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Within a short walk from the social housing block in west London, where 17 people – and perhaps many more – died in a devastating fire, are some of Britain's wealthiest streets, lined with elegant, multi-million-pound townhouses.
The borough of Kensington and Chelsea is famous in Britain and beyond as the home of pop stars and other celebrities, jet-setters and bankers. But it also has pockets of deprivation like the housing estate where the doomed 24-storey Grenfell Tower stands.
Dozens of residents are missing and authorities say the death toll could rise further after an inferno engulfed the building with terrifying speed as residents slept in the early hours of Wednesday. The lucky ones got out alive, but have lost everything.
The disaster has prompted an outpouring of generosity, with shocked Londoners donating so many clothes, shoes and bedsheets that volunteers were soon overwhelmed.
Alia Al-Ghabbani, a receptionist who lives on the estate, was among many angered by a recent refurbishment in which new cladding was added to the exterior of the building and which media reports have said might have played a part in the rapid spread of the fire.
The fire service has said it was too early to know what caused the blaze and the local authority has said the refurbishment was designed to improve the quality of life for residents of the block.
Community organiser Pilgrim Tucker, who had worked closely with residents of Grenfell Tower during the refurbishment period, saw the blaze as the tragic consequence of long-term neglect of an entire section of the community.
As Tucker and others reported that fire safety concerns raised by residents had fallen on deaf ears, the fallout from the disaster fed into the broader political picture.
To general astonishment, the Kensington parliamentary constituency, where the Grenfell Tower stands, was won by Labour for the first time in its history.
The new Labour MP Emma Dent Coad has been quick to try to make her mark, criticising the council, in a newspaper interview, for perceived safety failings and saying the tragedy was preventable.
The area immediately around the Grenfell block, known as Notting Dale, is a socially mixed neighbourhood.
The gritty 1970s social housing estate is surrounded by pretty streets lined with the well-tended, privately-owned homes of affluent professionals – though not of millionaires. They live a few minutes away, in the prestigious Holland Park area.
Anabel Donald, a well-to-do grandmother, has lent her ground-floor apartment to six people from the estate who had nowhere else to go.
Though from the wealthier side of the street, Donald shared the outrage of other residents about the way Kensington and Chelsea have been run by the Conservative local council.
She accused the council of keeping taxes unnecessarily low, when it could easily raise more money to spend on social housing and other public services. She said she would happily pay more local tax herself.
Amid the horror of the tower blaze, she said social divisions had seemed to matter less than usual.
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