Thank you very much for watching! I funded this entire documentary myself & I've uploaded it totally free to watch, so if you can do me one favour - please share it with at least one person. Spread the word so these stories are not forgotten.
After watching this documentary, I love more my identity, Thank you for sharing and doing this documentary it open my mind and my heart that it’s ok to open changes in our life or in the community that where in but I will never forget who I really was, it was amazing documentary you did a really good job, well done! Again Thank you my friend
Im Born and raised in Tooting around the Amen Corner area , i recently moved to the US and returned to Tooting only to have a barista treat me like i was an immigrant fresh off the boat not welcomed in their predominately white 30 something cafe, cause of my brown skin found it funny when i broke out in my south london accent and to see their faces stunned into silence ! First time i felt like a stranger in my own home felt weird. like i dont recognize you , you dont look feel or even think like tooting. Having said that back in the day me and my friends were having fights with national front skin heads and just general racism towards anyone who wasnt white growing up in Tooting in the 70s/80s/90s ! But that was a different type of working class on working class tension cause deep down we all understood that we all had the same issues that come from being working class so you kinda get the other side. But todays tension is a tension of unequally distributed social economic groups that have unbalanced the fabric of Tooting to the extent that the soul and culture of it has been sterilized into a clone of Balham Clapham white collar society !
This is one of the best comments I have ever read. This summarises the experience of watching Tooting change over the past 10 years in words I couldn't hope to have come up with. Disgusting when the people who claim to love Tooting for its diverse cultures only frequent their middle class chain establishments and end up driving out the locals. I saw an article mock the fear of gentrification in Tooting - along the lines of 'oh no, isn't it awful how everyone is getting rich, boo hoo' but in reality people aren't getting rich... you're driving poor people out.
We live in Tooting and it certainly has changed, even in the 5 years we have lived here. Personally we love all of the restaurants m, bars and coffee shops. But it must be tough if you are forced out of an area where you grew up due to increasing house prices 🙏
Well done, you've shot a damn good video. Gentrification is not really the cause of problems. As long as there are so many foreign buyers and property profiteers throughout London, property will become even more sought after. Government has not regulated foreign property purchases coupled with no new residential housing anywhere in London. There doesn't seem to be a plan to develop housing along the main lines out of London.
@@AnpuLondon I hate seeing the pressure build up on the long-time residents. As "gentrification" starts pushing up all prices around them. Once again, great video. Nobody has tackled that in a youtube video.
Omg what an amazing and informative documentary. I remember going to the Tooting Amman Kovil on regular basis and it was well visited by many others and finding out one day that it closed really shocked me. Thank you for giving us documentary it really awaken my memories when I used come there for every weeknd . I truly feel that there was a clear image from the government to cleanse and radicate religious and ethical input which gave the character to Tooting. Congratulation and hope to see many more of your work.
I was born and breed in tooting, I now live in the US. I would just like to say what a wonderful documentary you have put together. When I was growing up in Tooting in the 80's and 90's the thing that made Tooting so special was the mixed culture. My mother is English, my father was from Marocco, our close family friends were Pakistani, Indian, Jamaican and Greek. We loved them all and they loved us. What changed in Tooting is very sad... I totally feel what you say about your home of Tooting and no longer being able to connect with the very place you were born. I am 40 and have not been back to Tooting for about 15 years. It was the most wonderful please to grow up in and I am fortunate to remember Tooting when it WAS Tooting
This really is an excellent documentary Anpu ! lived here 25 years, love it. I think the restaurants etc have made a big and positive difference, and still has some of the best Indian restaurants in the country. I remember when we moved here in 1995 and wishing there was a good coffee shop, in just the last 7 years we now have several to chooses from. Id love a good book shop too. . . . . but we cant have everything i guess ;). The property prices havent helped working class people stay in the area, and this is something that I think needs addressing. But I think things do change, and businesses need to adapt to new trends and customers. If youd asked people in the 50's they would have probably said similar things about change, and house prices and gentrification.....its the cycle of life I guess.
That was excellent , it's very interesting to hear people speak about tooting in the 90s, however there was a Tooting before Primark. This was the Tooting that had Marks and Spencers ,Chelsea girl, Smith's etc, It was still multicultural, but with a bit more class, working class with a standard. Black and white got along together we never had division in the the same way as Brixton and other area's, we were working class Tooting people.
Tooting has never been rough What do you mean by rough during the 1990s and 2000's . You show newspapers from 1980s. The nicer parts of tooting have always been nice going back to the 70s Tooting has always been mixed. Working class and middle class. Lots of middle class Indians have been living in Tooting since the 1970s before white middle class moved in in thec 00s Gentrification is rubbish.
Born in Tooting Bec now live in Kent. I f i wanted to move back to Tooting I'd have to rob a bank or two. You can blame gentrification however its those that lived in Tooting that sold up because the house prices went ballistic. that have caused the change.
@@AnpuLondon I did! Only for a little bit but I loved being there. I may well have been part of the problem you were describing in the video though... haha.
