Life on the inside, news travels fast and the heroes on the outside

https://twitter.com/tonyprod77/status/1243142954107183104?s=20

Staying in is the new going out

When I moved into the Barbican 13 years ago there was the inevitable marmite reaction from friends about living in a Brutalist urban complex. The titular skyscraper in the film of J.G Ballard's "High-Rise" is largely inspired by the Barbican Estate's Towers. The dystopian future is set in a luxury tower block with a wealth of modern conveniences. The building's infrastructure comes to dominate and allows its residents to become gradually uninterested in the outside world. Law and order in the building disintegrates, food from its integral supermarket becomes scarce, class warfare and violence erupts between floors.

In this 2020 world of staying in, I am doubly struck by my home location and its uncanny relationship to a vision of a future where society has turned in on itself and broken down. Which makes me even more pleased to report that the sense of community and solidarity in the orderly residential corridors of the Barbican is intact, neighbourliness is respectfully maintained, hundreds appeared on their balconies to #clapforNHS and there is a strong sense of fortress-living stoicism emanating from these Brutalist concrete walls. All of which will be needed in the weeks and months to come.

No news, fake new and news goes round

So I was deeply disturbed the other morning to smell burning. Since first built in the '60's there has been precisely one burglary and one fire. The first an inside job by removals' men. The second the result of fluff in a washer-dryer catching fire. Both incidents were brought swiftly under control.

I sniffed around outside on my patio. Called down to my daughter. We craned our necks and concurred that something somewhere was on fire but out of sight. I decided to call the Estates' Office in an orderly British fashion and spoke to a lovely young woman who said she'd 'send a man round'. This being the world of staying in, I was immediately embroiled on another long phone call so didn't get the subsequent voicemail left for me, nor heard the doorbell ring.

Next thing I hear is my daughter shouting up at me with phone in one ear, reporting that her friend's father has just cycled past a huge fire in Old Street, which is about half a mile up the road. Ahhh, I thought, I should phone back the Estates' Office and tell them not to 'send a man round', we've probably located the source of the smell. This time I spoke to a lovely young man who said, don't worry, they'd had reports of a fire in Old Street and thank you for coming back to cancel 'the man'. 'Men' on the Estate being in short supply and big demand I felt very virtuous in my public-spirited action.

Then I listened to my voicemail which turned out to be from the young woman in the Estates' Office saying, very sorry, I must have taken down your address incorrectly because the 'man I sent round' was sent away by the person who answered the door. She repeated my door number on the message, which was correct. She also said that the same man was able to assure me that there was no fire on the Estate, the smell was coming from a fire in Old Street.

This time it was my turn to shout down to said daughter. Did you answer the door to someone? Yes, she said, some man from the Estates' Office asking if we'd called about a fire. Daughter says she told him in no uncertain terms - he's got that all wrong - and then told him about the fire happening in Old Street.

I said, not only have you made me look like a time-wasting nutter, but now I suspect that the source of information about the fire in Old Street, relayed with such confidence to me by the Estates' Office, in fact came from YOU!

I started then to question every source of news. Tell me again, who exactly told you about this fire ? Arnaud ? What was he doing there ? Are you sure he saw this first-hand ? We searched Google and Twitter for confirmation, but of course too soon for the 'real news' to have reported anything.

I thought to myself, this is how fake news starts. Pre social media we would have said - there's no smoke without fire. During WWI we would have said, send three and fourpence we're going to a dance.

The heroes on the outside

I can now report what the 'real news' has reported. A fire in a flat above Sainsbury's in Charles Square off Old Street. 70 firefighters and 10 pumps. Fortunately nobody was injured. It has turned out to be the first real test of London's fire emergency response amid the coronavirus crisis.

Whilst we're all safely living on the inside, let this be a salutary reminder of all the heroes working on the outside.