Brixton Buzz reported that Heritage England had objected to the development in August on the grounds that the building would significantly alter the view from the adjacent heritage site. In their petition, the public organization note that the Lambeth Council is working closely with Hondo to approve the development.

“Right now, Lambeth Council planning officers are working with Hondo Enterprises (owner of the majority of Brixton Market) to push through and approve Hondo’s planning application to build a 20-storey office tower in central Brixton alongside the heritage areas of Brixton Market and the Brixton Recreation Centre, against the advice of Historic England, The Brixton Society, Right of Light Consulting chartered surveyors, local MP (and former town planner) Helen Hayes, and Coldharbour Councillor Scarlett O’Hara,” reads a passage of the petition’s description. “Of the 860 public comments left about the proposed development on Lambeth Council’s website, 848 are objections, five are neutral and only seven are in support!”

The office tower controversy is not the first time Hondo Enterprises has elicited the ire of locals for proposed activity in Brixton. Earlier in the year, a similar petition led the company to backtrack on plans to evict local business Nour Cash & Carry from the Brixton Market complex. The ensuing backlash included a scathing The Quietus review of Housekeeping’s May EP, Faces, that shed light on McWilliams’ business practices in particular and prompted the group to go dark on social media.

At the time of writing, over 2,500 people have signed Historic England’s petition. Learn more about it via Change.org.

The Texan DJ, who performs individually under the alias Taylor HK and as a member of the group Housekeeping, serves as the director of Hondo Enterprises. The firm bought Brixton Village and Market Row, where Nour is located, for a reported £37.25 in 2018 according to Retail Gazette.

The store’s owners were recently served with a Section 25 notice to vacate by July 22nd. In a statement obtained by Vice, Hondo would later claim that the eviction was necessary to install an electricity substation to prevent power shortages, and that they had been in talks to retain Nour throughout the process. By that time, however, a Change.org petition had amassed tens of thousands of signatures in addition to other forms of online protest.

A recent tweet from the Save Nour Save Brixton account suggests that it was not in vain. “NOUR IS SAVED,” it reads. “We’ve just spoken to the Shaheens and they are so happy. They’ve just signed a SECURE, LONG-TERM lease in Brixton Market at an affordable rent!”

!!! NOUR IS SAVED !!! We’ve just spoken to the Shaheens and they are so happy?They’ve just signed a SECURE, LONG-TERM lease in Brixton Market at an affordable rent! We are overjoyed! Please read our full statement below. This victory belongs to all of us – all of you (1/4) pic.twitter.com/5D19xWpRUJ

— Save Nour Save Brixton (@SaveNour) June 19, 2020

Bad Look

Taylor McWilliams’ controversial business practices were but one component of an incendiary muckraking article on Housekeeping published by The Quietus. Examining each member’s life outside the group, the piece – which just so happened to go live the day after George Floyd‘s tragic murder – portrayed them as a case study in the whitewashing of music rooted in black culture. The group went dark on social media shortly thereafter.

The Nour Cash & Carry ordeal only drove the point home. After fleeing Iran over 20 years ago, the Shaheens opened the store and found a niche among the diverse population of Brixton by selling Afro-Caribbean and Middle Eastern goods. Those protesting Hondo’s move to have the store evicted accused the firm of attempting to erase its history and culture.

The specific terms of Nour Cash & Carry’s new lease have not been publicly disclosed at the time of writing.

What at first reads like a scathing, Pitchfork-esque review of the group’s May EP, Faces, segues into muckraking journalism that poses social commentary on commercial dance music. Among other things, it illuminates Housekeeping member Jacobi Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe’s ties to royalty and Taylor McWilliams’ controversial practices as a property developer.

Cleaning House

The Quietus touched on a point of discussion with which longtime electronic music fans are all too familiar.

House music famously emerged from Chicago’s gay and black communities, and Selector has recently gone over techno’s protest music roots. As long ago as the late ’80s, however, groups like Underground Resistance have openly condemned the whitewashing of dance music as it grew from an obscure subculture to a worldwide phenomenon.

The unfolding COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it a renewed focus on the class issues surrounding dance culture. Earlier in May Carl Cox, Nicole Moudaber and other globetrotting DJs launched a fundraiser for their tour managers that drew criticism from fans and members of the industry who considered it tone deaf.

A spokesperson on behalf of Housekeeping did not immediately respond to Selector‘s request for comment.