Louisa phones to invite me to a picnic with her and Tove and Harper in Claybury Park. This is the home of the asylum closed sometime in the ’80s and now turned into Repton (reptile) Park, home of scum like Jack Tweed – although he was too reptilian even for them and he got thrown out. Claybury Park, though, is wonderful! A huge area of unspoilt woodland with extensive high views over the centre of London and lots of delightful walks. We have a great picnic and a fabulous time.
Repton Park, the area of old hospital buildings, is a gated community which we managed to sneak in, courtesy of Harper and his pushchair making us look like a harmless Repton family wandering around. Amazingly, this gated community has gated communities within itself wherein there are further gated communities wherein there are….but there came a point where even with Harper and his pushchair we couldn’t get any deeper. But a charmless housing estate and lacking in privacy – residents have to sit outside their front door to enjoy an evening BBQ and even have to hang out their washing on the front porch.
