Perous Secret Diary - Keep Out

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hackney wick

then...and now

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Wallis Road

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the perou factory (2000 AD)

compulsory purchased then demolished by the LDA in a dodgy property grab: cheeeers

this STILL smarts

subsequently, i've only been down this road a few times since we left in 2006

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there is ABSOLUTELY no sign of our existence there: we have been completely oibliterated

hackney wick is unrecognisable to me

and i am a stranger amongst the millennial hipsters living in condos

arriving on my loud, brutalist Harley today, for a lunch meeting with simon, made we feel even more out of place and time...

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45-51 NOT 118 118

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i was not here

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then

then

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now

now

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then

then

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now

now

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Wallis Road triangle 2005

from the footbridge to Victoria park

i didn't shoot a NOW version today (it was very hot and I was in motorbike jeans)

but to anyone who's walked over this footbridge recently, you'll recognise how unrecognisable it is: there's a few HUGE condo blocks missing

on a cooler day, i'll return and reshoot this

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inside upstairs

at the factory.

we lived above the studio

wooden floors, fireplaces, 100ft garden and off street parking for 6 cars, studio, colour darkroom

the summer we'd finished renovating this derelict victorian factory, and replaced the whole roof, i was sitting in the garden saying 'we'll never leave here'

went on holiday and came back to a hand-written note on the gate, going 'you will be compulsAry purchased' spelled wrong, and a phone number

i thought it was a joke

turned out to not be funny

took me a full year after it was over to stop dreaming about being there

since the Iraq war, the government in the uk has had the right to rezone and acquire ANYONE's house by compulsory purchase

an English man's home is not his castle

even if it is a castle

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for a few months, the LDA generously let us rent back our house for £1 a month

and i used it as a studio for a while

until squatters (from the lord Napier who had watched us move out) moved in

before we had to aggressively move them out again, with the help of some fairly tough police who didnt like squatters

frances turned up to work there one day and someone else answered the door.

'who are you?' they asked her as she was opening the door

'i work here', said frances

'no. we live here now' they told her

when they left, they left with everything they could carry discreetly

i was most upset, they decapitated the rubber chicken i left hanging

here's the factory mid demolition in 2007

Perous Secret Diary - Keep Out: July 20, 2021