Sprucing up Islington…

Without the super-rich there would be no upmarket boutiques. Just horrid little shops full of poor people.

According to Knight Frank, there are now 167,669 super-rich, or "ultra high net worth individuals". This is roughly equivalent to the population of Kensington and Chelsea, where indeed many of them have a pad. Altogether, they control a mind-boggling $20trn in assets, more than the national output of the US and Germany put together. And London is home to more of them (4,224) than any other city, even New York.

This huge influx of wealth has changed the capital dramatically, but not just for the worse. "The money presently swilling around London is alienating to many of us who live here as well as those of us who don't," says Guardian columnist Ian Jack. And yet, as he also says, one can at least take pleasure in some of its effects.

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