attract the kinda client they would want, considering how much they could make from it. It had stain glass in the windows. I just don’t want to go back to the street because I’m so sure they will be gone. I really feel a connection to High Street Kensington because its where I grew up and spent 25 years of my life but I could never afford to live there again.’

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The stain glass windows in Poppy’s living room are part of the conservation status of the building and cannot be removed - they will always be a reminder of her home.

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Since leaving Kensington, Poppy has lived in shared privately rented accommodation in Walthamstow, and then Hackney. She works as a casting assistant.