For the second day in a row it was the hottest day of 2021 on Tuesday, which was the first day of meteorological summer, after a toasty 25.8C was recorded in both Cardiff and Middle Wallop.
Today is expected to be another fine day for many, but thunderstorms are likely across parts of south-west England and south-west Wales, leading the Met Office to issue a yellow weather warning for these areas.
To illustrate yesterday’s temperatures the BBC tweeted some footage of bathers enjoying the warm weather in London at the Sky Pool ‘which is believed to be the world’s first transparent pool built between two skyscrapers.’
What the BBC failed to mention was that if you have invested in one of the ‘affordable homes in the block, you can’t have access to it. A Guardian article published in February looked through the glitz and glamour behind the development.
Describing the Sky Pool Oliver Wainwright wrote: “This is the Sky Pool, the latest addition to the luxury residential enclave of Embassy Gardens in Nine Elms, south-west London – one absurdist step beyond the private cinema, indoor pool, gym and rooftop lounge bar. It was dismissed as a “crackers” PR stunt when the plan was unveiled by Irish developer Ballymore in 2015, a fantastical aquarium of captive high net worth individuals for the rest of us to gawp at from far below.”
Well it is definitely a reality as seen from the footage yesterday.
The article also went on to quote Iqbal. He lives in Embassy Gardens, Iqbal and his neighbours will never enjoy the thrill of going for an aerial dip.
“We have a front-row seat of the Sky Pool.”
However, “the sad thing for us, living in the shared-ownership building, is that we will never have access to it. It’s only there for us to look at, just like the nice lobby, and all of the other facilities for the residents of the private blocks. Nobody expects these amenities for free, but we’re not even given the choice to pay for them.”
For people who do not have the money for a, well, unaffordable home, you don’t get to access through the chic main entrance but in small door out of the way. These are known as ‘poor doors.’
He said: “There’s a reason they’re called ‘poor doors’.
“I grew up in South Africa, in a country that was racially segregated, but in London there is still really bad class segregation. We have a mortgage and we pay our rent, but every day we are made to feel inferior, like the have-nots of Nine Elms.”
A lot of people saw this footage and were appalled.
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Aydin Dikerdem, Labour Councillor for Queenstown, also added a thread on the development and the wasted opportunity.
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Related: Johnson slammed as ‘1.3 million children under five are living in poverty’