5yrs on I think Tooting has retained a balance between local communities and gentrification, retail and restaurants are always in flux but the racial mix remains strong ❤
The main root cause of this problem is the UK Government. If only did they fully enhance safety & security, i am confident that people from different ethnic groups can live together & learn from one another as well. Other factors that might affect people living in london are the rising costs of houses and etc. When it comes to identity, it depends on the family. If the head of the family doesn't instill the importance of identity & culture to their kids & etc, thats when identity of ethnic groups vanish. I am a singaporean tamil and in our small multicultural island regardless of whether you are of chinese,malay or indian origin, we still live together and move on in life !
Interesting points you raise here! Thanks for the comment. It's definitely interesting hearing about the experiences of Singaporean Tamils. And yeah there's definitely truth in the statement which you make about how identity does depend on the family and upbringing.
A wonderful, insightful documentary and really well done. I lived in Tooting Broadway from 1999 to 2011 and was very happy there, coming from a working class background and part of an immigrant family growing up in a Northern mill town, I felt very much at home. I loved the vibrancy, the smells, the lights at Diwali and above all, I felt safe - safer than anywhere else I lived in London. You've made a very important contribution to the history of Tooting and a subtle meditation on belonging, identity, migration and communities. A brilliant piece of work, thank you.
Thank you for this insightful documentary, you are a talented and tenacious documentary-maker. I'm going to study at St George's so I wanted to understand the local communities and history better. I am so sorry about the treatment of your Temple, that is awful disregard. I hope you carry on the good work
This was an interesting video, I love the style of the documentary. It was very extensive and thorough which I really appreciated as I myself also feel very nostalgic about Tooting. My aunt and uncle lived in Tooting and only a couple months ago moved to a more upscale area in London so I spent many holidays over the years at their house in Tooting. I am also brown skinned and from a Hindu family. The thing is that life is always evolving and so change is therefore inevitable. One thing I do not understand though is why the question "where are you from" brings you such sorrow because wherever you were born is static information that will not change. Where you grew up is also fixed information that does not change. Where you live now or will live in the future is changeable but the past has already been established and it should not bring you sorrow to say that you were born in Sri Lanka or England if that is where you were born. Similarly, you grew up in Tooting and that fact will not change either even if the neighbourhood is not exactly the same as it was 20 years ago. Everywhere in the world this happens as where our grandparents or great grandparents grew up may be the same place in name but their experience would have been very different from the one their grandchildren will have today and the physical elements of the town or village would also change/improve with time. Imagine a time before when there may not have been a particular bus stop, school or even tube station in Tooting. The people before you may have resented the change but Tooting was better for it for you and your family and so it goes on.. this is life. As much as it may sadden us to see things change, we can cherish and honour our memories but we must not let it hold us back or cause lingering sorrow that would cripple our hearts and make us feel broken. Nāṉ uṅkaḷukku amaitiyaiyum makiḻcciyaiyum virumpukiṟēṉ.. Best of luck to you, thank you for sharing this video!
I enjoyed your documentary. While I have never lived directly in Tooting, I have an attachment to it and consider it my little corner of London. I know it’s only been a few years since you made the documentary, but it would great to see you go back and understand how the neighborhood has evolved, particularly since COVID, Brexit, and cost of living crisis. It would be so interesting to interview the same people and learn how things have changed.
Quality documentary. A genuine insight into perplexing concepts of migration, identity, belonging, community... Having just bought accomodation in Tooting for uni next year, I would never think I'd be visiting a community full of history with so much going on. As someone who comes from a low-income household, I want all the best to the people that have called Tooting their home for so long and have now been pushed out :( A truly impactful documentary, well done Anpu! :)
I grew up down Bethnal Green and seeing how clean and different it looks on google streetview in comparison to what I remember just over 10 years ago is shocking. I heard Hackney is a boujee place to live now in comparison to how rough it used to be just over 10 years ago. Like NO ONE wante to be known for living in Hackney but now it's in so much demand whilst some of the houses are selling for over a million. Damn
Brilliant documentary, thank you...... I was born and grew up in the uk, but no longer feel at home here...... going out to India once a year for 60 days keeps me sane.. ;)
Really great video Anpu. I myself am a Tamil who grew up in Tooting most of my life, left in 2017 (all the way to Essex) due to increasing rent prices led by gentrification along the Northern Line. I miss this place pretty much everyday. Its a scary thing to see what you once saw as home completely unrecognisable, but it is what it is I guess. Hope to move back here sometime in the near future.
Watching this documentary brought back many memories of me growing up in Tooting. The market, Tooting High Street, Mitcham Rd I remember many places. Thanks for making this despite it going off on a tangent that I wasn't expecting.
Thank you for sharing your story and that too some of the people of Tooting. It must not be easy to navigate this and you had me in tears with "Where exactly do I belong?". It has always been a constant battle for people like me to relate and explain my identity in a place where one is a minority coupled with a global upbringing. I reckon the facet of Tooting or any suburbs will continue to change and some of the locals will be pinched with the effects of suburbanization; this is inevitable in current time. A job well done and thanks again for sharing Tooting in your shades. I am posting your video on my Facebook account. Cheers!
