Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire

Mare Street, Albion Square, The Triangle, Dalston Junction, De Beauvoir Road, The German Hospital, The Homerton Hospital, the Laburnum Road school, the canal. I jotted those names down just as they came into my head. Possibly a word count would find them to be the most used words in the book. In spite of the wraparound map cover and the map inserted loosely into the dustwrapper flap this book is neither a guide to Hackney nor a topographical study. Rather, Sinclair, in his idiosyncratic way, is trying to discover the secret of Hackney; what makes it tick. This is almost a life’s work for him; tramping the streets, filming, taping interviews, creating a mental map which reaches below the pavements and into the past. He finds bizarre connections between random events years apart and between people and objects; there is no such thing as coincidence. ‘Had lived. Lives. Once there, always there: the traces.’ You will find this idea that certain places are doomed to a repetition of events (like murder) in Peter Ackroyd’s work as well. Weird? Definitely. ( Read more... )