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Yesterday, outside “Miss Delaney’s”, an elite £10,000-a-year nursery school recommended in the “Tatler top nursery guide”, a group of well-groomed mothers were laughing and chatting. A Bentley cruised past and idled towards a nearby mews where a gardener clipped the hedge of a £6 million mansion. All seemed peaceful and calm in affluent W11.

Just a few minutes’ walk up the road, as the charred Grenfell Tower in North Kensington came into view, a grief-stricken community was on the move, urgently shifting boxes of clothes, consoling loved ones and beginning to boil over with anger — an anger directed not just at the politicians but at their rich neighbours from the southern end of the borough.

Anna Fabres, 53, a Brazilian single mum who lives nearby and whose daughter’s friend is in a coma, pointed at the still smouldering tower block and said: “To think that in a 24-storey building of 600 people there were no sprinklers and no fire alarms — it’s disgusting."

This would never have happened if wealthy people lived there. Our rich Kensington and Chelsea neighbours love to say how much they love immigrants. Yes, they love us to be their cleaners and child-minders on zero- hours contracts. But they don’t care about our living conditions or that the people they employ might live in a death trap.”

For 21-year-old Taybah Mahmood, who heard the screams of the dying and had school friends living in the tower who are still “missing”, the key to understanding what went wrong is simple. “You could call it ‘minority tower’,” she said. “The people who lived there were black or Muslim or from Arabic countries or Eastern Europe.

There were families with six children living in two-bedroom flats. Madness. They were all minorities and they were the poorest in the borough. People are angry at the state the building was in. I blame the Government and the council. They were warned by the residents but they did nothing. This is murder.”

Later in the day, as tensions rose, Mayor Sadiq Khan was heckled. Channel 4 anchor Jon Snow was screamed at by an angry resident and told: “Why weren’t you here before? You only come when people die.” Theresa May was mocked for ducking out of an audience with residents. And on a wall outside the Latymer Community Church, where people wrote moving tributes to the missing and the dead, they also wrote: “Theresa May stay away”, “Blood on their hands” and “Go to hell all those responsible”.

The reason was clear. At its core is the belief that the catastrophic death toll — currently standing at 17 but which locals believe will exceed 100 and will include up to 50 children — could have been prevented.

People died, they say, because they were poor. Apart from the lack of fire alarms and sprinklers, residents believe the Grenfell Tower cladding, which was allegedly sub-standard and effectively wrapped the building in “firelighter”, was only added two years ago to make the building aesthetically pleasing for the rich residents of nearby new-builds.

Eva, 36, who lives on an adjacent estate, said: “They put on the cladding so the rich people in the new-builds wouldn’t have an ugly building to look at, but they did it without caring for the safety of the people who actually lived inside. It’s insane, but they get away with it because the rich and the politicians who do their bidding don’t give a toss about the poor.”

Grenfell Tower stands as a “monument to inequality”, said local residents. What’s more, the council has been pulling down tower blocks and replacing them with expensive new-builds that only the rich can afford and, gradually, “cleansing” the area of poor minorities.

Of course, none of these gentrification concerns, nor the stark social and economic divide, are unique to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, but they are brought into sharp focus by the blaze. The richest borough in the country is riven by widening disparities and has extreme pockets of deprivation that are among the 10 per cent worst in the country, such as Henry Dickens Court where 58 per cent of children live in poverty. Grenfell Tower is believed to have a similarly catastrophic child poverty rate and it is these sorts of residents who voted for Labour, securing by just 20 votes the first defeat of the Tories in the borough since the Seventies.

It was this that led us to launch the Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund in 2010. We sought to expose the privation of the hidden poor who lived in plain sight in the richest capital in Europe and where almost half our children lived below the poverty line. We reported on their forgotten plight and set about raising a fund that recently rose to £18 million to empower the local heroes who run grassroots charities and improve lives for the kind of disadvantaged people who live in blocks like Grenfell Tower.