Hi Chris. Thank you so much for this comment, it means the world to me. I'm moved by your reaction and I'm glad you found the belonging aspect of the documentary powerful. Thanks for your support, I really appreciate it. Much love, Anpu.
Anpu!!!! This was amazing, you are SO talented, and such a good documentarian! I loved the mix of interviewees, really interesting perspectives on the changes in the area
The name 'Tooting' is thought to originate in Saxon times and derive from 'Toot', meaning to look out, and 'ing', meaning meadow. The look out may have arisen from its location at the crossing (now Tooting Broadway) of two historic routes, between Clapham and Merton and between Wandsworth and Mitcham. I'd love to be a global citezen and move to Sri lanka, but they do not allow immigration so that option is not open to me and I am White?
An interesting video which caused many wry smiles. It was so curious to hear people from communities, some of which have been in Tooting for less than 50 years , bemoaning change. Where were the interviews with the 70 and 80 year olds who were born in Tooting, as were their parents and grand parents? Ask them about change.
I'm 36 and left tooting when I was 20. completely south London old skool area but you grew up with that Asian community at the same time and ended having as many pies from Selkirk Road as you had kebab rolls from lahore. I miss this place, but I miss a place of times past, a time of childhood innocents. Its still tooting when I go back but its not mine any longer, I don't own it in my own personal way. A lost love that has changed forever.
I first moved to Tooting 33 years ago (1988), then to to NZ in 2001. The vibe back then was something that I'd never felt anywhere else in London and the years I spent there were some of the best of my life - good people, good neighbours, some lifelong friends still and my boys were both born at St George's. Lots of good memories. Enjoyed this video. Kinda wish we had maybe rented our house out back in the day rather than selling up!! Oh well.
As an ethnic minority myself who still has lived in tooting for many years, I think it is a much better place. Its more inviting with more developed and done up restaurants/shops. Back then Tooting market although was multicultutal, was horrible inside( nobody bothered to make the market nice looking) . Now it is absolutely amazing after it has been gentrified. I would rather live in an area that is developed even if it involves in the decrease of cultural feeling. To be honest tooting is still very cultural with still many Asian restaurants and shops but just more modernised e.g. chaiwala.
wow man what a documentary. it was really professionally done so you can actually get into the content which was really thought provoking. it was great hearing all these interviews from pretty high up people and background info on the topic. it really makes you think about gentrification and will stick in my mind. thanks for getting the word out.
Great job Anpu. As someone who grew up in tooting, I think you managed to tell the story of a complex issue well. In my opinion this is all just another symptom of the globalised world we now live in, but who knows COVID may reverse this...
Great job mate .everything changes like when minority's first came to the UK it was a change no one has a given right to any area it is a capitalist world we live in and London be loves by so many people it is a victim of it's on success the best smartest and richest from all over move to London or are trying to move to London heance gentrification in places like tooting clapham Brixton and peckham but it is a postive as it cleans up unsafe areas
I grew up on Cowick Road in Tooting, 90s and early 2000s. I remember the markets having interesting stuff but I also remember holding my breath as it always stank of rotting fish and vegetables. I appreciate the issues of gentrification but I do like things being a bit cleaner. I live in Australia now and I was sad to see things not as I left them, though. I’m surprised and saddened with it making it harder for the communities who built the community. To me, Tooting will always be synonymous with a diverse mixture of people. My friends were English, Nigerian, Pakistani, Ghanaian, Jamaican etc. - my childhood was brilliant. I learnt so much about different cultures and it made me a better person for it. Tooting will always be my home and where my family has lived for generations, and it should be accessible to ethnic communities.
Hi Lewis, thanks for the comment and sharing your experiences. It's fantastic reading about your experiences! And happy you came across my documentary. Hope life is treating you well in Australia. Take care!
Thank you. I live in Colliers Wood, so Tooting is my nearest shopping centre, although in recent years Merton have developed its own shopping centre and I don't have to go into Tooting . Your take on Tooting gentrification is excellent, as you gave a diverse and unbiased view . Thanks again.
My friend, human being always tends to grouped in around their own groups of people; comfort zone can has prop but many cons. People in your video complaining about losing their neighbours community and rejecting any other community of people to come over contradicting themselves as the same happens thirty or more years ago, when their parents come there from different places. Life change specially in London very quickly.
im 16 and have lived here since i was 3 so i dont know what it was like before but for me i was really surprised when tooting was on that list because i dont think its that great. i do like how diverse the population is and people are less ignorant as you live around different people and grow up with them so i do like that. but the prices on housing have gone up so much i wont be able to live here when i move out. so the people that grew up here are being pushed out and people who can afford it are now living here so it is sad that the people will change at some point
Hey, thanks for your comment. Yeah I hear you. It's sad that you won't be able to live in your hometown anymore. Renting with friends in Tooting is always an option. But yeah, I know what you mean. But it'll always remain a place that we can enjoy and experience, I hope.
