Mick Hartley

I’ve passed this fella so many times, and always assumed he was Puck, or maybe the Green Man:

He’s on the Parkland Walk, so the Green Man would be nicely symbolic – emerging from the brickwork as the greenery takes over, and the former Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace railway line reverts to nature. But, via Derelict London, I learn that he’s really a spriggan, a legendary creature from Cornish faery lore (so what’s he doing in North London? – and why do they spell faery with an e?) – and here he is at Wikipedia. He was, we’re told, the inspiration for Stephen King’s short story “Crouch End”, where a “stylised rendition of the sculpture is described”. Isn’t that interesting? No, I haven’t read the story. I think I want my Green Man back.

It reminds me, though, that one of Ruth Rendell’s novels involves something unspeakable happening under a bridge on the Parkland Walk. I think it’s this bridge:

But I don’t remember the name of the novel. Maybe this? No, it’s not about a turf war between rival gangs of street artists.