Filmmaker Zed Nelson tells the story behind ‘The Street’, soon to show at Budapest Architecture Film Days

If they always say, ‘write what you know’, then filmmaker Zed Nelson has been able to throw almost a lifetime’s worth of experience at The Street, his feature-length documentary being streamed here in Hungary on 9 March as part of Budapest Architecture Film Days.

Born in Kampala, Uganda, Zed grew up in this rapidly gentrifying yet impoverished part of London, the cheapest square on the city’s Monopoly board where he is still based. That is, when he’s not in Texas making documentaries about the environmental fall-out of the petro-chemical industry or roaming America to explore the country’s love affair with guns.

The Street is much closer to home, a 90-minute kaleidoscope of colourful characters clutching on to a proud yet fragile tradition of market stalls and pie & mash shops while boutiques offer bespoke bicycles and luxury apartments go for £2 million-plus.


On the near horizon rise the gleaming towers of London’s financial centre, the City, its wellbeing dependent on those very property prices. As the community of Hoxton Street starts to unravel, Britain votes Brexit. The Street took Zed four years to make.

We Love Budapest: What was the idea behind this documentary – why here and why now?

Zed Nelson: I wanted to present, visually, the process of gentrification. Changes almost happen without us seeing them. I wanted to capture this on film. There are moments in filmmaking when you feel like you’re working in the dark, as if you’re not in control of the situation. Halfway through, Brexit happened, which threw a real curveball – in fact, it felt like a different documentary after that.

The story I’d been following didn’t fall into an easy narrative. Hackney had become trendy, hipster ground zero. On the one hand, this has raised the levels of schools and education, there’s better food available, new-wave cafés, and so on. At the same time, the speed of this development has caused property and rental prices to spiral. 

People are forced out of their communities because they can’t afford to live there, pubs close, traditional cafés and services are swept aside. Hoxton Street felt like a kind of frontier, being pushed gradually further back as the mechanical diggers got to work. At the end of the street, a mile away, shimmering steel and glass had amassed on the horizon, a potent vision of what was to come.

The simple view would be that traditional is good and new is bad, but it’s not that straightforward. People become less narrow-minded and racism is sidelined in a more multi-cultural community. 

One of my interviewees was a black woman who ran a church. She reckoned that things were so much better now – before, somebody had smashed the church cross. And it’s easy to criticise the people behind the trendy café, but they were genuinely nice – and it’s great to get a decent cappuccino.

WLB: It must be easier to make a documentary on your own doorstep?

ZN: No! If anything, it’s harder. When you travel further afield, it’s like you’re from another world. You’re seen as a curiosity, someone quaint and English, so locals tend to open up more.

Here, it’s more of a challenge. People tend to treat you with suspicion, they’re always measuring you up, worrying about who you work for – are you from the council, maybe you’re a tax inspector snooping around... Market traders were particularly wary about being filmed.

Of course, in practical terms, it was more accessible. I just had to jump on my bike and I was there in five minutes. That meant I could operate on a much smaller budget – I worked on my own a lot of the time, I didn’t need an extra cameraman or a sound assistant. This also allowed me to get to know people better, it was easier for them to be more natural. Rather than have a crew gathered around them, it was just me. The process became more inclusive, more ramshackle.

I started in 2015 when there was huge a peak in property prices, I still have the graph here in front of me! After four years, I was literally buried in material. I spent a gruelling three months doing a rough edit on my own. This also reminded me of what I had to work with, and to start to create a structure, to boil the material down to its main characters. 

I then hired a top film editor, Julian Rodd, and we worked together for seven weeks. This is always the hardest part, when you’re working elbow-to-elbow with someone, up against the clock, but for this, I was very lucky. He had a real sensibility for the subject matter, he made the whole process enjoyable and the film just fell into place.

WLB: What has been the reaction to the film?

ZN: The first screening was at the London Film Festival, it was a Friday night, a full house, everyone was in a good mood, and people just laughed out loud! I mean, almost too much, it was quite extraordinary, because this is obviously a kind of bitter-sweet, tragic-comic documentary. 

The next time, it was shown in the middle of the day, at lunchtime, and there was a quieter, more sober reaction. I find it plays very differently to a different crowd.


One screening that was really daunting was at the Rio in Dalston, right where the film takes place. It was packed, two floors, both sold out, and there were rows of people behind me who had all appeared in the film… But they were very positive about it, and seemed to enjoy it.

I think it will be fascinating to look at this 20 years from now, as a historical record. If you do it well, then you should still capture people’s attention. I believe that if you stick with something and give it enough love and care, it will always work.

The Street by Zed Nelson
Budapest Architecture Film Days
Streamed 9 March, 8.30pm
94 mins. English with Hungarian subtitles