That lady moaning about so called loss of ethnic identity in tooting has got to understand that London is a place of constant change - no one has more of a right to be in a place than anyone else, and no one should be exempt from change. Gentrified areas of London are becoming increasingly ‘white’, both culturally and ethnically, just as those areas experienced considered white flight in previous years. It’s just the way things work in this city, cultural genesis cannot occur just as ice cannot freeze in a fast flowing river
I grew up in Tooting/Furzedown. I moved there in 1970, when I was ten, and left in 1978. When I look at films of Tooting today, I am actually surprised at how little it has changed. I'm sure there have been great changes for individuals and families but overall it seems much the same.
@@AnpuLondon Great documentary - I'm in it dude! 12s - I play the part of guy in the woolly hat going back home from Lidl with his shopping :) . When I saw the video first time I had a vague memory of someone filming outside Tooting Bec tube. You filmed that scene around Christmas time right? That was a cold day - you didn't wear your big coat? :) Anyway aside from agreeing to waive my appearance fee on this occasion, of course the MP for Tooting including the central and markets area is Rosena Allin-Khan who has her own unique story to tell and a lot to say on the the topic of your doc, maybe try and reach out to her for a follow-up. And Sadiq Khan, try for him too to get another local and London-wide perspective. The Sound Lounge was a local cafe and music venue that had to close and move due to redevelopment, though in their case it was already planned. It was a pity no alternative place could be found in Tooting, there's nothing like that here now. They would be worth talking with. In fact it will be really interesting what will happen to where the RACS building used to be. The type of shops/businesses that go up there will change the face of Tooting again. Cheers
You are correct. I grew up in a white British town and its cultural identity has been eradicated by an influx of non-British immigrants who don't go to the pub and don't celebrate Christmas. It is a shame and it is ruining the area.
@@diptishalder4635 I can go to the pub, then people who work in the market can sit around complaining about how I'm engaging in ethnic genocide against them just by even being there.
@@fistofislam You can go to many pubs, please visit all of them in Tooting, dressed up in a Santa suit. You can do some Christmas karaoke in all of them and people will buy you pints. You need to do this and share the videos.
Thank you very much for watching! I funded this entire documentary myself & I've uploaded it totally free to watch, so if you can do me one favour - please share it with at least one person. Spread the word so these stories are not forgotten.
Well done thambi
@@ninthusiva7546 Thanks so much!
This is worth sharing my dear
@@Gievlog Thanks a lot for sharing, that means a lot to me!
I wish I could meet you one day
Very odd to watch a documentary on the town I live in and see people I know interviewed. Nice work.
Can imagine it's really odd. Thank you for the comment!
Julian Davies I bet it is 😂. Interesting doc!
After watching this documentary, I love more my identity, Thank you for sharing and doing this documentary it open my mind and my heart that it’s ok to open changes in our life or in the community that where in but I will never forget who I really was, it was amazing documentary you did a really good job, well done! Again
Thank you my friend
Wow thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and comment with me, it means a lot. So happy to have had this impact. Much love!
Good work and can you please post the name of the BGM played at the beginning. Thank you.
Im Born and raised in Tooting around the Amen Corner area , i recently moved to the US and returned to Tooting only to have a barista treat me like i was an immigrant fresh off the boat not welcomed in their predominately white 30 something cafe, cause of my brown skin found it funny when i broke out in my south london accent and to see their faces stunned into silence ! First time i felt like a stranger in my own home felt weird. like i dont recognize you , you dont look feel or even think like tooting. Having said that back in the day me and my friends were having fights with national front skin heads and just general racism towards anyone who wasnt white growing up in Tooting in the 70s/80s/90s ! But that was a different type of working class on working class tension cause deep down we all understood that we all had the same issues that come from being working class so you kinda get the other side. But todays tension is a tension of unequally distributed social economic groups that have unbalanced the fabric of Tooting to the extent that the soul and culture of it has been sterilized into a clone of Balham Clapham white collar society !
Which cafe was this and did you not report them
So true.
The was some poetic words!
This is one of the best comments I have ever read. This summarises the experience of watching Tooting change over the past 10 years in words I couldn't hope to have come up with. Disgusting when the people who claim to love Tooting for its diverse cultures only frequent their middle class chain establishments and end up driving out the locals. I saw an article mock the fear of gentrification in Tooting - along the lines of 'oh no, isn't it awful how everyone is getting rich, boo hoo' but in reality people aren't getting rich... you're driving poor people out.
We live in Tooting and it certainly has changed, even in the 5 years we have lived here. Personally we love all of the restaurants m, bars and coffee shops. But it must be tough if you are forced out of an area where you grew up due to increasing house prices 🙏
Thanks for your feedback & thanks for watching. Yeah definitely is tough when you're priced out!
Well done, you've shot a damn good video. Gentrification is not really the cause of problems. As long as there are so many foreign buyers and property profiteers throughout London, property will become even more sought after.