In the wake of the fire, we activated an emergency Dispossessed Fund appeal and thanks to the generosity of Londoners, we have already raised over £2 million for the victims of the fire. This money will not only offer vital help but is also symbolic of Londoners of all backgrounds coming together.

Grenfell Tower aftermath - In pictures 14 show all Grenfell Tower aftermath - In pictures 1/14 The top section of the death trap Grenfell Tower Jeremy Selwyn 2/14 The tower today, after the flames were extinguished Jeremy Selwyn 3/14 A close up of the tower's damaged windows PA 4/14 Fire service personnel survey the damage PA 5/14 The tower today, after it emerged at least 17 were killed Jeremy Selwyn 6/14 Rows of blackened windows after the fire Jeremy Selwyn 7/14 Police sent in sniffer dogs today to search for bodies Jeremy Selwyn 8/14 PA 9/14 The Grenfell Tower at dawn today Jeremy Selwyn 10/14 Donations have flooded in for victims Jeremy Selwyn 11/14 Water is sprayed on Grenfell Tower PA 12/14 Rows and rows of blackened windows. It is feared over one hundred people may have perished Jeremy Selwyn 13/14 Part of the scorched facade of the Grenfell Tower in London as firefighting continue to damp-down the deadly fire AP 14/14 Fire crews examine the wreckage PA 1/14 The top section of the death trap Grenfell Tower Jeremy Selwyn 2/14 The tower today, after the flames were extinguished Jeremy Selwyn 3/14 A close up of the tower's damaged windows PA 4/14 Fire service personnel survey the damage PA 5/14 The tower today, after it emerged at least 17 were killed Jeremy Selwyn 6/14 Rows of blackened windows after the fire Jeremy Selwyn 7/14 Police sent in sniffer dogs today to search for bodies Jeremy Selwyn 8/14 PA 9/14 The Grenfell Tower at dawn today Jeremy Selwyn 10/14 Donations have flooded in for victims Jeremy Selwyn 11/14 Water is sprayed on Grenfell Tower PA 12/14 Rows and rows of blackened windows. It is feared over one hundred people may have perished Jeremy Selwyn 13/14 Part of the scorched facade of the Grenfell Tower in London as firefighting continue to damp-down the deadly fire AP 14/14 Fire crews examine the wreckage PA

There is also no doubt that many of the better-off residents of the borough have generously contributed money, food, clothing, even offers of accommodation and, in some cases, their time, with Samantha Cameron mucking in. Maxine Willetts, fundraising manager of the youth group Epic, which has been working from the nearby Lancaster Youth Centre, said: “It’s been like a wartime effort. Everyone has been chipping in. We have had people come down to help from all over London and all over the country, young and old, rich and poor and all ethnicities and religions.”

Yet it is sobering to realise how far from the ideal of the “melting pot” we still are and how much work still needs to be done to rebalance our city.

Damien Williams, 19, and his friends Ronaldo, 18, and Mahdi, 20, expressed the view of many when they said that being black and poor makes them feel excluded in their own back yard. “The divide is drastic,” said Damien. “We live in the block where all the poor people live. We don’t mix with the wealthy. If we walk in their mews, they think, ooh, he’s black, he must be carrying a knife.

“We’re not saying all rich people are bad but it’s interesting to look at the community effort here today. We’ve had a handful of rich people pitching in but by far the majority who have come out to help are poor people from the surrounding estates. The rich might come out for one day, but then they piss off. The rest of the time they look down on you. Where is the council? Where are the elected officials?”

Anna Fabres added: “There is a class of elite people who don’t like to mingle with ordinary people. They don’t look at you if they talk to you. They sort of look away, as if you aren’t good enough for them.”

Theresa May’s announcement of a full public inquiry has not appeased anyone. “We are not interested in waiting five years only to be told nobody is to blame,” one man said. Another local resident whose friend died in the blaze tearfully implored the Mayor: “The people who are responsible must be brought to account. Heads must roll.”

Follow David Cohen on Twitter: @cohenstandard