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This paper makes a comparative analysis of gentrification in London and Berlin. It aims to analyse the “universal” aspect of this process in the light of the particularities of the urban context in which it takes place. Special emphasis is given to the historical mechanisms leading to inner city decay in Berlin and London, as a prevailing feature of the anglo-saxon urban form. Secondly, the paper examines the role of these two cities in global capitalism and the kind of functional and social restructuring that shaped the two city centres, but each in a different way. In Berlin, gentrification arises from a “cultural elite”, basically different from the London “financial” and service class.