Government has not regulated foreign property purchases coupled with no new residential housing anywhere in London. There doesn't seem to be a plan to develop housing along the main lines out of London.
Thank you!
And yes you're right about that fact that housing plays such an important role in this complicated problem.
@@AnpuLondon I hate seeing the pressure build up on the long-time residents. As "gentrification" starts pushing up all prices around them. Once again, great video. Nobody has tackled that in a youtube video.
Omg what an amazing and informative documentary. I remember going to the Tooting Amman Kovil on regular basis and it was well visited by many others and finding out one day that it closed really shocked me. Thank you for giving us documentary it really awaken my memories when I used come there for every weeknd . I truly feel that there was a clear image from the government to cleanse and radicate religious and ethical input which gave the character to Tooting. Congratulation and hope to see many more of your work.
Wow, you also visited the Tooting temple too? Thank you for watching and your comment means a lot to me!
I was born and breed in tooting, I now live in the US. I would just like to say what a wonderful documentary you have put together. When I was growing up in Tooting in the 80's and 90's the thing that made Tooting so special was the mixed culture. My mother is English, my father was from Marocco, our close family friends were Pakistani, Indian, Jamaican and Greek. We loved them all and they loved us. What changed in Tooting is very sad... I totally feel what you say about your home of Tooting and no longer being able to connect with the very place you were born. I am 40 and have not been back to Tooting for about 15 years. It was the most wonderful please to grow up in and I am fortunate to remember Tooting when it WAS Tooting
Wow, I really appreciate this comment. Thank you.
This really is an excellent documentary Anpu ! lived here 25 years, love it. I think the restaurants etc have made a big and positive difference, and still has some of the best Indian restaurants in the country. I remember when we moved here in 1995 and wishing there was a good coffee shop, in just the last 7 years we now have several to chooses from. Id love a good book shop too. . . . . but we cant have everything i guess ;). The property prices havent helped working class people stay in the area, and this is something that I think needs addressing. But I think things do change, and businesses need to adapt to new trends and customers. If youd asked people in the 50's they would have probably said similar things about change, and house prices and gentrification.....its the cycle of life I guess.
That was excellent , it's very interesting to hear people speak about tooting in the 90s, however there was a Tooting before Primark. This was the Tooting that had Marks and Spencers ,Chelsea girl, Smith's etc, It was still multicultural, but with a bit more class, working class with a standard. Black and white got along together we never had division in the the same way as Brixton and other area's, we were working class Tooting people.
Tooting has never been rough
What do you mean by rough during the 1990s and 2000's . You show newspapers from 1980s.
The nicer parts of tooting have always been nice going back to the 70s
Tooting has always been mixed. Working class and middle class. Lots of middle class Indians have been living in Tooting since the 1970s before white middle class moved in in thec 00s Gentrification is rubbish.
Born in Tooting Bec now live in Kent. I f i wanted to move back to Tooting I'd have to rob a bank or two. You can blame gentrification however its those that lived in Tooting that sold up because the house prices went ballistic. that have caused the change.
Wow! A few seconds through the documentary and I totally love it! you're very underrated.
Woow! Thanks for this comment, I really appreciate it. So glad the first few seconds captured your attention!
Loved all of this, made me miss living there.
Thanks Jordan! You used to live in Tooting too?
@@AnpuLondon I did! Only for a little bit but I loved being there. I may well have been part of the problem you were describing in the video though... haha.
5yrs on I think Tooting has retained a balance between local communities and gentrification, retail and restaurants are always in flux but the racial mix remains strong ❤
Southall and Hayes are the next areas to Gentrify...
Lahore is legit the best restaurant in Tooting!
Agreed!!
Live The Dash I think it’s the other curry house!
What about. Dawat.? And spice village?
Dawat is amazing. Spice village has left me disappointed a couple of times.
The main root cause of this problem is the UK Government. If only did they fully enhance safety & security, i am confident that people from different ethnic groups can live together & learn from one another as well. Other factors that might affect people living in london are the rising costs of houses and etc. When it comes to identity, it depends on the family. If the head of the family doesn't instill the importance of identity & culture to their kids & etc, thats when identity of ethnic groups vanish. I am a singaporean tamil and in our small multicultural island regardless of whether you are of chinese,malay or indian origin, we still live together and move on in life !
Interesting points you raise here! Thanks for the comment. It's definitely interesting hearing about the experiences of Singaporean Tamils. And yeah there's definitely truth in the statement which you make about how identity does depend on the family and upbringing.
very interesting documentary!
Glad you thought so :)
A wonderful, insightful documentary and really well done. I lived in Tooting Broadway from 1999 to 2011 and was very happy there, coming from a working class background and part of an immigrant family growing up in a Northern mill town, I felt very much at home. I loved the vibrancy, the smells, the lights at Diwali and above all, I felt safe - safer than anywhere else I lived in London. You've made a very important contribution to the history of Tooting and a subtle meditation on belonging, identity, migration and communities. A brilliant piece of work, thank you.
