1 Carol St

My lousy rendition instead of
a photo which seems too invasive
a gesture on a residential street.

Located in Camden Town in North London (see London map and Camden Town map), this place was the squat headquarter of Scritti Politti during phase 1 (1977-1980) where the DIY (Do It Yourself) vinyls were stamped and hand-assembled. In case Anarchism isn't your mother tongue, TO SQUAT is to occupy a place without permission from the owner of the property and, obviously, without paying rent. Although Green came from a middle-class background -- his step-father was a lawyer after all -- the group's political point of view at the time favored this chaotic and unhealthy lifestyle of collectivism, music, drugs, and lots of heavy readings.

Making my pilgrimage to this holy Mecca on my second day in London and fully expecting a battlefield replete with run-down buildings, broken windows, and blocked-off entrances; I was totally taken aback by what I saw: A rather gentrified street of town houses. Could this have been a place of squatting? Either it was fixed up -- after all, it has been close to 20 years now -- or the British have a very queer notion of the anarchic lifestyle! Full of disbelief, I speculated that perhaps what was meant by "1 Carol St" on the early record covers was in fact the trailer park right next to the building. But I was later proven wrong.

My initial suspicion was recently confirmed by the 4th Arch-Angel who's seen the place in its full glory -- or gory would perhaps be a better description, for it was bloody "disgusting" as s/he puts it, and had a smelly couch to match -- and again after its gentrification. In its heady days, the place at one point hosted as many as 18 squatters. The supposed squalid on one of its more placid days can be gleamed from the cover of 4-A-Sides (close-up below).

What a transition it was from this to the synthpop Scritti that most people know about. It is quite understandable then the shock which greeted Green when he wanted to make pop music and the fact that to convince the rest of the band he had to write massive quantity of notes -- the infamous tome which supposedly was never meant to be published, but written merely for the benefit of Nial and Tom. Even today, many fans are shocked by the difference they preceive between the early stuff and the later synthpop stuff. Most like either one or the other, but rarely both.

And even though I like the music from all the phases, coming a generation later, and from a different culture, it's very difficult for me to now grasp that anarchic lifestyle and all that it stands for. One can make pilgrimages but learn very little. The street may be the same geographically, but the ambience has changed and there's probably little resonance left. All that remain are the music and the memories which disappeared with the participants.

Carol Street today is a quiet side street just a couple of blocks from the noisy Camden Town tube station and Camden High Street where the young and out-of-towners browse through open fronted grungy-trendy shops, kind of like the East Village in NYC. Electric Ballroom, a school-gym like concert space where Scritti once performed live is still around, hosting new bands at nights and occassionally records fairs on Saturdays or clothing market on Sundays.

Incidentally, one end of Carol Street meets a road called Greenland Street. A trivial coincidence I'm sure, but I delight in stupid things like this! So humor me just this once!

...SIGH...


Erika Chang
24.3.97

The melancholy here belongs strictly to the gray London sky;
Read it to the tune of Skank Bloc Bologna over and above.