‘It was a case study for what not to do’: the regeneration project that became a £100m luxury ghost town

Hackney Walk, envisioned as a monument to luxury retail, with a striking gold-and-glass facade. Photograph: Cian Oba-Smith/The Guardian

When Alvin Owusu-Fordwuo was growing up in central Hackney in east London, the small businesses that operated under the arches on Morning Lane blended into the background. As a kid he had little need for discount office furniture or the free “crypton tune” that came with a service at one of the car garages tucked under the railway line.

“I knew those businesses had a function,” says Owusu-Fordwuo, 26. Rain begins to fleck his glasses as we stand on a wedge of land where the busy road bends close to the train tracks. “But it’s like you didn’t know they were there until they weren’t.”