This is a really special comment - it means a lot to me. I'm glad you resonate with the subtleties. Thanks for your comment.
5:51 Map of Mumbai! 😃
This Documentary is so awesome Bro. Keep up the good work, I’m a big fan.
Thanks for your comments and thoughts!
Thank you for this insightful documentary, you are a talented and tenacious documentary-maker. I'm going to study at St George's so I wanted to understand the local communities and history better. I am so sorry about the treatment of your Temple, that is awful disregard. I hope you carry on the good work
This was an interesting video, I love the style of the documentary. It was very extensive and thorough which I really appreciated as I myself also feel very nostalgic about Tooting. My aunt and uncle lived in Tooting and only a couple months ago moved to a more upscale area in London so I spent many holidays over the years at their house in Tooting. I am also brown skinned and from a Hindu family. The thing is that life is always evolving and so change is therefore inevitable. One thing I do not understand though is why the question "where are you from" brings you such sorrow because wherever you were born is static information that will not change. Where you grew up is also fixed information that does not change. Where you live now or will live in the future is changeable but the past has already been established and it should not bring you sorrow to say that you were born in Sri Lanka or England if that is where you were born. Similarly, you grew up in Tooting and that fact will not change either even if the neighbourhood is not exactly the same as it was 20 years ago. Everywhere in the world this happens as where our grandparents or great grandparents grew up may be the same place in name but their experience would have been very different from the one their grandchildren will have today and the physical elements of the town or village would also change/improve with time. Imagine a time before when there may not have been a particular bus stop, school or even tube station in Tooting. The people before you may have resented the change but Tooting was better for it for you and your family and so it goes on.. this is life. As much as it may sadden us to see things change, we can cherish and honour our memories but we must not let it hold us back or cause lingering sorrow that would cripple our hearts and make us feel broken. Nāṉ uṅkaḷukku amaitiyaiyum makiḻcciyaiyum virumpukiṟēṉ.. Best of luck to you, thank you for sharing this video!
Thank you for this comment and your thoughts!
Best wishes to you.
I went to 'Franciscan infants school,nearly 60 years ...1968..I left London 40years ago.I live in NYC.
I enjoyed your documentary. While I have never lived directly in Tooting, I have an attachment to it and consider it my little corner of London.
I know it’s only been a few years since you made the documentary, but it would great to see you go back and understand how the neighborhood has evolved, particularly since COVID, Brexit, and cost of living crisis. It would be so interesting to interview the same people and learn how things have changed.
Excellent!
I'm watching the whole thing😇
Hope you enjoy watching!! :)
You have done a great thing by releasing this documentory.
Thanks a lot! I'm happy to hear this.
Quality documentary. A genuine insight into perplexing concepts of migration, identity, belonging, community... Having just bought accomodation in Tooting for uni next year, I would never think I'd be visiting a community full of history with so much going on. As someone who comes from a low-income household, I want all the best to the people that have called Tooting their home for so long and have now been pushed out :( A truly impactful documentary, well done Anpu! :)
Thanks so much for this comment. It truly is a perplexing mix of themes. So much going on Tooting - you're absolutely right.
Thanks again!
I grew up down Bethnal Green and seeing how clean and different it looks on google streetview in comparison to what I remember just over 10 years ago is shocking. I heard Hackney is a boujee place to live now in comparison to how rough it used to be just over 10 years ago. Like NO ONE wante to be known for living in Hackney but now it's in so much demand whilst some of the houses are selling for over a million. Damn
This is the best channel ever!!!🥰
👏👏 🤗🤗
Awhhh thank you!!!!!!
Hi Anpu... its really amazing. Thank you for making this vedio. I'm a biiiiiiiig fan of u.... love from srilanka😍😍
Wow. Thank you for watching :)
You're a PRO!
Thank you!!! :D
Brilliant documentary, thank you...... I was born and grew up in the uk, but no longer feel at home here...... going out to India once a year for 60 days keeps me sane.. ;)
Thanks for your thoughts on the documentary!
Really great video Anpu. I myself am a Tamil who grew up in Tooting most of my life, left in 2017 (all the way to Essex) due to increasing rent prices led by gentrification along the Northern Line. I miss this place pretty much everyday. Its a scary thing to see what you once saw as home completely unrecognisable, but it is what it is I guess. Hope to move back here sometime in the near future.
Watching this documentary brought back many memories of me growing up in Tooting. The market, Tooting High Street, Mitcham Rd I remember many places. Thanks for making this despite it going off on a tangent that I wasn't expecting.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Oliver!
Thank you for sharing your story and that too some of the people of Tooting. It must not be easy to navigate this and you had me in tears with "Where exactly do I belong?". It has always been a constant battle for people like me to relate and explain my identity in a place where one is a minority coupled with a global upbringing. I reckon the facet of Tooting or any suburbs will continue to change and some of the locals will be pinched with the effects of suburbanization; this is inevitable in current time. A job well done and thanks again for sharing Tooting in your shades. I am posting your video on my Facebook account. Cheers!
