[HPforGrownups] Re: Chapter Discussions: Chapter 4, Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place

[liz]

No: HPFGUIDX 83782

on 29/10/03 9:13 am, junediamanti at june.diamanti at blueyonder.co.uk wrote:

> June:  I got the distinct and purely subjective sense of a couple of
> particular neighbourhoods in London here.  I'd be interested to hear
> the views of anyone else who knows London about this.
> 
> My geographical siting of 12 Grimmauld Place was (for no other reason
> but that I know them fairly well) either Hackney in North East London
> or Stoke Newington - similarly located and virtually next door.  Both
> these areas are full of large victorian properties which are how
> shall I put it? Run down.  Ever so slightly seedy.  Laura's comment
> about people not taking notice of goings on was what prompted me to
> think a bit further about this.

<snip rest of post>

Liz here: As a Londoner I've thought about this a bit too, but come up with
some different conclusions. I believe it takes the kids and their escorts
about 20 minutes to walk to Kings Cross Station on September 1, so Hackney
and Stoke Newington are unlikely locations, unless they walk really, really
fast. More probable locations would be Kings Cross itself, Kentish Town,
Angel/Islington, Camden Town. They are all slightly seedy (except perhaps
Angel which is more flash), they all have large, rundown Victorian houses
and they also skirt the edges of posh, moneyed areas like Hampstead &
Regents Park. 12 Grimmauld Place has always had a 'posh gone to seed'
element for me, especially considering the attitudes and snobbery of the
Blacks, more inner-north-west than north-east. I've lived in both areas and
that's the feeling I get. There is actually an amazing, enormous, crazy
looking old Victorian terrace in Swiss Cottage which just *IS* 12 Grimmauld
Place to me (although I don't imagine it in Swiss Cottage - too clean!).

I'd also be interested in what anyone else thinks.

Liz