The Comfort of a Familiar Face: Concierges' and Porters' Care Work in London's Elite Neighbourhoods

Elites increasingly inhabit defensive homes to ‘protect’ themselves from the public, and many scholars have explored how architecture and planning enables this. Elites, however, also require the labour of non-elites to achieve this social withdrawal. Despite this, apartment block staff have remained marginal in the literature, as figures who are often described in the background, but rarely actually spoken to. As part of a broader project on cleaning and security work for the wealthy, this paper draws upon 31 interviews with porters and concierges working in London’s most expensive apartment blocks, the elite residents they serve, and the professionals who mediate between these two groups (e.g. recruiters, estate agents). Some interviewees confirmed previous conclusions on the elite: that they prioritise distinction, insisting on smart uniforms and deferential demeanours; and, that they help elites disconnect from public interactions, such as their handling of mail and waste. Surprisingly, however, interviewees also described these elite/non-elite relationships in terms of care, from being on-call in the case of health emergencies, helping elderly residents with shopping, to the simple reassurance of a ‘familiar face’ at their building’s entrance. I contrast these accounts with those from Grenfell Tower, a public housing block in the same borough of London’s elite neighbourhoods, and where 72 residents died in a fire in 2016. Testimonies describe how the block used to hire a concierge who provided similar care services to those in elite blocks, but the council cut this four years before the fire. By going beyond critiquing elites’ use of concierges as disconnection and distinction, then, I suggest that their labour is not only a ‘luxury’, but a form of infrastructural care which is unequally distributed in cities like London which have been captured by the super-rich.