Skift Take
A growing urban trend combining creative post-industrial neighborhoods, high-tech "Innovation Districts," and trendy tourism infrastructure is fully realized in London with the opening of Ace Hotel's first international property.
The gentrification of post-industrial urban districts evolving into creative professional and social hubs in G20 countries worldwide has followed a relatively formulaic pattern over the last four decades.
Often abandoned following the collapse of regional manufacturing, these urban cores are revived beginning with small independent businesses. As development progresses, many of these enclaves eventually morph into high-rent areas anchored by trendy, adaptive reuse hotels.
Such is the case with the opening of Ace Hotel London Shoreditch last year in the booming community of Shoreditch located at the gateway to London's East End. The neighborhood was once the heart of England’s immigrant worker community and many of their streetfront workshops.
While Shoreditch is indicative of this long trend in modern urban revitalization, it is also part of a newer trend revolving around the rise of the “smart city”—or what the Brookings Institution calls “Innovation Districts.” These high-tech communities are integrating themselves among the aforementioned bohemian burbs, resulting in a complementary zeitgeist of like-minded creative professionals and innovative start-up culture.
In 2010, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced the idea of Tech City UK to brand Europe's largest tech cluster centered around the Old Street Roundabout (or Silicon Roundabout), located just a short walk from Ace Hotel. The fast-growing smart city occupies a wide swath of inner-city commercial districts extending from Shoreditch to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
London Mayor Boris Johnson and the city's marketing arm, London & Partners, are promoting Tech City UK with initiatives l
