2013-04-07 51 -0

Location

Courtyard of residential block on Batchelor St.

Participants

Cyazlars
Jaz

Expedition

I didn't have much hope for the success of this geohash. I had looked the place up on Google Maps, gone round the whole block on Street View and only seen one potential entryway to the courtyard - which may or may not be locked when we did get there.

We had spent the entire morning walking around the Petticoat Lane and Brick Lane weekend markets, so it was from there that we set off. We took the London Overground from Shoreditch High Street, transferred at Whitechapel for the Hammersmith & City Line and then again at Moorgate for the Northern Line to Angel. From Angel it was only a short walk to the area where the hashpoint was located. We heard a plaintive meowing as we passed by one of the houses there, and on the second floor windowsill (with the window closed) was a black cat. We stared at it for awhile, wondering if it had climbed up and got stuck there, or whether an unkind owner had deliberately locked it out, until the window next to it opened and (presumably?) its owner peered out. He saw us looking up at the cat and told us that it did this all the time. He leaned out and tried to coax it to jump over. Thinking that the cat might be pressured by us watching, we decided to go on our merry way and let the cat do its thing.

Turning the corner to the 'one potential entryway' I had seen online, I was disappointed to find that the gate there was padlocked. The geohash was in sight. I decided to finish walking around the block to see if there were any other unlocked passageways into the courtyard, but there were none. Oh well! Better luck next time...whenever that next time here would be.

Back at Jaz's hostel room, I realised that the geohash in London East was in a graveyard and was probably more accessible than this one (and someone would probably get a Coffin Geohash as well...), but I consoled myself by saying that it was too far for me anyway. Anyone tried their hand there?