Brent Cross in North London is home to the UK’s first stand-alone shopping centre, opened in 1976. However, much of the area has not moved on since then – it has only decayed. Brent Cross today has become the strange meeting point where disadvantaged social conditions and the symbol of shopping culture collide. There is little glitz and glamour left in this environment of urban corrosion; consumer culture may promise much, but it doesn't always deliver.