Iain Sinclair’s home is full of books. That’s probably to be expected from the celebrated author, chronicler and defender of Hackney’s history who began life as a second hand book dealer and went on to win the James Tait prize for his novel Downriver. But nevertheless…there really are an awful lot of books.
He walks up the rickety staircase, into his living room and passes me a cup of tea. “This house is backwards. A living room upstairs!”
This is a fair description of his home, an early Victorian townhouse which he bought for £3000 in l969, with the money he’d made making a film about the famous sixties poet Allen Ginsberg. The walls are adorned with paintings, while every surface features a variety of trinket boxes and ornaments. Novels provide a splash of colour against the mahogany furniture.
The 68 year-old grandfather was born in Wales but is most well known for his work, Hackney: That Rose Red Empire, a book that captures the spirit of the borough before it became the ‘happening’ place that it is now.
But his most recent achievement is riding a swan-shaped pedalo from Hastings to Hackney, “a Homeric voyage, an epic journey through England” which finishes at the Olympics site – he has condemned London’s hosting of the Games as “catastrophic… a farce”. The journey took the entire month of September, when they were blessed with an Indian summer.
He travelled with his friend, and director, Andrew Kötting, who filmed the voyage which will broadcast later in the year.
“I had known Andrew for a long time. When I was writing Hackney Rose I wanted him to swim around the borough. But he thought that was a bit too crazy. So we walked it instead.”
Sinclair admired Kötting’s energetic style of direction, and had been searching for a project they could work on together, but it was their walks inspired them to embark on their remarkable journey. “The best thing about the trip was the magic of just doing it.
“We found the pedalo in ‘Swan Lake’ in Hastings, an adjunct funfair. To move the swan alone was a physical challenge.
“It took us three days to launch. We were with a singer called Kirsten Norrie who sang on the second night and by the third morning the water had calmed and we had that remarkable late summer.”
But importantly, the journey allowed Sinclair to re-evaluate his own relationship with Britain, and more specifically England.
“Just gliding along easily: experiencing the full spectrum of Englishness is hugely entertaining, but it gives you a new sense of your place in the world.”
“We discovered secret Britain. We met the communities that live just off the river: people in narrow boats, in tiny villages or squatting in the woods. We would talk to them, invite them into our pedalo and hear their stories.”
Sinclair’s love for his adopted home of Hackney was the reason they decided to finish their project at the Olympic Park. But Sinclair couldn’t be there for the final leg. “Andrew actually got out of the pedalo and swam in Hackney while the swan floated gracefully through the final tunnel. Just as I had wanted him to do in the first place,” says Sinclair wistfully.
Reclining in his living room, it is clear that Sinclair is most comfortable when talking about Hackney.
“It was an athletic feat of absurdity. The whole thing was just crazy but that’s why I did the ride. The eccentricity seemed to fit with the nature of Hackney.”
“The area has changed dramatically in the last few years. When I moved here it was cheap. The council were planning to destroy these period Victorian and Georgian houses. Most people actually wanted to live in tower blocks.”
Sinclair and his family have lived in Haggerston for over 40 years. “This house had an outside lavatory and a tin bath. But it felt good to live here with a burgeoning family, and almost overnight it became a conservation area. Many of the people who moved in back then are still here.”
Sinclair’s love for the borough and its history has made him openly critical of the developments that have taken place in Hackney, particularly those surrounding the Olympics.
“The council want to sweep things away, sterilise them. They create block like structures rather than regenerating what was already there. They knocked down a beautiful old building at Dalston Lane to make way for that transport hub and Barratt Home houses. It’s all part of the same.”
“You just have to look at Broadway Market. It used to be grimy and dingy but now it is like a more sanitised version of Portobello Road. London Fields is full of wine parties.
“It doesn’t connect with the community. It becomes just ‘happening’, nothing more.”
He disputes claims that the Olympics will be beneficial for the community, describing proponents arguments as a “whitewash” over the truth.
“It is an insane use of money and resources. There were factories there that used radioactive material. There was machinery from the Queen Mary. Now the dangerous material isn’t confined anymore.
“It was no man’s land, and now they expect people to live on it.”
When he was a young man, Sinclair worked in the factories on the site, but it was his journey on the pedalo that made the capital’s pollution most clear to him.
“When we started to enter London we saw the full effect of what’s happening.
“The colour of the water changed, it was full of weeds and plastic bottles. There were dangerous metals leaking into the soil. It is the most polluted water in Britain but the contrast with the healthy countryside really showed the absurdity of these vast developments.”
To him, the developments that politicians claimed would benefit the community have actually contributed to the widening gap between Hackney’s richest and poorest residents.
“One end of my street is inhabited by pop stars and high court judges, on the other there are post-code shootings.
“People pay thousands to live here. But somehow a lot of the estates are still run down. The two worlds can’t coincide. You saw it with the riots. The worlds collided. It was a theatre of the streets.”
He is quoted as having thought the riots could have been predicted, something that caused some controversy in the media. He believes that the lack of opportunity for young people in Hackney were a huge influence on what happened.
“There was a sense of entitlement in some communities. They were in denial. It was a consumerist riot. There was no overt political message. People just grabbed what they had never had. It was to do with frustration with society and the police.
“People who are from here can’t afford to live here. My kids grew up here. They can’t afford to stay in their home borough. My two daughters, Farne and Madeleine are in Bow and my son, William, is in Forest Hill.”
Despite this, Sinclair does acknowledge that this financial inequality has gifted Hackney with a uniquely diverse and varied population.
“It is a huge borough, a patchwork which takes in the Hasidic Jews in Stamford Hill to the edges of the City, to Hackney Marshes. This is what makes Hackney special. It’s a reflection of Britain: it’s even shaped like Britain. An extraordinary place to live.”
Iain Sinclair’s novel, Ghost Milk, is out now. Andrew Kötting’s film will be released during the autumn.
