John-Paul Flintoff
2 min readApr 14, 2021

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Grenfell Tower, North Kensington

In which we start where we stopped on Day 1, at the ancient church of St Mary’s, in Willesden.

The video (highlights)

Where we travel

  1. the nearby Neasden Temple, where I wonder what you’re supposed to do as a visitor (jump to 6 mins 30 secs in the video on Facebook (link below)); then shut my eyes and make up my best guess;
  2. Harlesden, so-called “no-go zone” (16 mins 40 secs);
  3. Wormwood Scrubs (20 mins);
  4. Grenfell Tower (22 mins); and finish at
  5. St Marks Place, where there was once, but is no longer, a church (28 mins 39 secs).

Topics, stories

  • where I was born, and what my mother could see through the hospital window;
  • what even is a “no-go zone”;
  • how I laid eyes on Grenfell every day of my early life but never gave it a thought;
  • the strangeness of “walking” on Google Streetview through landscape that changes abruptly from autumnal to springlike; and
  • that some of the…

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John-Paul Flintoff
John-Paul Flintoff

Written by John-Paul Flintoff

Journalist for the Financial Times, Sunday Times and Guardian. Author of six books, fiction and non-fiction, in 16 languages. http://bit.ly/2OsqPew