In London's inheritocracy opportunity is inherited not earned — how the capital became a fortress of privilege

To some, this may well be a familiar story; to others, it will reek of financial privilege. In the 1980s, my mother bought an additional five-bed property for £28,000 with a mortgage just three times her salary.

It was a wreck — no ceilings, no bathrooms, barely habitable — in Tooting Broadway, then deemed a rough part of south London.