By Jon Kelly BBC News

Friends of Kodjo Yenga from west London have flocked to the shrine

Barely 48 hours since his death, the shrine to Kodjo Yenga has taken over the genteel corner of west London where the 16-year-old was stabbed.

Written in brightly-coloured marker pen, phrased in teenage street language, heartfelt tributes are scrawled along a wall near the spot where Kodjo's life was brought to an end.

"Always finkin of U," says one. "Pray 4 betta dayz," implores another.

A third states: "You were my best friend, my brother, everything."

Several messages pay tribute to Kodjo - or Kizzle, or Kizz, as he was nicknamed - as a "fallen soldier".

'Lovely guy'

One 17-year-old friend, who gives her name as Louise, brushes a tear from her eye as she makes her pilgrimage to the shrine's bouquets and candles.

"Kodjo was a lovely guy. Laid-back, friendly, you can see how many people loved him," she says.

"He was into his music, he was always there for his friends. It sounds obvious, but I can't believe he's gone."

When I moved to this area I thought it was safe Janina Eckhardt Arrests over stabbing

The street where Kodjo breathed his last is no inner-city ghetto.

Hammersmith Grove, W6, is a tree-lined road of smart Victorian terraces which has counted actor Ralph Fiennes, BBC Today programme presenter John Humphrys and Downing Street chief of staff Jonathan Powell among its residents.

But like most affluent corners of central London, it cannot insulate itself from the capital's poverty and social problems.

The sprawling White City estate lies just to the north. And Hammersmith Grove itself includes housing association properties and 1970s blocks of council flats.

Wealthier householders are being reminded of the deprivation faced by many of their near-neighbours.

"You can't just shut the door on the outside world," says housewife Sonia Staunton, 37, who has lived on the street for five years.

"There's a great community round here, but you also see the drug-dealing and the car theft that goes on as well.

"Something like this is a shock, but it shouldn't be a surprise to us."

Restaurant manager Janina Eckhardt, 20, lives just across the road on Hammersmith Grove from where the shrine has sprung up on adjoining Richford Street, and heard the commotion when Kodjo was stabbed from inside her flat.

"When I moved to this area I thought it was safe - lots of professional people and families," she says.

"It looks like I don't know it as well as I thought."

'Going wrong'

Rana Datar Singh, 52, who witnessed Kodjo's death from the window of the off licence he has run for 19 years, knows Hammersmith Grove all too well.

He says it is a popular thoroughfare between the Shepherd's Bush and Hammersmith districts, which has brought its expensive cars and smart houses to the attention of thieves.

"Most people round here - not just on this street - are wonderful, whether they're rich or poor," he adds.

Many tributes have been laid at the scene

"But when you see things like this happening in front of you, it makes you start to wonder where we're going wrong as a society."

In a seven-storey block of flats at the junction with Goldhawk Road, 19-year-old student nurse Amira Brown says she is shocked.

She adds: "There's more community on this road than in the rest of London. But you can't just block the rest of the city out."

But in a council flat on the street one single mother, who asked not to be named, insists her wealthier neighbours are too complacent.

"People round here need to wake up," she says.

"Just because they've got the nice house and the right postcode, they think this doesn't affect them.

"It's not a black and white thing, it's a teenage thing, a city thing. Real life is going on under their noses."