INTERVIEW: ANDREW O’HAGAN
Same as it ever was
Author Andrew O’Hagan had spent enough time on Caledonian Road – which cleaves a seam through the borough of Islington, North London – to recognise its potential as the setting for a sweeping Dickensian novel. But it wasn’t until he looked at Charles Booth’s poverty map that he realised he’d struck literary gold.
The 19th century philanthropist colour-coded the streets of London according to their inhabitants’ income: yellow for the wealthiest, dark blue for the very poor. “I lived right beside Caledonian Road in my early days [in the capital], and I had always been fascinated by the social mix,” O’Hagan says.
“On one side there are Victorian houses worth millions while on the other there is social housing, some of it in crisis, some of it accommodating migrants.” Booth’s map showed him the mix hadn’t changed in over a century: that the palette for Caledonian Road would be the same today as it was then. “I thought, ‘Here we are after the Beveridge Report, after the establishment of the NHS, after 130