Hi Chris. Thank you so much for this comment, it means the world to me. I'm moved by your reaction and I'm glad you found the belonging aspect of the documentary powerful. Thanks for your support, I really appreciate it. Much love, Anpu.
Anpu!!!! This was amazing, you are SO talented, and such a good documentarian! I loved the mix of interviewees, really interesting perspectives on the changes in the area
This is such a sweet comment, thank you for the feedback! xoxo
(thanks for the side note hehehe)
This video was linked in the I Grew Up in Tooting fb group. Great documentary.
Ah thanks for letting me know, that's great. Thanks for watching.
@@AnpuLondon 👍🏾👍🏾
Great work, Anpu! Thank you for sharing this for us
Thanks for watching!
Keep it up your Good work👍 cheers from Norway
Thank you!
First! 😍
Yaay!!
Great documentary mate! This was filmed very well! 👍
The name 'Tooting' is thought to originate in Saxon times and derive from 'Toot', meaning to look out, and 'ing', meaning meadow. The look out may have arisen from its location at the crossing (now Tooting Broadway) of two historic routes, between Clapham and Merton and between Wandsworth and Mitcham. I'd love to be a global citezen and move to Sri lanka, but they do not allow immigration so that option is not open to me and I am White?
An interesting video which caused many wry smiles. It was so curious to hear people from communities, some of which have been in Tooting for less than 50 years , bemoaning change. Where were the interviews with the 70 and 80 year olds who were born in Tooting, as were their parents and grand parents? Ask them about change.
I'm 36 and left tooting when I was 20. completely south London old skool area but you grew up with that Asian community at the same time and ended having as many pies from Selkirk Road as you had kebab rolls from lahore. I miss this place, but I miss a place of times past, a time of childhood innocents. Its still tooting when I go back but its not mine any longer, I don't own it in my own personal way. A lost love that has changed forever.
I first moved to Tooting 33 years ago (1988), then to to NZ in 2001. The vibe back then was something that I'd never felt anywhere else in London and the years I spent there were some of the best of my life - good people, good neighbours, some lifelong friends still and my boys were both born at St George's. Lots of good memories. Enjoyed this video. Kinda wish we had maybe rented our house out back in the day rather than selling up!! Oh well.
Haven’t been to tooting in 12 years, when i go down london again il go and see tooting again hopefully its much better than last time
As an ethnic minority myself who still has lived in tooting for many years, I think it is a much better place. Its more inviting with more developed and done up restaurants/shops. Back then Tooting market although was multicultutal, was horrible inside( nobody bothered to make the market nice looking) . Now it is absolutely amazing after it has been gentrified. I would rather live in an area that is developed even if it involves in the decrease of cultural feeling. To be honest tooting is still very cultural with still many Asian restaurants and shops but just more modernised e.g. chaiwala.
wow man what a documentary. it was really professionally done so you can actually get into the content which was really thought provoking. it was great hearing all these interviews from pretty high up people and background info on the topic. it really makes you think about gentrification and will stick in my mind. thanks for getting the word out.
Great job Anpu. As someone who grew up in tooting, I think you managed to tell the story of a complex issue well. In my opinion this is all just another symptom of the globalised world we now live in, but who knows COVID may reverse this...
Wow, Thank you for making this video. Really liked it.
Thanks a lot, glad you liked it
Anpu always bro.. ;)
London is forever changing and always has done. Different people come and go. Been that way forever
Great job mate .everything changes like when minority's first came to the UK it was a change no one has a given right to any area it is a capitalist world we live in and London be loves by so many people it is a victim of it's on success the best smartest and richest from all over move to London or are trying to move to London heance gentrification in places like tooting clapham Brixton and peckham but it is a postive as it cleans up unsafe areas
After seeing your insta story I'm here FINALLY
Such an interesting documentary 👍🏽... this make me miss the old tooting temple 😔
Thank you for your comments. I miss the old Tooting temple too.
Just moved from Italy to UK in Mitcham and I'm also Tamil. Thanks for the informative video :)
Oh you've just moved to Mitcham, wow! You're very welcome. Thanks for watching.
What do you think about making a meeting with your subscribers?
@@AsbrbaS4league hey! I actually held a meet and greet last week!
Ketchur hey I live in Mitcham!
Anpu hey will you do documentaries on other areas like Wimbledon, Mitcham and Colliers Wood?
2nd
Awesome :)
Society always changes, What can you do, always has, always will.
Nice video
Thanks!
I grew up on Cowick Road in Tooting, 90s and early 2000s. I remember the markets having interesting stuff but I also remember holding my breath as it always stank of rotting fish and vegetables. I appreciate the issues of gentrification but I do like things being a bit cleaner. I live in Australia now and I was sad to see things not as I left them, though. I’m surprised and saddened with it making it harder for the communities who built the community. To me, Tooting will always be synonymous with a diverse mixture of people. My friends were English, Nigerian, Pakistani, Ghanaian, Jamaican etc. - my childhood was brilliant. I learnt so much about different cultures and it made me a better person for it. Tooting will always be my home and where my family has lived for generations, and it should be accessible to ethnic communities.
