London Fictions |
|
The area round Blackwall is today towered-over by the enormous office blocks of Canary Wharf. There are still some streets that maintain the community feel, such as Coldharbour with the historical Gun Pub facing over the water, and St Lawrence Cottages (pictured above), which share the bright colours of ‘Harbour Lane’. Weekly commuters, however, populate many of the nearby flats, so that at weekends the area has a desolate feel.
Near Blackwall DLR station are tower blocks which represent some of the less appealing designs of twentieth-century social housing in London. Like the houses Morrison rails against in To London Town, these flats are unrelieved by variety. Their likeness each to the next gives them the aspect of impenetrable barracks, whereas those described in Harbour Lane are each reached from a different level – some by the area stairs, some by steps to the front door, some at street level – and the gardens are alternately to the front and back of the houses, so that Harbour Lane is unique and varied. |
Grundy Street in Poplar, which Stan Newens’ diligent research has identified as Morrison’s birthplace, was mostly destroyed in the Blitz. Elizabeth Row (above) sits where Morrison’s house would have been (number 4).
The former pub in the right-hand corner of the picture below is possibly the only building on the street that has survived since Morrison’s time. From this view facing south from Elizabeth Close we can see that Morrison, like Johnny, would have been able to see the masts of ships from his street. |