to think this nursery is the very embodiment of gentrification in London?

[roundaboutsroundabouts]

I won't name the group of nurseries as I don't know if that's allowed (is it?) but I've just seen them referenced on instagram by a scandi toy brand. They are all in vair gentrified hipster parts of London and the fees are fcking EXTORTIONATE - £90 a day for the under-threes. I know that isn't unusual in London (although in my much cheaper part of London I only pay £55 a day). It holds a "curated" "programme" of monthly "events" (including pilates). The children get a daily smoothie - tomorrow's is beetroot, banana, ginger, berry, lemon and hemp. It describes itself as "design-led" and it's all vair tasteful scandi wooden toys in neutral colours. Design led?! Why does a NURSERY need to be "design-led"?!

You just know that everyone who sends their child there is going to have an ombre "lob", wear clothes from Arket, carry a fjallraven kanken backpack, own a bugaboo or a babyzen yoyo, dress said children in varying sludge colours from Mini Rodini, and have linen bedding in their Victorian Terraced house with white painted floorboards and scandi style planters.

I am BVU I know. But it is so irritating. I grew up in London, the child of an immigrant, and I feel like it's just an endless line of artisan coffee shops and overpriced farmers' markets these days.

I'm with you OP - sounds revolting!

Much prefer the rural life up here - I did London for Uni/early career and it was bad enough then.

Up here the nurseries take children out on the farms, feeding lambs and calves and getting caked in mud. I'd much rather that for my daughter than scandi bloody furniture and smoothies! And we pay about half of that too!

Most of the kids probably dont drink their smoothies anyway. And long instead for brightly coloured toys and a happy faces biscuit.

I genuinely would have a problem with somewhere that thought that smoothies were healthy, rather than a treat. That kind of wellness bullshit boils my piss. But I guess I'm not their target audience.

I too grew up in London back in the 60s and 70s .Trust me it wasnt all great then. Yes it was probably safer in terms of knife crime and so on but the Docks were very run down .the Thames was polluted, and some of the housing then was very far from perfect too!.I think you feel guilty that you are in a better place now TBH.I feel similar to you sometimes, (dont Live in London now ,but still expensive here on S Coast !).Hopefully living standards should improve for each generation ?.Look at the little ones having a nice time in their Nursery enjoying their fresh Smoothies and Organic food and be glad for them!

The smoothies are off their supposed target though since it’s been mentioned

Most know they’re not great

Up here the nurseries take children out on the farms, feeding lambs and calves and getting caked in mud. I'd much rather that for my daughter than scandi bloody furniture and smoothies! And we pay about half of that too!

I don't think the two are mutally exclusive

@Mrsjayy i was just coming on to say the same. Smoothies are veritable sugar bombs could they not just give them the fruit

When I was younger it was parents and nurseries giving freshly squeezed orange juice, thinking they were being far healthier than everyone else who gave dilute squash.

Found it, and that menu is amazing!

(They get fresh fruit at a different time of day, those who are concerned)

Couldn't pay me enough money to be around those types.

I'd not send any kid of mine to a nursery that promoted itself as "design led" rather than "child centred".

Also down here by the sea, its also a never ending line of coffee shops and overpriced farmers markets!

I have a childcare qualification - I have looked on the website and employees who work there full time get 100% discounted childcare...one (extreme ish) way of getting your child into the nursery for free!

I bet you’d love to send your child there but can’t afford to

And there is no shame in that ! It’s not really fair that from the age of 2 onwards children have such different experiences in a London especially

I can’t afford to send my kids private and they are attending a very rough and ready state school . Damm straight that’s NOT fair

Social mobility in London is fucked we
All know that . But when it’s for kids it’s pretty depressing no ?

I agree, gentrification.

I think you’re being unreasonable for the judgement of the approach or the people who like it, can afford it and want to use it.

But in terms of gentrifying London and other cities to the point where regular working people feel like they can’t just go about their lives as normal because it extortionately expensive, I agree and YNBU

I also agree with a PP - imagine if they spent that money on an extra member of staff, even a young apprentice. Much more useful that a race track on the roof or whatever it is.

I have a feeling the nursery group will go out of business sooner or later. Maybe it started as a brave innovation but I can't see it catching on for most people.

Check out Los Feliz Daycare on twitter for a satirical account of the nursery you are describing. I think the humour will make you feel better! The world has indeed gone mad.

When thriving communities like Elephant and Castle are seeing families who've lived there for generations being shipped out of perfectly practical social housing and forcing local business to relocate so they can build luxury flats, it's a social justice issue.

^^This. With flipping big clanging bells on

Born in SE london and can't count the amount of previously public buildings (previous health clinics, hospitals, churches, places you used and knew well) that have been knocked down or converted into 'exclusive 2 and 3 bed apartments' supposedly all 'affordable' The new occupiers barely say good morning to you, and all look like mini clones - the same prams, beards, wellies, clothes etc.

It is all very non-inclusive.

So I get where you are coming from OP in that regard.

But I think nursery provision in the uk still isn't good or eclectic enough on average so you are still being a teeny bit unreasonable.

15 years ago I was paying £85 per day for a central London nursery. Wish they'd had a "curated programme"

ChiariRimini: I went for a show-round at a "Montessori" nursery. The manager was out and the assistant who showed me round knew nothing about what Montessori was. Some of them are absolutely shameless about advertising gimmicks.

Funny you should say that, I read something on here in the past couple of days about a Montessori nursery that fell very short on what it promised.

On the whole, Montessori schools are good, we have a couple not far from me. It's a shame if a couple of schools spoil their reputation but that happens across the board. Parents have to be vigilante and not just fall in love with the supposed ethos of the school.

You sound very sneery, OP. Each to their own.

@Bluerussian - They have 14 settings in 4 different countries so they must have found a way to survive economically speaking

I do take it onboard though that an awful lot of new nurseries fail in the first year as most have such high running costs

What are you angry about exactly OP? I don't really get the point of this post. A nursery charging reasonable fees for central London, offering a good range of activities and nice sustainable toys (not plastic crap) for the children. Your rant about the parents is just odd. Why do you care how they cut their hair, what pram they push or what bag they carry?

Thanks to codemonkey for translating 'vair' for me. Never heard it before, hope it doesn't catch on. Why someone cannot say, "Very", I do not know.

It's a bit rude and sometimes self deprecating, unkind even, to take the mick out of accents. Just my opinion