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Kuba Nowak lives in London’s East End, a fast-changing part of the city. He loves his street and his neighbours, many of whom have lived there most of their lives. Together they celebrate their community by planting trees, sharing produce from their gardens and holding regular street parties with food, music and dancing. Now rising property prices and new development mean the neighbourhood is changing so rapidly that residents scarcely recognise the place they live.

Kuba left Poland as a child and lived in Austria and Canada before coming to London. As an immigrant he says he is ‘always searching for home’. He thinks he has found it on this street and now, before it is too late, he wants to understand where this sense of community comes from, what sustains it and how it might be recreated elsewhere. He is not alone in his quest. His longstanding neighbours are anxious to preserve the local atmosphere and new arrivals say it is the reason they have moved there because it is a happier, healthier and safer place to live. One resident, a European consultant on urban development, uses the street to exemplify community cohesion as social capital in lectures from Shanghai to Gdansk.

With urbanisation a global phenomenon and increasing pressure on cities driving similar change from Cape Town to Toronto, Mexico City to Mumbai, the story of this street is a familiar one. And as policy-makers the world over seek to support stable, contented societies, Kuba’s formula for community spirit is of interest to us all.