Elephant and Castle is not only another neighbourhood in London, is also a dynamic place full of vibrancy, with an increasing migrant and ethnic economy and a diverse and multicultural population. For the past decade, this borough has been facing a process of regeneration with massive investment projects.
In the middle of this urban renovation, and surrounded by landscapes under construction and new modern buildings, the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre is still standing. A post-war building that was opened in 1965 as the first covered shopping mall in Europe. After a long history of failure, the mall serves today as home to a great variety of migrant and ethnic shops that have given new life to the building and have become a meeting point for people of different backgrounds, especially for Latin American residents in London. However, this unique building is not exempt of the massive process of urban developing in London, its architecture, its products and its cultural practices are sentenced to demolition.