Hi Lewis, thanks for the comment and sharing your experiences. It's fantastic reading about your experiences! And happy you came across my documentary. Hope life is treating you well in Australia. Take care!
Ting Tong from Tooting - ah Little Britain... seriously though I miss Tooting, I lived on Mitcham Rd near the cop shop 15 years ago
I need to watch Little Britain to understand this reference haha
excellent
Thanks :)
Thank you. I live in Colliers Wood, so Tooting is my nearest shopping centre, although in recent years Merton have developed its own shopping centre and I don't have to go into Tooting .
Your take on Tooting gentrification is excellent, as you gave a diverse and unbiased view . Thanks again.
These words mean a lot to me - thank you. 😌
Hi mate, I stumbled on this. Amazingly well made , very impressive and thought provoking.
Thanks for your comment and thoughts - it means a lot!
My friend, human being always tends to grouped in around their own groups of people; comfort zone can has prop but many cons. People in your video complaining about losing their neighbours community and rejecting any other community of people to come over contradicting themselves as the same happens thirty or more years ago, when their parents come there from different places.
Life change specially in London very quickly.
@jose You wouldn't be talking in in the same manner if the same happens to your native home town.
im 16 and have lived here since i was 3 so i dont know what it was like before but for me i was really surprised when tooting was on that list because i dont think its that great. i do like how diverse the population is and people are less ignorant as you live around different people and grow up with them so i do like that. but the prices on housing have gone up so much i wont be able to live here when i move out. so the people that grew up here are being pushed out and people who can afford it are now living here so it is sad that the people will change at some point
Hey, thanks for your comment. Yeah I hear you. It's sad that you won't be able to live in your hometown anymore. Renting with friends in Tooting is always an option. But yeah, I know what you mean. But it'll always remain a place that we can enjoy and experience, I hope.
Excellent Thank you
Very well put together. 🙏
Born in Croydon Raised in tooting lives it tooting since 3 months old. Still live their now.
awesome!
This documentary was very interesting and informative
Thank you! I appreciate that.
That lady moaning about so called loss of ethnic identity in tooting has got to understand that London is a place of constant change - no one has more of a right to be in a place than anyone else, and no one should be exempt from change. Gentrified areas of London are becoming increasingly ‘white’, both culturally and ethnically, just as those areas experienced considered white flight in previous years. It’s just the way things work in this city, cultural genesis cannot occur just as ice cannot freeze in a fast flowing river
Did you grew up in Tooting?Where were you all these days?Nice to see you back.
Yeah I grew up in the area.
Thanks, I was super busy making this documentary but now I'm back to making videos for my channel :)
I grew up in Tooting/Furzedown. I moved there in 1970, when I was ten, and left in 1978. When I look at films of Tooting today, I am actually surprised at how little it has changed. I'm sure there have been great changes for individuals and families but overall it seems much the same.
Furzedown has always been quite posh honestly
@@adonaiyah2196 Not my house though!
Appreciatable work..
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Anpu it's a great video,here you have done a great job though I agree a lot with your MP Siobhain McDonagh.Keep up your good work young man.
Thank you very much!
@@AnpuLondon Great documentary - I'm in it dude! 12s - I play the part of guy in the woolly hat going back home from Lidl with his shopping :) . When I saw the video first time I had a vague memory of someone filming outside Tooting Bec tube. You filmed that scene around Christmas time right? That was a cold day - you didn't wear your big coat? :) Anyway aside from agreeing to waive my appearance fee on this occasion, of course the MP for Tooting including the central and markets area is Rosena Allin-Khan who has her own unique story to tell and a lot to say on the the topic of your doc, maybe try and reach out to her for a follow-up. And Sadiq Khan, try for him too to get another local and London-wide perspective.
The Sound Lounge was a local cafe and music venue that had to close and move due to redevelopment, though in their case it was already planned. It was a pity no alternative place could be found in Tooting, there's nothing like that here now. They would be worth talking with. In fact it will be really interesting what will happen to where the RACS building used to be. The type of shops/businesses that go up there will change the face of Tooting again. Cheers
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Sick!
Cheers!
Anpu will you do documentaries on other areas?
You are correct. I grew up in a white British town and its cultural identity has been eradicated by an influx of non-British immigrants who don't go to the pub and don't celebrate Christmas. It is a shame and it is ruining the area.
In Tooting you can go to the pub and celebrate Christmas every day, like in the song by Wizzard.
@@diptishalder4635 I can go to the pub, then people who work in the market can sit around complaining about how I'm engaging in ethnic genocide against them just by even being there.
@@fistofislam You can go to many pubs, please visit all of them in Tooting, dressed up in a Santa suit. You can do some Christmas karaoke in all of them and people will buy you pints. You need to do this and share the videos.
Go to the Toey club, they only let whites in. That's if it's still open? There was no craic at all, like a morgue! @@fistofislam
Tory club.
It's a slum now 3rd world